Dyaus | Indian deity | Britannica (original) (raw)

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association with Zeus

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  In Zeus
  …that of the sky god Dyaus of the ancient Hindu Rigveda. Zeus was regarded as the sender of thunder and lightning, rain, and winds, and his traditional weapon was the thunderbolt. He was called the father (i.e., the ruler and protector) of both gods and men.
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Hindu mythology

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  In Hinduism: Indo-European sources
  …including the old sky god Dyaus, whose name is cognate with those of Zeus of ancient Greece and Jupiter of Rome (“Father Jove”). The Vedic heaven, the “world of the fathers,” resembles the Germanic Valhalla and seems also to be an Indo-European inheritance.
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  In Hinduism: Cosmogony and cosmology
  …as procreation: the personified heaven, Dyaus, impregnates the earth goddess, Prithivi, with rain, causing crops to grow on her. Quite another myth is recorded in the last (10th) book of the Rigveda: the “Hymn of the Cosmic Man” (Purushasukta) explains that the universe was created out of the parts of…
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  In Hinduism: Theology
  …otiose is the personified heaven, Dyaus, who most often appears as the sky or as day. As a person, he is coupled with Earth (as Dyava-Prithivi) as a father; Earth by herself is more predominantly known as Mother (Matri). Apart from Earth, the other goddess of importance in the text…
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