Zeus
Zeus,the main divinity of the Greek pantheon (see religion, Greek) and the only major Greek god whose Indo-European origin is undisputed. His name is connected with Latin Iu-ṗ-piter, Rigveda Dyaus pitar, derived from the root †diéu-, ‘day (as opposed to night)’ (Lat. dies), ‘(clear) sky’; as the Rigveda and Latin parallels suggest, his role as father, not in a theogonical or anthropogonical sense, but as having the power of a father in a patriarchal system, is Indo-European too. Thus in Homer, Zeus is both πατηρ, patēr, ‘father’, and ἄναξ, anax, ‘king’ or ‘lord’. His cult is attested in bronze-age Greece; the Linear B texts attest several sanctuaries (Pylos, Chania) and, at Minoan Cnossus, a month name or a festival, if in fact the Mycenaean names of months derive from festivals (KN Fp 5, 1). Another Cnossian text attests the...
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