Deipaturos (
Doric Greek
Doric or Dorian ( grc, Δωρισμός, Dōrismós), also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its varieties are divided into the Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgroups. Doric was spoken in a vast area, that included ...
: , ; lit. "sky-father") was a deity worshiped in the region of
Tymphaea
Tymphaea or Tymphaia () was an ancient Greek territory, specifically located in the region of Epirus, inhabited by the Tymphaioi, a northwestern Greek tribe that belonged to the Molossian tribal state or ''koinon''. The tribal territory was annexe ...
as the
Sky Father.
Description
''Deipáturos'' was recorded by the Greek grammarian
Hesychius of Alexandria
Hesychius of Alexandria ( grc, Ἡσύχιος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, Hēsýchios ho Alexandreús, lit=Hesychios the Alexandrian) was a Greek grammarian who, probably in the 5th or 6th century AD,E. Dickey, Ancient Greek Scholarship (2007) ...
(fifth or sixth century AD), in an entry of his lexicon named "Deipáturos, a god among the Stymphians" (Δειπάτυροϛ θεὸϛ παρὰ Στυμϕαίοιϛ). Deipaturos was worshiped as the
Sky Father (''*
Dyēus-Ph₂tḗr''), a linguistic
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
of the Vedic
Dyáuṣ Pitṛ́, Greek
Zeus Patēr and Roman
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
. According to linguist
Émile Benveniste
Émile Benveniste (; 27 May 1902 – 3 October 1976) was a French structural linguist and semiotician. He is best known for his work on Indo-European languages and his critical reformulation of the linguistic paradigm established by Ferdinand de ...
, the region of
Tymphaea
Tymphaea or Tymphaia () was an ancient Greek territory, specifically located in the region of Epirus, inhabited by the Tymphaioi, a northwestern Greek tribe that belonged to the Molossian tribal state or ''koinon''. The tribal territory was annexe ...
was inhabited by an ancient Illyrian population that may have influenced the Greek
Doric Doric may refer to:
* Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece
** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians
* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture
* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode
* Doric dialect (Scotland)
* Doric ...
form copied by Hesychius as Δειπάτυροϛ ("Deipáturos").
According to
Martin L. West
Martin Litchfield West, (23 September 1937 – 13 July 2015) was a British philologist and Classics, classical scholar. In recognition of his contribution to scholarship, he was awarded the Order of Merit in 2014.
West wrote on Music of Ancien ...
, "the formal parallelism between the names of the Illyrian ''Deipaturos'' and the
Messapic ''
Damatura
Illyrian religion refers to the religious beliefs and practices of the Illyrian peoples, a group of tribes who spoke the Illyrian languages and inhabited part of the western Balkan Peninsula from at least the 8th century BC until the 7th century ...
''
earth-mother"may favour their having been a pair, but evidence of the liaison is lacking."
See also
*
Illyrian mythology
Illyrian religion refers to the religious beliefs and practices of the Illyrians, Illyrian peoples, a group of tribes who spoke the Illyrian language, Illyrian languages and inhabited part of the western Balkan Peninsula from at least the 8th cent ...
References
Bibliography
*}
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deipaturos
Illyrian gods