Uranus (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Uranus (in ancient Greek, Οὐρανός, Uranós "(the) Heaven", Latinized as Uranus) is a primordial god personifying the sky. The equivalent of him in Roman mythology was Caelus.
In the Greek, Uranus was the son and husband of Gaea, Mother Earth who, according to Hesiod's account in the Theogony, had conceived Uranus by herself. Urano and Gea were the parents of the first generation of Titans, as well as the ancestors of most of the Greek gods; however, no specific Urano cult survived into classical times. However, Urano could appear in some solemn invocations along with Gaea and Styx.
Etymology
The most probable etymon is the basic form of Proto-Greek *(F)orsanόj, itself derived from the noun (F)orsό (Sanskrit: varsa, "rain"). The corresponding Proto-Indo-European root is *ers ("to moisten", "to drip"; Sanskrit: varsati, to rain). Thus, Uranus is the "rainmaker" or "fertilizer." Another possible etymology is "he who is in the highest position" (Sanskrit: vars-man: height, elevation). It is also possible that the name derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *wel («to cover», «to surround») or *wer («to cover», «to enclose»). The identification with the Vedic Váruṇa, god of the sky and waters, is uncertain.
Genealogy
Hesiod affirms in the Theogony that Uranus was born from Gaia. Alcman and Callimachus, poets, present him as the son of Ether, the god of heavenly light and ether, the air that is found in the upper parts of the world. Influenced by the philosophers, Cicero affirms in De natura deorum that Uranus was a descendant of the ancient gods Ether and Hemera (the Day). According to the Orphic Hymns , Urano was the son of Nix (Night). A myth says that he arose from Demiurge together with Gaea, Pontus, Tartarus.
Uses of οὐρανός
As a physical element, ὁ οὐρανός was the upper limit of the cosmos, a sort of solid roof of the world, conceived either as bronze (χάλκεος), or as iron (σιδήρεος). Most scholars think that the sky was conceived as a vault, although West, a commentator on Theogony, points out that the domes are little frequent after the Mycenaean period and believes that the sky was thought of as flat and parallel to the earth, since the vault shape does not explain the need for Atlas to have to maintain a similar structure separated from the earth. In the epic In Greek, Uranus is frequently described as ἀστερόεντος ("starry").
In the Homeric poems, ὁ οὐρανός is sometimes the divinity the heroes invoke, and other times it is simply an alternative name for Olympus as the collective home of the gods, as occurs at the end of book I of the Iliad, when Thetis emerges from the sea to plead with Zeus:
[...] coming out of the waves of the sea, he went up early in the morning to the great sky and the Olympics, and found the long Chronion sitting apart [... ]IliadI, 495 and ss.
William Sale says this:
Thousands of μπους is used almost always for that home, but ο ονονονονονονονονονονονονονονονονονονοονονονονοονονονοοονοονοοονοονονοοονονοοοοονονοονοοοοοοοοονοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοοο often alludes to the natural heaven above us, without any allusion to the gods living there.Homeric Olympus and its formulae (The Homerical Olympus and the expressions related to it).
In Hesiod's Theogony, ὁ Οὐρανός is a divinity engendered by Gaea, who illuminates him «with his own proportions» (ἐγείνατο ἶσον ἑωυτῇ) and whom he later he will marry. This act of asexual birth has been conceived as a cosmogonic version of the cosmological principle of the separation of heaven and earth from an undifferentiated mass, whose poetic duplicate is the castration myth of Uranus. Uranus is a the consort of Gaia, The union between the two is a reason for frequent appearance in myths and rituals. From that union, a heterogeneous group of divinities was born: the first generation of Titans, the Cyclops and the Hecatonchires.
In the sixth century, when there was a distinction between Aphrodite Urania ("heavenly") and Aphrodite Pandemos ("of all people"), οὐρανός simply meant the celestial sphere.
Myths
Greek Mythology
Castration of Uranus
In the Theogony, Hesiod narrates that Uranus held his children in his mother's womb when they were about to be born. Gaia hatched a plan to avenge the outrage: she carved a flint sickle and asked her children for help. Only Crono, the youngest of them, was willing to fulfill his obligation, ambushed his father when he lay with his mother, castrated him with the sickle and threw his genitals after him. As her blood spattered, Gaea picked it up, and from it emerged the Giants, the Erinyes and the Melias. Urano's genitals produced a foam from which Aphrodite was born. Ouranos predicted that the Titans would receive just punishment for their crime, anticipating Zeus's victory over Cronus.
The Mythological Library includes a different version, in which Uranus throws his first children (the Hecatonchires and the Cyclops) into Tartarus, and Gaia, irritated, persuades the rest of her children (the Titans) to attack his father with the sickle. With Ouranos defeated, the Titans rescue those thrown into Tartarus to ensure Crono's dominance.
The Birth of Zeus
According to Theogony and the Library, Gaia and Urano had predicted that Cronus would be overthrown by one of his own sons, and so the titan tried to avoid his fate by devouring his offspring. Both, through trickery, helped Rhea save Zeus, and he later freed his brothers and managed to overthrow his father.
Consorts and offspring
Uranus had all his children with Gea except those born when Cronus threw into the sea (Thalassa) the genitals he had removed: in some traditions, Aphrodite Urania; in others, the Erinyes. On the other hand, from the blood of Uranus and Night, Lisa was born, the personification of madness.
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Hurrian Mythology
The Hurrian creation myth is similar to the Greek one. In the Hurrian religion, Anu is the god of the sky. His son Kumarbi cut off his genitals and vomited up three divinities, one of whom, Teshub, would later marry.
In Sumerian mythology, and later in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Anu is the god of the sky and represents law and order.
It is possible that Uranus was originally an Indo-European divinity, identifiable with the Vedic Váruṇa, the supreme guardian of order who later became the god of the oceans and rivers, as suggested by Georges Dumézil following the Émile Durkheim's work The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Les formes elementaires du vie religieuse, 1912).
Another possibility is that the Iranian supreme god Ahura Mazda is a development of the Indo-Iranian *Vouruna-*Mitra. This divinity has the same qualities as Mithras, the divinity of rain.
Interpretations
These ancient myths of remote origins had no reflection in the cults of the Hellenes. Uranus's function is that of a defeated god of a bygone age, before real time began. After his castration, Heaven no longer came to cover the Earth at night, but took his place, and "the original parents came to an end."
Uranus and Váruṇa
Georges Dumézil made a cautious defense of the identification of Uranus with the Vedic Váruṇa of the earliest Indo-European cultural level. Dumézil's identification of mythic elements shared by the two deities was largely based on linguistic interpretations, but he did not propose a common origin, as understood by Robert Graves and others. The identification of the name Ouranos with the Hindi Varuna, based in part on a proposed Proto-Indo-European root: *-ŭer, meaning "to bind » (Varuna binds the wicked, Uranus binds the Cyclops) is widely rejected by those who find the Proto-Greek *worsanos etymology more likely, from the Proto-Indo-European root *wers, "moisten", "drip" (referring to rain).