Palaeolexicon - The Greek word Ζεύς

The Greek word Ζεύς

Comments
Word	Ζεύς

Meaning	Zeus
See also	Homeric Greek: Δεύς ‘Zeus’ Homeric Greek: Δίη ‘heavenly’ Linear B: di-wo ‘Zeus’ Linear B: di-we ‘Zeus’ Cypriot Syllabic Script: ti-wo ‘Zeus’ Proto-Indo-European: dei- ‘to shine, to be bright’* Proto-Indo-European: dyḗusphatḗr ‘sky-father’*
The supreme god of the Greeks and Romans. The earliest attested forms di-wo and di-we are found in Mycenaean Linear B documents. The name derives from the Proto-Indo-European root dieu-/dyeu- 'sky, heaven' (→ 'god') which is preserved in many languages apart from Greek and Italic: Skt. dyauh '(god of) heaven, day' , Hittite šiú-, šiúna- 'god', Palaic tiuna 'god', Lydian ciw- etc. The root in turn has been suggested to derive from PIE dei- 'shine'. Other old correspondences are Ζεῡ πάτερ, Δειπάτυρος = Lat. Jupiter, Zῆν = Skt. dyam, Lat. diem (whence a new nom. diēs, Diēspiter) which allow a reconstruction of a PIE supreme god dyḗusphatḗr. Case declension Nominative Ζεὺς Genetive Δι(ϝ)ὸς Dative Δι(ϝ)ὶ Accusative Δία Vocative Ζεῦ References Beekes, Robert. Etymological dictionary of Greek. Brill, 2010 Mallory, James P., and Douglas Q. Adams. The oxford introduction to proto-indo-european and the proto-indo-european world. Oxford University Press, 2006.