Dyēus Phter: The Original Sky-Father

The Greek, Roman, Irish, Slavic, Baltic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Hindu sky-father gods are (probably) all connected, and descended from an ancient sky-father god worshipped 6000 years ago.

Okay, maybe “The Original Sky-Father” is a bit of an overstatement. Patriarchal gods of the sky are found in religions all over the world, and humans have probably been associating the sky with the leader and/or father of the gods for as long as religion has existed. But almost all the European pagan religions (and Hinduism) have a sky-father, and all of those sky-fathers seem to descend from the Proto-Indo-European sky-father. By looking at their names and other related words, we can reconstruct his name as something like “Dyḗus ph₂tḗr”, literally “Sky father” in the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language, which was spoken around 6000 years ago in Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

And so the names of sky-fathers in many European pagan religions are either directly descended from *Dyḗus ph₂tḗr, like Zeus and Jupiter, or descended from the related word “*deywós”, which simply meant “god”. The asterisks next to these words are used to show that they are reconstructed based on words that descend from them, rather than actually being recorded in any writing.

Just as we can work out this god’s name from the descended gods’ names, we can also get a vague idea of what he was like based on the qualities these gods share. He was certainly associated with the day-lit sky, where he probably lived. He was married to a goddess who personified the Earth, marriage, and motherhood, and could possibly take the form of a white cow. He was a father to other important gods, such as Hausos, the dawn goddess (read my post about her here), and he had two twin sons, the horsemen who pulled the sun in a chariot. He was very powerful and knowledgeable god, with the ability to watch over the world. He was probably able to change his shape at will.

Here are all the Indo-European gods that are likely to be related to him:

The Greek Sky-Father: Zeus

Name: Zeus was also called “Zeus Pater” (Father Zeus), and his name is clearly descended from Dyḗus ph₂tḗr. However, Zeus also seems to have absorbed many aspects of the PIE thunder god Perkwunos, such as the associations with thunder, eagles, and oak trees, and a story in which he battled a giant serpent. Many scholars therefor think it likely that Zeus represents a merger of the PIE sky-father and thunder god. See my post about Perkwunos for more about that.

Description: Zeus is the head of the Greek gods, and father of many of them. He is a shapeshifter, but usually takes the form of a bearded, muscular man. He is often depicted standing and holding a thunderbolt, or sitting in his throne.

Consort and children : He is married to Hera, goddess of marriage, motherhood, and childbirth. Hera was often associated with cows, and was sometimes called the “Cow Goddess”, “cow-eyed”, or “white-armed”. He had many (many) children, including the divine twins called Diós-kouroi (“Zeus’s boys”), Castor and Pollux, who were often depicted as horsemen. In the works of Homer, Zeus is also the father of the dawn goddess Eos.

Associated with: The sky, fertility, strength, war, eagles, bulls, thunder, storms, oak trees.

The Roman Sky-Father: Jupiter

Name: Jupiter is called Iūpiter in Latin. In the earlier Old Italic language, his name was probably something like “*djous patēr”, and it is clear that his name comes from the original PIE god.

Description: Jupiter is the head and father figure of the Roman gods, and, just like Zeus, he usually takes the form of a bearded, muscular man. He is often depicted standing and holding a thunderbolt, or sitting in his throne. Because of their shared origins, and the contact between the two civilisations, Jupiter and Zeus are so similar that they are sometimes considered different names for virtually the same god (including by the Romans themselves). This is why they only get one picture here.

Like Zeus, Jupiter has a lot of symbolism in common with the thunder gods of other Indo-European religions, suggesting he absorbed elements from the PIE thunder god, Perkwunos. Read more about Perkwunos here.

Western imagery of the Christian god, as a white-bearded man living in the clouds, is likely influenced (at least in part) by depictions of Jupiter and Zeus.

Consort and children: He is married to Juno, goddess of marriage, motherhood, and childbirth. He had many many children.

Associated with: The sky, fertility, strength, war, eagles, bulls, thunder, storms, and oak trees.

The Vedic Sky-Father: Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́

The Vedic Sky-Father: Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́

Name: Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́ is a Sanskrit name, and is a pretty clear descendant of Dyḗus ph₂tḗr.

Description: Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́ was the sky-father god of the Vedic religion, which eventually evolved into Hinduism. Unlike the other gods here, Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́ doesn’t seem to have been a particularly important god, at least by the time the Vedic religion was first recorded: he is only mentioned in a handful of hymns. I don’t have a good enough idea of what he may look like to illustrate him, so sorry Dyáuṣ, you don’t get a picture.

Consort and children: Like many of these gods, he is married to a complementary mother goddess, who in Sanskrit is called Prithvi Mata (Earth Mother). She often takes the form of a white cow. He is the father of several other gods, sometimes including Indra, the thunder god, and Ushas, the dawn goddess. He is also sometimes the father of the “Aśvins”, the divine twins, also called “Divó nápātā” (“sons of Dyaús”), the horsemen who pull the sun across the sky in a chariot.

Associated with: The day-lit sky, and cows.

The Slavic Sky-Father: Deiwos (Rod)

Name: The Slavic sky-father is named “Rod”, which comes from a Slavic word meaning something like “birth” or “origin”. However, the older name for Rod was Deiwos, which comes from the PIE word for god, deywós.

Description: Rod is the primordial celestial deity of the Slavic religion, and ancestor of all the other gods. He is usually seen as too divine and incomprehensibly to be depicted, but is sometimes anthropomorphised as a bearded old man in a throne. In early Slavic art however, he is shown ruling over the four elements by standing on a fish (water), holding the solar wheel (fire) and a bucket of flowers (earth), with his linen belt blowing in the wind (air).

Consort: Rod is a supreme being with no wife. However, he does have companions: a group of demigoddesses called the Rozhanitsy, who were related to marriage, motherhood, and childbirth.

Associated with: The sky, wheels, circles, whirls.

The Baltic Sky-Father: Diēvas

Name: Like the Slavic Deivos, to whom he is closely related, the Lithuanian sky-father “Diēvas” comes from the PIE word for god, deywós. Other Baltic languages have similar names for the same god: in Latvian the sky-father is “Dievs”, and in Old Prussian he’s “Dēiwas”.

Description: Dievas was one of the most important gods in the Baltic religions. He is the creator the universe, and personification of the daytime sky. His physical form is not well recorded, although like many of these sky-fathers, he probably took varying forms. His most frequently mentioned manifestations are of a beggar or a wandering sage, which is reminiscent of the nearby Norse father god Odin, who took the form of a wandering wizard. He is the father of the divine twins, called “Dieva dēli” (sons of god) in Latvian, or “Ašvieniai” in Lithuanian, the horsemen who pull the sun across the sky in a chariot.

Associated with: The sky, wheels, circles, whirls.

The Irish All-Father: The Dagda

Name: The Dagda was called Dagdae in Old Irish, and his name is thought to come from the Proto-Celtic “*Dago-deiwos”, meaning “shining god”, which comes from the PIE word “deiwos” (meaning “god), making the name a cousin of the Slavic and Baltic sky fathers, as well as the Norse Tyr.

Description: The Dagda takes the form of a huge bearded man in a hooded cloak. He carries a staff with the power to grant life and death, a harp that controls the seasons, and a cauldron of stew that never runs out. He is a god of strength, magic, knowledge, and fertility. The Dagda is the father and chief of the Irish pantheon, and another name for him is Eochaid Ollathair, literally “Horseman Allfather”.

Consort: His lover is the river goddess Boann, whose name may literally mean “white cow”. This reminds me of how Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́’s wife Prithvi takes the form of a white cow, and Zeus’s wife Hera is called the “cow goddess”, so there’s possibly some relation there.

Associated with: His staff, cauldron, and harp; strength, fertility, magic, and knowledge.

The Germanic Gods Odin and Týr

The relation of the Germanic gods to these other gods is a little more complex, and there are two gods that connect to Dyḗus ph₂tḗr in different ways.

Odin is the father and head of the Norse religion, and in many ways is quite similar to the other gods here: he is the white-bearded father of the pantheon, he is a god of strength, knowledge and magic, and he can fly through the sky (with the help of a magic horse). He is called the Allfather, just like the Irish god Dagda, and like the Dagda he wears a cloak, carries a staff, and is a patron of the arts (Dagda plays the harp while Odin writes poetry). Like Zeus and Jupiter, he is married to a goddess of marriage and motherhood, Frigg. In the Anglo-Saxon religion, he is the ancestor of twin horsemen, Hengist and Horsa (literally “Stallion” and “Horse”).

“But wait!” I hear you cry, “Odin’s name sounds nothing like the other gods here!” And you are right: his name is unrelated to Dyḗus ph₂tḗr. In Proto-Germanic he was something like “Wōdanaz”, and his name may be related to “*wōdaz”, meaning “raging”.

On the other hand, the one handed war-god Týr does have a name that is clearly from the PIE “deywós”. His father is either Odin, or Hymir, who is said to have a bottomless caulron that sounds a lot like the Dagda’s. In Proto-Germanic Tyr is called Tīwaz. In Old English, Odin and Týr were called Woden and Tíw, and it is from their names that “Wednesday” and “Tuesday” originate. The Old High German version of Tyr was Zio, while in Gothic he was *Teiws.

It seems possible to me that, in the early Germanic religion, the sky father god was renamed Wōdanaz, while the war god was renamed “Tīwaz”, a word that previously just meant “god”.

Other related gods

Ancient Italy was occuped by several Italic groups related to the Latin people, with religions similar to the Roman one, and sky-fathers similar to Jupiter. The Oscans had “dípatír”, the Umbrian version was “Iupater”, while in South Picene he was “Dipater”.

In Albanian paganism, the sky father was called Zjoz, whose name is from PIE *Dyḗus.

Meanwhile in ancient Turkey, an extinct branch of Indo-European languages had their own related gods. In Proto-Anatolian, the word for god was “*diéu-“, from the first part of Dyēus Ph₂ter’s name. This evolved into the name of the Hittite sun god, Šīuš. Other than his name, we don’t really know much about him. The neighbouring Luwian people called their Sun God “Tiwaz”, or “Tātis Tiwaz” (like “Daddy Tiwaz”), a name that is clearly a cousin of the Proto-Germanic god of nearly the same name. Another Anatolian language, Palaic, calls their god “Tiyaz papaz”, meaning “Papa Tiyaz”.

Another more obscure Indo-European group were the Illyrians, who lived in the Balkans. Their sky father was Dei-pátrous (literally “sky father”), again, a likely descendant of Dyēus Ph₂ter.