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In comparative mythology, sky father is a term for a recurring concept in polytheistic religions of a sky god who is addressed as a "father", often the father of a pantheon and is often either a reigning or former King of the Gods. The concept of "sky father" may also be taken to include Sun gods with similar characteristics, such as Ra. The concept is complementary to an "earth mother".
"Sky Father" is a direct translation of the Vedic Dyaus Pita , etymologically descended from the same Proto-Indo-European deity name as the Greek Zeûs Pater and Roman Jupiter , all of which are reflexes of the same Proto-Indo-European deity's name, *Dyēus Ph₂tḗr . [1] While there are numerous parallels adduced from outside of Indo-European mythology, there are exceptions (e.g. In Egyptian mythology, Nut is the sky mother and Geb is the earth father).
Name | Etymology | Mythology | Parent Mythology | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|
God the Father | Christian | Semitic | In Christian culture, God the Father is often depicted in art as a silver-bearded wise man situated above the clouds, as can be seen in the works of artists like Michelangelo and Raphael. | |
Horus | From Late Latin Hōrus, from Ancient Greek Ὧρος (Hôros), from Egyptian ḥr. | Egyptian | Afroasiatic | In Ancient Egypt, Horus was ruler of the sky. He was shown as a male humanoid with the head of a falcon. It is not uncommon for birds to represent the sky in ancient religions, due to their ability to fly. However, in Egyptian mythology the sky was perceived as the goddess Nut. |
Tengri | Borrowed from a Turkic language; ultimately from Proto-Turkic *teŋri ('sky, heaven, god'). Compare Turkish tanrı ('god'). | Turkic, Mongolic | Altaic | Chief god of the early religion of the Turkic and Mongolic peoples. |
Aten | Egyptian | Afroasiatic | Was a Monotheistic Sun God under the pharaoh Akhenaten. | |
Wākea | Hawaiian | Austronesian | ||
Ranginui | Māori | Austronesian | The sky father and earth mother Papatūānuku, embraced and had divine children. | |
Dyaus Pita | From Sanskrit द्यौष्पितृ (dyauṣ-pitṛ). From Proto-Indo-European *Dyḗws ph₂tḗr; synchronically analyzable as द्यौस् (dyaús, nominative singular of द्यु, dyú, 'sky') + पितृ (pitṛ́, 'father'). | Indian | Hinduism | In the early Vedic pantheon, appears already in a marginal position, but in comparative mythology is often reconstructed as having stood alongside Prithvi Mata "Earth Mother" in prehistoric times. |
Jupiter | From Latin Iūpiter ('father Jove'), from Proto-Italic *djous patēr (literally 'sky father') | Italic | Indo-European | Often depicted by birds, usually the eagle or hawk, and clouds or other sky phenomena. Nicknames included Sky God and Cloud Gatherer. |
Zeus | From Ancient Greek Ζεύς (Zeús). From Proto-Hellenic *dzéus, related to Mycenaean Greek 𐀇𐀺 (di-wo /diwos/); from Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws. | Hellenic | Indo-European | |
Dagr | From Proto-Germanic *dagaz ('day, name of the D-rune'). Cognate with Old English dæġ (Modern English day), Old Frisian dei, di, Old Saxon dag, Old Dutch dag, Old High German tac, tag, Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (dags). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- ('to burn'). | Nordic | Indo-European | The personification of the daylit sky. |
Perun | Slavic | Indo-European | ||
Diepatura | Illyrian | Indo-European | ||
Zojz | A derivation of Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws | Albanian | Indo-European | |
Perkūnas | From Proto-Balto-Slavic *Perkūnas, from Proto-Indo-European *perkʷunos, from *pérkʷus (“oak”). | Baltic | Indo-European | |
Týr | From earlier runic ᛏᛁᚢᛦ (tiuʀ), from Proto-Germanic *Tīwaz; identical to *týr ('god'). From Proto-Indo-European *deywós ('god'). Vṛddhi derivative of *dyew- ('sky, heaven') | Germanic | Indo-European | |
Bochica | Muisca | Native American | In what is now Colombia, the Muisca worshipped this sky father. [2] | |
Gitche Manitou | Native American | Native American | Common character in creation myths. [3] | |
Shangdi | 上帝 (Hanyu Pinyin: shàng dì; literally 'king above') | Confucianism | Sino-Tibetan | Supreme God worshipped in ancient China. It is also used to refer to the Christian God in the Standard Chinese Union Version of the Bible. In China, in Daoism, 天 (tian), meaning sky, is associated with light, the positive, male, etc., whereas 地 (di) meaning earth or land, is associated with dark, the negative, female, etc. |
Tian | 天 (lit. 'sky' or 'heaven') | Confucianism | Sino-Tibetan | Used to refer to the sky as well as a personification of it. Whether it possesses sentience in the embodiment of an omnipotent, omniscient being is a difficult question for linguists and philosophers. Zhu, Tian Zhu (主, 天主, lit. 'Lord' or 'Lord in Heaven') is translated from the English word, Lord, which is a formal title of the Christian God in Mainland China's Christian churches. |
Tianfu | 天父 (Hanyu Pinyin: tiān fù) | Taoism | Sino-Tibetan | Another word used to refer to the Christian God in the Standard Chinese Union Version of the Bible. |
An or Anu | (Akkadian : 𒀭𒀭, romanized: Anu, from 𒀭an, 'sky, heaven') or Anum, originally An (Sumerian : 𒀭, romanized: An) | Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian | Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian | The father deity of the Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian pantheon and is also the earliest attested Sky Father deity. |
Ukko | From Proto-Finnic *ukko. Probably a Finnic pet form of *uros ('man, male'). | Finnish | Uralic | |
Taevaisa | Taevas 'sky', isa 'father' | Uralic | The word by which adherents in Estonia of the Maausk (faith of the land) and the Taara native beliefs refer to God. Although both branches of the original Estonian religion — which are largely just different ways of approaching what is in essence the same thing, to the extent that it remains extant — are pantheistic, heaven has a definite and important place in the ancient pre-Christian Estonian belief system. All things are sacred for those of the faith of the land, but the idea of a sky father — among other "sacrednesses" — is something all Estonians are well aware of. In newer history, after the arrival of Christianity, the ideas of a sky father and "a father who art in heaven" have become somewhat conflated. One way or another, the phrase taevaisa remains in common use in Estonia. | |
Urcia | Basque | Vasconic | The Liber Sancti Iacobi by Aymericus Picaudus tells that the Basques called God Urcia , a word found in compounds for the names of some week days and meteorological phenomena. [4] [5] The current usage is Jaungoikoa, that can be interpreted as 'the lord of above'. The imperfect grammatically of the word leads some to conjecture that it is a folk etymology applied to jainkoa, now considered a shorter synonym. |
Hindu mythology is the body of myths attributed to, and espoused by, the adherents of the Hindu religion, found in Hindu texts such as the Vedas, the itihasa the Puranas, and mythological stories specific to a particular ethnolinguistic group like the Tamil Periya Puranam and Divya Prabandham, and the Mangal Kavya of Bengal. Hindu myths are also found in widely translated popular texts such as the fables of the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesha, as well as in Southeast Asian texts.
Dyaus or Dyauspitr is the Rigvedic sky deity. His consort is Prthvi, the earth goddess, and together they are the archetypal parents in the Rigveda.
Stribog is a god in Slavic mythology found in three East Slavic sources, whose cult may also have existed in Poland. The sources do not inform about the functions of the god, but nowadays he is most often interpreted as a wind deity who distributes wealth.
Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, speakers of the hypothesized Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested – since Proto-Indo-European speakers lived in preliterate societies – scholars of comparative mythology have reconstructed details from inherited similarities found among Indo-European languages, based on the assumption that parts of the Proto-Indo-Europeans' original belief systems survived in the daughter traditions.
Ushas is a Vedic goddess of dawn in Hinduism. She repeatedly appears in the Rigvedic hymns, states David Kinsley, where she is "consistently identified with dawn, revealing herself with the daily coming of light to the world, driving away oppressive darkness, chasing away evil demons, rousing all life, setting all things in motion, sending everyone off to do their duties". She is the life of all living creatures, the impeller of action and breath, the foe of chaos and confusion, the auspicious arouser of cosmic and moral order called the Ṛta in Hinduism.
Deva means "shiny", "exalted", "heavenly being", "divine being", "anything of excellence", and is also one of the Sanskrit terms used to indicate a deity in Hinduism. Deva is a masculine term; the feminine equivalent is Devi. The word is a cognate with Latin deus ("god") and Greek Zeus.
*Dyḗus, also *Dyḗus ph₂tḗr, is the reconstructed name of the daylight-sky god in Proto-Indo-European mythology. *Dyēus was conceived as a divine personification of the bright sky of the day and the seat of the gods, the *deywṓs. Associated with the vast diurnal sky and with the fertile rains, *Dyēus was often paired with *Dʰéǵʰōm, the Earth Mother, in a relationship of union and contrast.
Pushan is a Hindu Vedic solar deity and one of the Adityas. He is the god of meeting. Pushan is responsible for marriages, journeys, roads, and the feeding of cattle. He was a psychopomp, conducting souls to the other world. He protected travelers from bandits and wild beasts, and protected men from being exploited by other men. He was a supportive guide, a "good" god, leading his adherents towards rich pastures and wealth.
Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common origins for myths from different cultures, and to support various psychoanalytical theories.
Armenian mythology originated in ancient Indo-European traditions, specifically Proto-Armenian, and gradually incorporated Hurro-Urartian, Mesopotamian, Iranian, and Greek beliefs and deities.
The Ashvins, also known as the Ashvini Kumaras and Asvinau, are Hindu twin gods associated with medicine, health, dawn, and the sciences. In the Rigveda, they are described as youthful divine twin horsemen, travelling in a chariot drawn by horses that are never weary, and portrayed as guardian deities that safeguard and rescue people by aiding them in various situations.
The Divine Twins are youthful horsemen, either gods or demigods, who serve as rescuers and healers in Proto-Indo-European mythology.
Deus is the Latin word for "god" or "deity". Latin deus and dīvus ("divine") are in turn descended from Proto-Indo-European *deiwos, "celestial" or "shining", from the same root as *Dyēus, the reconstructed chief god of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon.
Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one god. According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese Folk Religions, is really so, or whether the apparent different objects of worship are to be thought of as manifestations of a singular divinity. Polytheistic belief is usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God who is, in most cases, transcendent.
Deipaturos was a deity worshipped in ancient times as the Sky Father in the region of Tymphaea.
Ancient Iranian religion or Iranian paganism was the ancient beliefs and practices of the Iranian peoples before the rise of Zoroastrianism.The religion closest to it was the historical Vedic religion that was practiced in India. The major deities worshipped were Ahura Mazda and Mithra from Iran to Rome, but Atar was also worshipped, as names of kings and common public showing devotion to these three exist in most cases. But some sects, the precursors of the Magi, also worshipped Ahura Mazda, the chief of the Ahuras. With the rise of Zoroaster and his new, reformatory religion; Ahura Mazda became the principle deity and the Daevas were relegated to the background. A lot of the attributes and commandments of Varuna, called Fahrana in Median times, were later attributed to Ahura Mazda by Zoroaster.
*Dʰéǵʰōm, or *Pl̥th₂éwih₂, is the reconstructed name of the Earth-goddess in the Proto-Indo-European mythology.
Zojz is a sky and lightning god in Albanian pagan mythology. Regarded as the chief god and the highest of all gods, traces of his worship survived in northern Albania until the early 20th century, and in some forms still continue today.
The Dieva Dēli are heavenly beings depicted as the sons of the sky-god Dievs in Latvian mythology.