Caelus

Caelus, also known as Coelus, was a primordial god of the sky in Roman mythology, theology, iconography, and literature. He was the Roman counterpart of the Greek god Uranus and the Jewish god Yahweh. Caelus was associated with Terra (Earth) as pater et mater (father and mother), and was considered a great deity in the theology of the mysteries at Samothrace. Although not known to have a cult at Rome, not all scholars consider him a Greek import given a Latin name; he has been associated with Summanus, the god of nocturnal thunder, as "purely Roman."
Caelus began to appear regularly in Augustan art and in connection with the cult of Mithras during the Imperial era. Vitruvius included him among celestial gods whose temple-buildings should be built open to the sky. As a sky god, he became identified with Jupiter, as indicated by an inscription that reads Optimus Maximus Caelus Aeternus Iupter. According to Cicero and Hyginus, Caelus was the son of Aether and Dies ("Day" or "Daylight", and the parents of Mercury. Caelus was also the father of the distinctively Roman god Janus, as well as of Saturn and Ops. Caelus was also the father of one of the three forms of Jupiter, the other two being Aether and Saturn.
The divine spatial abstraction Caelum is a synonym for Olympus as a metaphorical heavenly abode of the divine, both identified with and distinguished from the mountain in ancient Greece named as the home of the gods. The divine spatial abstraction Caelum is one of the components of the mundus, the "world" or cosmos, along with Terra (earth), Mare (sea), and Aer (air).
The ante-Nicene Christian writer Lactantius routinely uses the Latin theonyms Caelus, Saturn, and Jupiter to refer to the three divine hypostases of the Neoplatonic school of Plotinus: the First God (Caelus), Intellect (Saturn), and Soul, son of the Intelligible (Jupiter).
Caelus is depicted on the cuirass of the Augustus of Prima Porta, at the very top above the four horses of the Sun god's quadriga. He is balanced and paired with the personification of Earth at the bottom of the cuirass. In the Etruscan discipline of divination, Caelus Nocturnus was placed in the sunless north opposite Sol to represent the polar extremities of the axis.
The name Caelus occurs in dedicatory inscriptions in connection to the cult of Mithras, sometimes depicted allegorically as an eagle bending over the sphere of heaven marked with symbols of the planets or the zodiac. In a Mithraic context, he is associated with Cautes and can appear as Caelus Aeternus ("Eternal Sky"). Some Roman writers used Caelus or Caelum as a way to express the monotheistic god of Judaism (Yahweh).
Category:Roman Pantheon
Category:God
Category:Religion