Sky deity

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Jupiter, the sky father of Roman religion and mythology

The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky.

The daylit sky deities are typically distinct from the night-time sky (or "heaven of the stars") deities. Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature reflects this by separating the category of "Sky-god" (A210) from that of "Star-god" (A250).

Daytime-gods and Nighttime-gods may also be deities of an "upper world" (or "celestial world"), opposed to a "netherworld" (or "chthonic realm") ruled by other gods (for example, Sky-gods Zeus and Hera rule the celestial realm in ancient Greece, while the chthonic realm is ruled by Hades and Persephone), or of an upper world and netherworld respectively.

Any masculine sky god is often also king of the gods, taking the position of patriarch within a pantheon. Such king gods are collectively categorised as "Sky father" deities, with a polarity between sky and earth often being expressed by pairing a "Sky father" god with an "Earth mother" goddess (pairings of a Sky mother with an Earth father are less frequent). A main sky goddess is often the "queen" ("of heaven", for example).

Gods may rule the sky as a pair (for example, ancient Semitic [supreme] god El and the sky goddess Asherah whom he was most likely paired with).[1]

List of sky deities

The following is a list of sky deities in various polytheistic traditions, by ethno-linguistic or geographic grouping.

Proto-Indo-European

Ancient Near East

Egyptian

Sumerian

Semitic

Further information: Ancient Semitic religion

Hurrian

European

Baltic

Celtic

Germanic

Greek

Roman

Slavic

Thracian

Etruscan

Ural-Altaic

Finnic

Sami

Turco-Mongol

Udmurt

Indian

Indra

East Asian

Chinese

Twenty Four Sky Emperors (Tiandi 天帝)

Twenty Eight Sky Emperors (Tiandi 天帝)

Thirty Two Sky Emperors (Tiandi 天帝)

Sixty Four Sky Emperors (Tiandi 天帝)

Japanese

Southeast Asian

Americas

Inuit

Taíno mythology

Uto-Aztecan

Incan

Mayan

Iroquoian

Sub-Saharan Africa

Oceania

Australian

Māori

Pacific Islands

See also

References

  1. ↑ El was identified with the storm deity Yahweh in early Hebrew religion, ultimately giving rise to Hebrew monotheism by the 7th century BCE; according to the Hebrew Bible it was 7th-century Judean king Josiah who removed the statue of Asherah from the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem. See also The Hebrew Goddess.
  2. ↑ Salo, Unto (2005). Ukko, the Finnish God of Thunder: Separating Pagan Roots from Christian Accretions. Mankind Quarterly.
  3. ↑ The Kalevala: Epic of the Finnish People. Compiled by Elias Lönnrot. Translated by Eino Friberg. (4th ed.). Otava Publishing Company. 1998. ISBN 951-1-10137-4.
  4. ↑ Salo, Unto (1990). Agricola's Ukko in the light of archeology. A chronological and interpretative study of ancient Finnish religion: Old Norse and Finnish religions and cultic place-names. Turku. ISBN 951-649-695-4.
  5. ↑ "Miten suomalaiset kiroilivat ennen kristinuskoa?". Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  6. ↑ Siikala, Anna-Leena (2012). Itämerensuomalaisten mytologia. SKS.
  7. ↑ Krohn, Kaarle (1906). Lappische Beiträge zur germanischen Mythologie. Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen 6.
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