ROMAN MYTHOLOGY AND SAGA 627Mars is particularly associated with two animals, the wolf and the wood-
pecker. A she-wolf suckled his sons, the infants Romulus and Remus. The wood-
pecker, picus, was said in one legend to have been a Latin king Picus, whose
wife was the nymph Canens (Singer). Circe, the magician, tried to seduce him,
and when he rejected her, she turned him into a woodpecker. After searching
in vain for him for six days and six nights, Canens wasted away into nothing
more than a voice.
JUPITERThe great Italian sky-god was Jupiter, the forms of whose name are etymologi-
cally connected with those of other Indo-European sky-gods, including Zeus. At
the end of the regal period (509 B.c.) the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
was built on the Capitoline Hill and the great sky-god became localized in a
temple with a statue like a Greek city god. He shared the temple with Juno, the
chief Italian goddess of women, and Minerva, an Italian fertility and war god-
dess who at Rome was worshiped principally as the patroness of handicrafts
and wisdom. These three deities formed the "Capitoline triad."
Jupiter was called by many titles. In his temple on the Capitol he was wor-
shiped as Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Best and Greatest). The great ceremonial pro-
cession of the Triumph wound its way through the Forum up to this temple. The
triumphing general was robed as if he were a god, proceeding in his chariot amid
the cheering crowds, with his soldiers around him and his prisoners before him.
On the Capitoline Hill he sacrificed to Jupiter, acknowledging by this ritual that
Jupiter was the source of Roman greatness and military might.
As sky-god, Jupiter directly influenced Roman public life, in which the
weather omens of thunder and lightning, his special weapons, played an im-
portant role. After lightning had struck, a ritual purification or expiatory rite
was required, and Jupiter himself was said to have given King Numa the orig-
inal instructions for the sacrifice. Advised by the nymph Egeria, Numa captured
the two forest divinities, Picus and Faunus, on the Aventine Hill and compelled
them to tell him how to summon Jupiter. When Jupiter himself came, Numa
asked what objects were necessary for the expiatory rite. "A head," the god
replied, and Numa interrupted with "of an onion." "Of a man," Jupiter went
on, and Numa added "a hair"; finally Jupiter demanded "a life." "Of a fish,"
said Numa, and Jupiter good-naturedly agreed to accept these objects (the head
of an onion, a human hair, and a fish) as part of the expiatory ritual. Ovid's nar-
rative (Fasti 3. 285-346), which is summarized here, explains why these objects
were offered instead of a human sacrifice, almost certainly the original form of
expiation.
Jupiter also promised to give Numa a sign to support Rome's claim to ex-
ercise power over other communities. In full view of the people of Rome, he
caused a shield (ancile) to fall miraculously from heaven. This ancile was of the