User:Elias Ziade/sandbox13

Jupiter Heliopolitanus (Iove Optimus Maximus Heliopolitanus), also known as Zeus in ancient sources, was a deity of Levantine origins, whose worship spread to various regions of the Roman Empire through the Syrian-Phoenician diaspora and Roman legions. Originating in the city of Heliopolis (modern-day Baalbek in Lebanon), Jupiter Heliopolitanus was originally the Levantine god Baal-Hadad, associated with thunderstorms and the provision of life-giving water. Jupiter Heliopolitanus is often depicted within what some scholars consider a triad, accompanied by Venus and Mercury on various figurative monuments and inscriptions from the Roman period. Venus represented a local form of Dea Syria/Atargatis, while the third deity embodied a local male god assimilated with the Greco-Roman Mercury. While the local worship of Baal-Hadad is believed to be ancient, the triad's origin is believed to date back to the founding of the Roman colony of Heliopolis by Augustus, as there are no extant sources mentioning the triad in pre-Roman Baalbek.