Jupiter and the Thunderbolts

Name: Jupiter and the Thunderbolts
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

Jupiter, angered by the crimes and insults of the wicked human race, proposes to change the times by destroying a world that has exhausted the gods’ patience. He sends Mercury to the sunless regions to bring him the direst of the three sisters dread. Mercury selects pitiless Alecto, who swears by Pluto’s beard that the human race will not be gathered by handfuls but will pass altogether through the infernal gates. Displeased by both her and her oath, Jupiter sends her back to hell and hurls a bolt at the faithless world. It falls in a desert, causing fear rather than harm, because a father strikes aside. Spared, humanity grows bolder, resumes its wicked practices, and increases them manifold, until indignation spreads through Olympus. Jupiter then swears by the Styx to prepare darker and more terrible storms that will not miss their mark. The other deities declare that another god might make bolts better suited to the task, and Vulcan undertakes the work. As his forges roar and glow while Cyclops blows and beats, two kinds of bolts are made: those used by Olympus at large never miss, while the bolts that fly wide to strike mountain-tops, mountain-sides, or clouds are the only ones that leave the father’s throne.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1678 · Genre: Fable, Moral Poetry, Mythological Poetry · 650 words

First lines

Said Jupiter, one day, / As on a cloud he lay, / 'Observing all our crimes, / Come, let us change the times, / By leasing out anew / A world whose wicked crew / Have wearied out our grace, / And cursed us to our face. / Hie hellward, Mercury; / A Fury bring to me, / The direst of the three. / Race nursed too tenderly, / This day your doom shall be! ' / E'en while he spoke their fate, / His wrath began to moderate.

O kings, with whom His will / Hath lodged our good and ill, / Your wrath and storm between / One night should intervene!

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Jupiter and the Thunderbolts is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1678 CE.

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Work type: Fable
Author: Jean de La Fontaine
Date: 1678 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fable, Moral Poetry, Mythological Poetry, Satire, Allegory
Length: 650 words
Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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Genres

Fable — The poem uses gods and mythic figures in an instructive allegorical narrative, ending with an explicit moral about rulers and fathers restraining anger.
Moral Poetry — Its central purpose is ethical instruction: wrath should be delayed and moderated, because impulsive punishment may be unjust or ineffective.
Mythological Poetry — Jupiter, Mercury, Pluto, the Furies, Vulcan, the Cyclopes, Olympus, and the Styx derive directly from Greco-Roman mythology.
Satire — The portrayal of Jupiter's threats, the gods' complaints, and the distinction between accurate and errant thunderbolts humorously critiques human rulers and their displays of power.