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In the Vedic religion
Historical Vedic religion

The religion of the Vedic period is the historical predecessor of Hinduism. Its liturgy is reflected in the Mantra portion of the four Vedas, which are compiled in Sanskrit....
  is the Sky Father
Sky father

The sky father is a recurring theme in mythology. The sky father is the complement of the earth mother and appears in some creation myths, many of which are European or ancient Near Eastern....
, husband of Prithvi
Prithvi

Prithvi is the Hinduism earth and mother goddess. According to one tradition, she is the personification of the Earth, and to another its Mother, being Prithivi Tattwa, the essence of the element earth....
 and father of Agni
Agni

Agni is a Hindu and Rigvedic deities. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" , cognate with Latin ignis , Russian ????? , Polish "ogien," Lithuanian - ugnis - all with the meaning 'fire' -, with the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root being h1?gni-....
 and Indra
Indra

Indra is the god of War and Weather, also the King of the gods or Deva and Lord of Heaven or Swarga in Hinduism. Mentioned first as the chief deity in the sacred Hindu text of Rig Veda, Indra is bestowed with a heroic and almost brash and amorous character....
 (RV 4.17.4).

Derivatives can be found in the Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European religion

The existence of similarities among the Deity and religious practices of the Indo-Europeans peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-Europeans religion and mythology....
 sky god *Dyeus
Dyeus

*Dyeus is the reconstructed chief deity of the Proto-Indo-Europeans pantheon . He was the god of the daylight sky, and his position may have mirrored the position of the patriarch or monarch in Proto-Indo-European society....
, who appears in Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 as Zeus
Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
 pater (accusative
Accusative case

The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions....
 Día, genitive
Genitive case

In grammar, the genitive case or possessive case is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take argument in the genitive case; and it may have adverbial uses ....
 Diós), in Latin as Jupiter (from archaic Latin Iove pater, "Sky father"), in Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology

Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheism that was practised by the Slavs prior to Christianisation.The religion possesses numerous common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....
 as Div
Rod (god)

Rod , sometimes referred to simply as god , is probably the most ancient deity in the Slavic mythology. It is likely that several other gods, most notably Svarog, were initially epithets or incarnations of Rod....
, and Germanic and Norse mythology
Norse mythology

Norse, Viking or Scandinavian mythology comprises the beliefs, myths and legends of the Norse paganism of the North Germanic language people, including those who settled on Faroe Islands and Iceland, where most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled....
 as Tyr
Tyr

File:T?r by Fr?lich.jpgT?r is the god of single combat, victory and heroic glory in Norse mythology, portrayed as a one-handed man. In the late Icelandic Eddas, he is portrayed, alternately, as the son of Odin or of Hymir , while the origins of his name and his possible relationship to Tuisto suggest he was once considered the father of...
 or Ziu.

In the Rig Veda, Dyaus Pitar appears in hymns 1.89, 1.90, 1.164, 1.191 and 4.1 in simple invocations.

In RV 1.89.4b, Pitar Dyaus "Father Sky" appears alongside Mata Prithvi "Mother Earth".

In the Purusha Suktam
Purusha sukta

Purusha sukta/sookta is hymn RV 10.90 of the Rigveda, dedicated to the Purusha, the transcendental "cosmic man". As per one version, the Suktam has 16 verses, 15 in the meter, and the final one in the meter....
, Dyaus is said to have been created from the head of the primaeval being Purusha.

Details of the myth are sketchy, but Indra seems to have killed his father (RV 4.18.12).






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In the Vedic religion
Historical Vedic religion

The religion of the Vedic period is the historical predecessor of Hinduism. Its liturgy is reflected in the Mantra portion of the four Vedas, which are compiled in Sanskrit....
  is the Sky Father
Sky father

The sky father is a recurring theme in mythology. The sky father is the complement of the earth mother and appears in some creation myths, many of which are European or ancient Near Eastern....
, husband of Prithvi
Prithvi

Prithvi is the Hinduism earth and mother goddess. According to one tradition, she is the personification of the Earth, and to another its Mother, being Prithivi Tattwa, the essence of the element earth....
 and father of Agni
Agni

Agni is a Hindu and Rigvedic deities. The word agni is Sanskrit for "fire" , cognate with Latin ignis , Russian ????? , Polish "ogien," Lithuanian - ugnis - all with the meaning 'fire' -, with the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root being h1?gni-....
 and Indra
Indra

Indra is the god of War and Weather, also the King of the gods or Deva and Lord of Heaven or Swarga in Hinduism. Mentioned first as the chief deity in the sacred Hindu text of Rig Veda, Indra is bestowed with a heroic and almost brash and amorous character....
 (RV 4.17.4).

Derivatives can be found in the Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European religion

The existence of similarities among the Deity and religious practices of the Indo-Europeans peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-Europeans religion and mythology....
 sky god *Dyeus
Dyeus

*Dyeus is the reconstructed chief deity of the Proto-Indo-Europeans pantheon . He was the god of the daylight sky, and his position may have mirrored the position of the patriarch or monarch in Proto-Indo-European society....
, who appears in Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 as Zeus
Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
 pater (accusative
Accusative case

The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions....
 Día, genitive
Genitive case

In grammar, the genitive case or possessive case is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take argument in the genitive case; and it may have adverbial uses ....
 Diós), in Latin as Jupiter (from archaic Latin Iove pater, "Sky father"), in Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology

Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheism that was practised by the Slavs prior to Christianisation.The religion possesses numerous common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....
 as Div
Rod (god)

Rod , sometimes referred to simply as god , is probably the most ancient deity in the Slavic mythology. It is likely that several other gods, most notably Svarog, were initially epithets or incarnations of Rod....
, and Germanic and Norse mythology
Norse mythology

Norse, Viking or Scandinavian mythology comprises the beliefs, myths and legends of the Norse paganism of the North Germanic language people, including those who settled on Faroe Islands and Iceland, where most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled....
 as Tyr
Tyr

File:T?r by Fr?lich.jpgT?r is the god of single combat, victory and heroic glory in Norse mythology, portrayed as a one-handed man. In the late Icelandic Eddas, he is portrayed, alternately, as the son of Odin or of Hymir , while the origins of his name and his possible relationship to Tuisto suggest he was once considered the father of...
 or Ziu.

In the Rig Veda, Dyaus Pitar appears in hymns 1.89, 1.90, 1.164, 1.191 and 4.1 in simple invocations.

In RV 1.89.4b, Pitar Dyaus "Father Sky" appears alongside Mata Prithvi "Mother Earth".

In the Purusha Suktam
Purusha sukta

Purusha sukta/sookta is hymn RV 10.90 of the Rigveda, dedicated to the Purusha, the transcendental "cosmic man". As per one version, the Suktam has 16 verses, 15 in the meter, and the final one in the meter....
, Dyaus is said to have been created from the head of the primaeval being Purusha.

Details of the myth are sketchy, but Indra seems to have killed his father (RV 4.18.12). Thomas Oberlies tentatively identifies Dyaus with an Asura in pre-vedic religion (both appear to have been killed by Indra).

In art, he appears in two different forms: as a red bull
Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
 who bellows thunder, or as a black horse
Horse

The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolution of the horse over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, odd-toed ungulate animal of today....
 adorned with pearls, symbolizing the stars.

Literature

  • Thomas Oberlies, Die Religion des Rgveda, Wien 1998.