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At the beginning of the Apocalypse the figure of Jesus Christ appears bright like the sun in its full shine, while holding seven stars in his right hand (Ap 1,16; cf. 2,1; 3,1). The meaning of the vision is explained a little further (Ap 1,20): the seven stars symbolize the angels of the seven churches of Asia, recipients of seven letters. Seven stars appear occasionally in the Bible and in late apocryphal Jewish literature with various meanings. Their placement in the hand of Christ, however, has no precedent in these traditions, while occurs in the Greco-Roman iconography, where the motif is associated with Zeus on Crete or Jupiter in Rome and with the deified Roman emperors, which are considered as equivalent in the role of rulers of the cosmos. The seven stars of these mythological accounts are identifiable with the Septem Triones, the constellation of Ursa Major. In Stoic philosophy and later in the imperial apotheosis they indicate the highest point of the sky that never sets and revolve about the axis of the world governed by the Logos (identified with Zeus and Jupiter, too). The cycle of death and rebirth of the Cretan Zeus as well as the light of Sun-Apollo, both associable with the risen Christ of the apocalyptical vision, dialogue further with the Hellenistic-Roman figurative language. Christ appears then as a new, complete synthesis of previous experiences and at the same time he overcomes them: as the true king at the top of the cosmos he guides history and, in it, the essential action of the Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]