Great Zeus! Father Sky?

Father Sky is a deity, usually considered to be the Highest and sometimes called "The Father of Gods and Men". The complement to Earth Mother.

Vedic Dyaus Pita, etymologically descended from the same Proto-Indo-European deity as the Greek Zeus Pater and Roman Jupiter, all of which are reflexes of the same Proto-Indo-European deity's name, *Dyēus Ph₂tḗr.
wikipedia: Sky father

Now here are some photos of who I would consider as Zeus:
photo credit Nicholas A. Tonelli

photo credit METAL_FIRECRACKER

Zeus is the Thunderer, bringer of rain and storm and lightening.

photo credit Scott Hudson

Photo Credit James Bo Insogna


But is Zeus really the Sky Father? What if someone was above Him? I didn't get a picture from out the airplane window, but one time I was really high up, like 35,000 ft. and out the window I could see we were above the clouds which blocked all view of the ground, but straight out and above was:
photo credit Sig-project365

This isn't from a plane, but you can see the same blue sky that you can see from a plane.

For a long time I've considered the Blue Sky to be above the Storm, and not just spatially, but other ways too, like Big Blue Father Sky. Now I realize that this is heresy and all, but lets be reasonable about this.

I watched a documentary once wherein Dr. Neal D. Tyson explained Gravity. Expanding Space and Movement creating Time and Gravity fit in there somehow too. It made sense to me while I was hearing it, but I wouldn't be able to explain it myself. That's some big Macro-Astro-Physics type theology that I can't quite wrap my head around. So back to Earth.

Hey, what's that?

That's a photo taken from the International Space Station of a Cumulonimbus Cloud over Africa. And guess what? There is no solid dome of heaven holding the Sky in place! That was a faulty theory made by the Ancients who didn't know everything. Gravity, from Mother Earth holds Sky in place.

So here's a story:

Back in the times before life, a layer of gasses, not the same mix like we have now, no free Oxygen, was attracted to and surrounded Mother Earth. Mother Earth produced life, right out of a vent in the Ocean. The Proto-Sky said, "Look, I made life!"

Mother Earth said, "No you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"You better stop saying that," Mother warned.

"Or what?"

"I might just let go of you, and you will dissolve and disappear into the nothing" and then she loosened her grip.

"Okay, Okay, I'll stop ..." and Sky never talked again.

Gradually, life spread in the Ocean and Land, and oxygen producing organisms developed, and then oxygen using organisms, and the Sky changed. One day, the light from the Sun warmed up some air, which caused reduction of density, and then there was Wind. And water evaporated and saturated the air with humidity. And way high in the Sky, clouds formed where the air was cold. So from Ocean and Sky and Sun was born Zeus the Storm bringer, with rain and Lightening and Thunder.

By this time asexual reproduction was not the only way life was multiplying, but there was sexual reproduction too. Pollenated seeds were lying in the dirt. The Storm God Zeus let loose some rain and the plants germinated and grew. And Zeus said, "Look, I brought forth life with my own power. I am the Father of Life!"

And the Mother said, "No, you .... Oh forget it."
-------------------------------------
So that's why people think Zeus is the Father Sky, because he's the one talking, and the Real Father Sky isn't contradicting him because He doesn't talk so loud, if at all.

Stunning.

I rather revere that stuff myself!!! Yes. The forces of nature are far beyond ANY 'anthropomorphized' "God" that humans have dreamed up.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

The forces of nature are far beyond ANY 'anthropomorphized' "God" that humans have dreamed up.

Just trying to keep it real. The explanatory story should not be taken as science. I don't have the proper background in the fields for it to qualify.

a reply to: pthena

So that's why people think Zeus is the Father Sky, because he's the one talking, and the Real Father Sky isn't contradicting him because He doesn't talk so loud, if at all.

I always thought it was something like that! Thanks for clearing this stuff up for us!

The explanatory story should not be taken as science. I don't have the proper background in the fields for it to qualify.

No reason to be so humble, you're just a qualified as any in this Mother/Father God stuff! Anyway, we all know that science was invented yet, back then. So, that doesn't matter!

a reply to: pthena

Eh it is a little morecomplex than that (the sky father/earth mother duality). But its a start.

So the equivalent of Zeus and Jupiter in the Germanic peoples is Tyr/Tiwaz, he's been supplanted by Odin/Woden who's not that Indo-European a character


Your Earth mother, not so much. Dawn goddess sure, River Goddesses yep.

a reply to: windword

No reason to be so humble, you're just a qualified as any in this Mother/Father God stuff!

Thank you. It's something that has bothered me for many years. Didn't quite know how to present it. But we are left with a Father Sky with no known name. I'm more comfortable with that than trying to prove Cronus has that position. Cronus just may be in the underworld as the story goes, holding the old atmosphere chemicals close to his chest in the ground, where it doesn't kill us all.

a reply to: Noinden

Thank you. I have been considering Odin/Woden but I don't know much about him. I would prefer Woden if I can justify it, at least he's partly in my genetic heritage.

It's strange because in Ancient Egypt, Nut was the Sky Mother and Geb was Father Earth.


I think people still worship them as well. Although not in great numbers I would assume.

a reply to: Hazardous1408

It's strange because in Ancient Egypt, Nut was the Sky Mother and Geb was Father Earth.

Rain isn't really nourishment like milk would be. We don't absorb nitrogen from the air either. We are formed of what we get from the Earth, carbohydrates from plants growing from Earth, Nitrogen, building block of protein through plants from the Earth. Calcium from dairy and probably other Earthbound sources (Hard Water?)

We don't leave the biosphere, so all of our growth and maturity is like being formed in the womb. It's a neo-Geo-centric worldview.

a reply to: pthena

There is good evidence that Odin is a deity that was possibly imported from contact with the Finns. He does things that manly Germanic men don't do (magic/shamanism for one, its called Ergi in Nordic pagan culture), while Tyr is not egri There are studies that show how Tyr was slowly pushed out as head honcho, replaced by Odin/Woden.

As for "genetics".... eh i'd not look at a cultural thing (Say mythology and spirituality) and genetics too closely. However I'm similar, I'm a Celtic Reconstructionst and Neopagan Druid, due to Gaelic heritage.

Well done, and beautiful photography.

a reply to: JDeLattre89

Thank you.

Most of the photos were collected on a blog page, there are more photos there too.
Beautiful and Dramatic Thunderhead Clouds

a reply to: pthena

Didn't Zeus eat his own children out of paranoia that he would be overthrown by one of them, then Gaia(?) tricked him into swallowing a rock and that child who I think was Kronos (father time) succeed in this overthrow in the battle of the Olympians.

Kronos was (I think) Saturn to the Romans, Baal to the Phoenicians and Yahweh to the Hebrews.

Rome was once called Saturnia, celebrating Christmas in the name of Saturnalia and the feast of Sol Invictus.

Then the Jew-Peter became the first Vicar of Christ.

Symbolic of Jupiter overthrowing Saturn?

Jew-Peter, Jupiter, that can't be a coincidence.

Awesome thread, thanks for the break from the endless Christianity threads!!!

I am Gnostic so all mythology and philosophy is of value to me and I see connections that the devout like to deny/ignore but there is a common thread in all religions and mythology across the ancient known world.

originally posted by: pthena
a reply to: Noinden

Thank you. I have been considering Odin/Woden but I don't know much about him. I would prefer Woden if I can justify it, at least he's partly in my genetic heritage.

I think Odin/Wotan is the German pagan version of Thor, all share similar traits and Odin mythology is pretty effing cool. I don't think Odin used a hammer but they still are similar.

Thursday is Thors-day.

Also the show Archer which is the most hilarious show on TV used to have competing spy agencies named Isis and Oden, although they are no longer a part of the show it seems pagan gods and goddesses are popular to use on television.

a reply to: pthena

I have seen those cloud formation around the word and it is not Zues it is called Weather. And Solomon knew all about it long ago.

a reply to: Taxiarch

Jew-Peter, Jupiter, that can't be a coincidence.

No more of a coincidence than that Jesus is called the "SUN/SON" of God....



Gee Zeus! (Can that be a coincidence?)

a reply to: Taxiarch


When I was very young I had an art book for children. I thought that the above picture was a depiction of Zeus being taken away so as to hide from Cronus his father.

In grown up books I now discover that it's Correggio's Ganymede. A whole different story.

a reply to: ChesterJohn


Cloud classification symbol CL9. Cumulonimbus, the upper part of which is clearly fibrous (cirriform) often in the form of an anvil; either accompanied or not by cumulonimbus without anvil or fibrous upper part, by cumulus, stratocumulus, stratus or 'scud' (Cumulonimbus cappillatus or incus).

We can look up and see Sky, and Clouds, and Sun (not recommended for long), but people have tried for many decades to find any evidence of Solomon's big glorious empire.

Kings of Controversy: Was the Kingdom of David and Solomon a glorious empire—or just a little cow town? It depends on which archaeologist you ask.
...
"Our claim to being one of the senior nations in the world, to being a real player in civilization's realm of ideas, is that we wrote this book of books, the Bible," says Daniel Polisar, president of the Shalem Center, the Israeli research institute that helped fund Eilat Mazar's excavation work. "You take David and his kingdom out of the book, and you have a different book. The narrative is no longer a historical work, but a work of fiction. And then the rest of the Bible is just a propagandistic effort to create something that never was. And if you can't find the evidence for it, then it probably didn't happen. That's why the stakes are so high."

The books of the Old Testament outlining the story of David and Solomon consist of scriptures probably written at least 300 years after the fact, by not-so-objective authors. No contemporaneous texts exist to validate their claims. Since the dawn of biblical archaeology, scholars have sought in vain to verify that there really was an Abraham, a Moses, an Exodus, a conquest of Jericho. At the same time, says Amihai Mazar, Eilat's cousin and among Israel's most highly regarded archaeologists, "Almost everyone agrees that the Bible is an ancient text relating to the history of this country during the Iron Age. You can look at it critically, as many scholars do. But you can't ignore the text—you must relate to it."

My response to Ms. Mazar would be something like "Actually no. I don't have to relate to it."

ETA

The Kingdom of Ouranos(Heaven) is like a bird hunting for food,
and when she tires
she lands on an oak branch
and discovers that a bird before her
has lodged an acorn in a hole
in the trunk of the oak
and from that acorn
a worm has risen
from an egg laid
by an insect.

a reply to: Taxiarch

Uh no Thor is Thor Odin is Odin. They are not that similar .

a reply to: Hazardous1408

It's strange because in Ancient Egypt, Nut was the Sky Mother and Geb was Father Earth.

To revisit this:

Nut is a daughter of Shu and Tefnut. Her husband and brother is Geb. She has four children: Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Her name is translated to mean 'sky' and she is considered one of the oldest deities among the Egyptian pantheon, with her origin being found on the creation story of Heliopolis. She was originally the goddess of the nighttime sky, but eventually became referred to as simply the sky goddess. Her headdress was the hieroglyphic of part of her name, a pot, which may also symbolize the uterus. Mostly depicted in nude human form, Nut was also sometimes depicted in the form of a cow whose great body formed the sky and heavens, a sycamore tree, or as a giant sow, suckling many piglets (representing the stars).
Nut (goddess)

By Craig Lindsay - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org...

Mammatocumulus with drooping pouches, sometimes included in rarely seen cloud formation lists.