Illyrian deity
| Deipaturos |
|---|
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| Indo-European equivalent | Dyēus |
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Deipaturos (Doric Greek: Δειπάτυροϛ, Deipáturos; lit. "sky-father") was a deity worshipped in ancient times as the Sky Father in the region of Tymphaea.
Description
Deipáturos was recorded by the Greek grammarian Hesychius of Alexandria (fifth or sixth century AD), in an entry of his lexicon named "Deipáturos, a god among the Stymphians" (Δειπάτυροϛ θεὸϛ παρὰ Στυμϕαίοιϛ). Deipaturos was worshipped as the Sky Father (*Dyēus-Ph₂tḗr), a linguistic cognate of the Vedic Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́, Greek Zeus Patēr and Roman Jupiter.
Deipáturos is considered an Illyrian theonym.[5]
According to Martin L. West, "the formal parallelism between the names of the Illyrian Deipaturos and the Messapic Damatura ["earth-mother"] may favour their having been a pair, but evidence of the liaison is lacking."
