Uranus (mythology)
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Uranus (IPA: /ˈjʊərənəs, jʊˈreɪnəs/) is the Latinized form of Ouranos (Οὐρανός), the Greek word for sky. In Greek mythology Uranus (often cited as Ouranos), Father Sky is personified as the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth (Hesiod, Theogony). Uranus and Gaia were ancestors of most of the Greek gods, but no cult addressed directly to Uranus survived into Classical times,[1] and Uranus does not appear among the usual themes of Greek painted pottery. Elemental Earth, Sky and Styx might be joined, however, in a solemn invocation in Homeric epic.[2]
Most Greeks considered Uranus to be primordial (protogenos), and gave him no parentage. Under the influence of the philosophers Cicero, in De Natura Deorum ("The Nature of the Gods"), claims that he was the offspring of the ancient gods Aether and Hemera, Air and Day. According to the Orphic Hymns, Ouranos was the son of the personification of night, Nyx.
His equivalent in Roman mythology was Caelus, likewise from caelum the Latin word for "sky".
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[edit] Creation myth
In the Olympian creation myth, as Hesiod tells it in Theogony, Uranus came every single night to cover the earth and mate with Gaia, but he hated the children she bore him.
[edit] Ouranos and Váruṇa
Georges Dumézil made a cautious case for the identity of Ouranos and Vedic Váruṇa at the earliest Indo-European cultural level.[3] Dumézil's identification of mythic elements shared by the two figures, relying to a great extent on linguistic interpretation, but not positing a common origin was taken up by Robert Graves and others. The identification of the name Ouranos with the Hindu Varuna, based in part on a posited PIE root *-ŭer with a sense of "binding"— ancient king god Varuna binds the wicked, ancient king god Uranus binds the Cyclopes— is widely rejected by those who find the most probable etymology is from Proto-Greek *worsanos, from a PIE root *wers- "to moisten, to drip" (referring to the rain).
[edit] Cultural context of flint
The detail of the sickle's being flint rather than bronze or even iron was retained by Greek mythographers (though neglected by Roman ones). Knapped flints as cutting edges were set in wooden or bone sickles in the late Neolithic, before the onset of the Bronze Age. Such sickles may have survived latest in ritual contexts where metal was taboo, but the detail, which was retained by classical Greeks, suggests the antiquity of the mytheme.
[edit] Planet Uranus
The ancients Greeks and Romans knew of only five 'wandering stars' (Greek: πλανεται, planetai): Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Following the discovery of a sixth planet in the 18th century, the name Uranus was chosen as the logical addition to the series: for Mars (Ares in Greek) was the son of Jupiter, Jupiter was the son of Saturn, and Saturn was the son of Uranus.
[edit] Consorts and children
All the offspring of Uranus are with Gaia, save Aphrodite, born when Cronus castrated him and cast his severed genitalia into the sea (Thalassa).
[edit] Notes
- ^ "We did not regard them as being in any way worthy of worship," Karl Kerenyi, speaking for the ancient Greeks, said of the Titans (Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks, 1951:20); "with the single exception, perhaps, of Cronos; and with the exception, also, of Helios."
- ^ As at Iliadxv.36f and Odyssey v.184f.
- ^ Dumézil, Ouranós-Váruna:Étude de mythologie comparée indo-européenne (Paris 1934).
[edit] References
- Kerenyi, Carl, 1951. The Gods of the Greeks
- Graves, Robert, revised edition, 1960. The Greek Myths.
[edit] External links
- Theoi Project, Ouranos references to Uranus in classical literature
- Greek Mythology Link, Titans summary of Uranus myth
