The Indo-European Sky Father is a God of Masques. Many of these are, upon the surface, quite clearly culturally specific – panoplies best-befitting for a particular Indo-European people’s individuated circumstances, environs, and heritage.

Yet when considered in constellation alongside their correlate co-expressions amidst other Indo-European groups, potent underpinning patternings often begin to shine through.

In this particular case, the ‘Dual Nature’ for the Sky Father deific, as expressed through the paired Facings illustrated upon either side of the chart below.

I suppose we might shorthand these as the ‘Baleful’ and the ‘Beneficent’ – although in truth this is quite the oversimplification.

In part because there are often pointedly more specific ‘characterizations’ entailed for each – rather than generically ‘Baleful’, the relevant Face is customarily ‘Furious’ (or ‘Raging’), ‘Stormy’, and frequently ‘Avenging’.

And instead of a relatively amorphous and unqualified ‘Beneficence’, the other Face may be conceptualized as ‘Having Been Propitiated’ (potentially through penitential conduct – Zeus Meilichios having intriguing ritual saliency for exactly this, that also features clear correlation with the Tryambakāḥ rite of the Vedas), as particularly linked to the Sun [viz. ‘Diovis’ and Varro’s ‘Dies Pater’ (‘Day-Father’) etc. annotation [V 66]) (in contrast to the ‘Wrathful’ Storm-Visage … two ‘Faces of the Sky’, indeed), or otherwise with reference to the (provision for) natural (etc.) abundance (c.f. the intended outcome for the sacrifice of Olaf Tree-Feller per Ynglinga Saga 47 [‘ok gáfu hann Óðni ok blétu honum til árs sér.’], the Cornucopia iconography occurrent with relation to Zeus Meilichios, etc.) , and so forth.

Yet also because, going back the other way – even within the Aegis of the ‘Baleful’ Aspect(s), we tend to find more ‘positive’ and ‘life-bestowing’ attributes. Think Rudra’s provision for healing (and, for that matter, potently apotropaic, contingent upon context) herbs / medicines [as at RV I 43 4, etc.] – a feature shared with Odin, the ‘Nigon Wyrta Galdor’ [‘Nine Herbs Galdr’], and in terms of healing, potentially also Veiovis, as well.

Now, it is not our purpose herein – in what had been anticipated as a fairly brief piece – to get into all the potential permutations & ‘deviations’ from the anticipated ‘uni-dimensional’ typology some sorts out there seem to harbour within their minds as to He.

And rest assured that as applies some of these Dual-Aspect scenarios and their more enigmatically intriguing exemplars housed therein (looking at Vejovis, here!) – we do most definitely intend to come back to these in greater depth & detail in due course.

Also, there’s one clear omission from our chart – that being the figure hailed as ‘Tveggi’, Himself. Namely, Odin – and the Nordic / Germanic sphere all up.

The reasoning for this was quite simple. While there is a clear correlation for the typology to be found (and we intend to look at that in some greater depth in an ensuing brief piece) viz. His description within the Ynglinga Saga as ‘changing form’ [“skipti litum ok líkjum”] between facings described as “fagr ok göfugligr álitum” and among those He was favourable toward, as contrasted with “grimmligr” encountered in a decidedly more ‘wrathful’ context charging amidst His enemies … the presentation is not anything like as ‘formalized’ as that which we had observed within the other major Indo-European spheres of faith that we had extracted our typological exemplars from.

Which is NOT to seek to suggest that it WOULDN’T have been, in the actual, authentic Nordic theology … only that that which has come down to us via Sturluson in rather euhemerized form is a much ‘flatter’ and ‘fuzzier’ description; meaning that I was rather reluctant to place it on the chart directly, as we quite simply do not have a correlate level of confidence for, for instance, those adjectives of “Fagr” nor “Göfugligr” nor “Grimmligr” as actually being utilized as theonymics, epithets etc. in the manner that “Shiva”, or “Ghora”, or “Bromios” or “Meilichios”, or other such terms are attested as being utilized for these other IE spheres.

Tveggi, however, is somewhat of an exception – insofar as not only is this much more plausibly connected to all of this fairly directly (due to its clear underpinning meaning – ‘The Twofold (One)’), but in addition to its Völuspá [63] occurrence, it had also earned itself a place within the Þulur enumerating ‘Óðins nǫfn’ [8]. Hence, it did indeed deserve a place alongside “Shiva”, “Rudra”, “Maimaktes”, “Meilichios”, and so forth.

So it got one. Right there as the first word to the title.

In any case – there’s a whole lot of conceptry from these (and other!) Indo-European religious spheres which didn’t easily fit onto either the chart or into this intentionally really brief and once-over-lightly writeup.

So if you don’t see your particular IE pantheonic perspective represented – or, for that matter, a relevant understanding for the complex even in those which are … it’s not that we intend to imply these not to exist nor to prove valid.

And, to reiterate – as applies the three pairings which we’ve chosen to utilize to illustrate the typology , there’s quite an array of extensive ‘underpinning’ cohesive-correlate coterminity within the relevant theologies which … didn’t exactly find itself with much space to be explored upon our chart. Suffice to say it’s much more than ‘just’ the ‘Two-Facing’ connotation that we’re explicating here. Or, at least, shall be explicating, when we come to explore these matters more in the not-too-distant unfurling future with a more particular emphasis upon how they all are understood to ‘fit together’.

In closing, I suspect, we can do little better than to quote TS V 7 3 – that is, the Taittiriya Samhita of the (Black) Yajurveda – with reference to our God:

Verily, Rudra, Who this Living Fire [Agni] Is
Of Variegated Radiances, He –
The Terrific ‘Ghorā’, One ;
the Other, The Beneficent Śivā be.
Through ‘Śatarudrīyam’ Feeding-Flames,
This ‘Ghora’ Form They Appease ;
Whilst with ‘Vasordhāra’ nourishment,
That ‘Śiva’ Face They Please.