The Indo- European Gods

*Perkʷunos has been reconstructed as the Proto-Indo-European god of lightning and storms. It either meant "the Striker" or "the Lord of Oaks",[203][125] and he was probably represented as holding a hammer or a similar weapon.[143][204] Thunder and lightning had both a destructive and regenerative connotation: a lightning bolt can cleave a stone or a tree, but is often accompanied with fructifying rain.This is part 2 of my mini seriers on Indo- European mythology. In this video we will focus entirely on the ancient Gods.

Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested – since Proto-Indo-European speakers lived in prehistoric societies – scholars of comparative mythology have reconstructed details from inherited similarities found among Indo-European languages, based on the assumption that parts of the Proto-Indo-Europeans' original belief systems survived in the daughter traditions.

he Proto-Indo-European pantheon includes a number of securely reconstructed deities such as *Dyḗws Ph₂tḗr, the daylight-sky god; his consort *Dʰéǵʰōm, the earth mother; his daughter *H₂éwsōs, the dawn goddess; his sons the Divine Twins; and *Seh₂ul, a solar goddess. Some deities, like the weather god *Perkʷunos or the herding-god *Péh₂usōn, are only attested in a limited number of traditions – Western (European) and Graeco-Aryan, respectively – and could therefore represent late additions that did not spread throughout the various Indo-European dialects.

Linguists have been able to reconstruct the names of some deities in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) from many types of sources. Some of the proposed deity names are more readily accepted among scholars than others. According to philologist Martin L. West, "the clearest cases are the cosmic and elemental deities: the Sky-god, his partner Earth, and his twin sons; the Sun, the Sun Maiden, and the Dawn; gods of storm, wind, water, fire; and terrestrial presences such as the Rivers, spring and forest nymphs, and a god of the wild who guards roads and herds

The head deity of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon was the god *Dyḗws Ph₂tḗr,whose name literally means "Sky Father".[129][130][131] Regarded as the Sky or Day conceived as a divine entity, and thus the dwelling of the gods, the Heaven,[132] Dyēus is, by far, the most well-attested of all the Proto-Indo-European deities.[16][133] As the gateway to the gods and the father of both the Divine Twins and the goddess of the dawn (Hausos), Dyēws was a prominent deity in the pantheon.[134][135] He was however likely not their ruler, or the holder of the supreme power like Zeus and Jupiter

*H₂éusōs has been reconstructed as the Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn.[141][142] In three traditions (Indic, Greek, Baltic), the Dawn is the "daughter of heaven", *Dyḗws. In these three branches plus a fourth (Italic), the reluctant dawn-goddess is chased or beaten from the scene for tarrying.[143][134] An ancient epithet designating the Dawn appears to have been *Dʰuǵh₂tḗr Diwós, "Sky Daughter".[115] Depicted as opening the gates of Heaven when she appears at the beginning of the day,[144] Hausōs is generally seen as never-ageing or born again each morning.[145] Associated with red or golden cloths, she is often portrayed as dancing.

The Horse Twins are a set of twin brothers found throughout nearly every Indo-European pantheon who usually have a name that means 'horse', *h₁éḱwos,[135] although the names are not always cognate, and no Proto-Indo-European name for them can be reconstructed.[135]
Pair of Roman statuettes from the third century AD depicting the Dioscuri as horsemen, with their characteristic skullcaps (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
In most traditions, the Horse Twins are brothers of the Sun Maiden or Dawn goddess, and the sons of the sky god, *Dyḗws Ph₂tḗr.[134][168] The Greek Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux) are the "sons of Zeus"; the Vedic Divó nápātā (Aśvins) are the "sons of Dyaús", the sky-god; the Lithuanian Dievo sūneliai (Ašvieniai) are the "sons of the God" (Dievas); and the Latvian Dieva dēli are likewise the "sons of the God"

The earth goddess, *Dʰéǵʰōm, is portrayed as the vast and dark house of mortals, in contrast with Dyēws, the bright sky and seat of the immortal gods.[193] She is associated with fertility and growth, but also with death as the final dwelling of the deceased.[192] She was likely the consort of the sky father, *Dyḗws Ph₂tḗr.[194][195] The duality is associated with fertility, as the crop grows from her moist soil, nourished by the rain of Dyēws.

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