Similar to the story of Noah, Japeth also appears in other traditions:
1. He is the same as the chief Roman god "Jupiter". The Romans being descendents of Japeth, and having a tradition of deifying their leaders, possibly deified Japeth. Hence also the planet Jupiter was named after Japeth.
2. In the Hindu tradition, there is "Yayati" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayati>. Yayati has a son called "Yavana" who is consided to have ruled the area around Turkey. The ancient Hindus also referred to the Greeks as Yavanas. This closely matches Biblical genealogy, since Japeth had a son "Javan" who is considered to be the ancestor of the Greeks and "Yavan" is also the Hebrew name for Greece.
So Japeth(Biblical) = Yayati (Hindu) = Jupiter (Roman), hence also Zeus in Greek.
and Javan (Biblical) = Yavana (Hindu)
