Dis Pater/Dyaus Pitar/Jupiter

From Barbara Walker's "A Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:" Dis Pater "Father Dis," a Roman name of the Lord of Death inherited from Etruscan times. On occasion he wore the wolf head of the Etruscan god of the dead. Like underground Pluto he was called "the rich one," because he knew everything about mines, deposits of gem stones, and buried treasurer.(1) Gallic Celts worshipped Dis above every other male deity, claiming he was the "father" of their race - in the old way of the dying god who became "father" by shedding his blood (see Kingship). In Britain, Dis was regarded as a universal deity very like Jehovah, whoe later adherents, however, transformed Dis into an alternative name for the devil.(2) Notes: (1) Larousse, 211. (2) Graves,W.G., 45. See also Walker's entry on Jupiter: Roman Heavenly Father, from Sanskrit Dyaus pitar [Sanskrit is probably closest, in terms of minimal corruption from outside influences, to the original language spoken by the Indo-Europeans], the basic Father Heaven mated to Mother Earth. Zeus Pater the Greek Heavenly Father, was another incarnation of the same Aryan deity, whose worship spread westward with migrations and invasions of Indo-European patriarchal tribes. Like his counterparts in other nations, Jupiter was primarily a rain god; his function was to fertilize the soil with seminal moisture. Thus he was connected also with thunder and lightning - his voice and his weapon. He was commonly known as Jupiter Pluvius, "the Heavenly-Father-Who-Rains." Jupiter was added to the originally female Capitoline Triad by outsing the Virgin form of the Goddess, Jeventas, leaving Juno and Minerva as Jupiter's two female partners.(1) Juno was said to be his wife, though like Hera she was much older than her spouse. Notes: (1) Rose, 116.