Sky God
Udmurt · deity · primordial · Recorded classification
Udmurt high sky-god. English 'Sky God' leads; native Инмар (Inmar) in term. Male deities of the aerial sphere (Inmar, Töl-Peri the wind, Kwaz the weather) form the upper tier; Inmar later syncretised with the Christian God.
Domains
- sky and air
- supreme creator
- light and daylight
Powers
- grant the power to create
- Send light, rain and benign weather from on high
Epithets
- Inmar The supreme sky-god and creator of the UdmurtUdmurt (Votyak) ethnography (secondary)
Relations
- enemy: Keremet, Lord of the Sacred GroveKeremet (Lud), lord of the sacred grove, is the malevolent counterpart of the supreme sky-god Inmar.Lintrop, The Udmurt Pantheon, Sator 22 (2021); Holmberg, Finno-Ugric Mythology (1927) (secondary)
- equated with: IlmarinenReciprocal of finnish_ilmarinen.equated-with — Reconstruction-level (flagged): both names continue Uralic *ilma 'sky, air'. Setälä-Harva see Ilmarinen as an old air/sky god later epicized as smith, while Permic Inmar rose to supreme god — functions diverged.U. Harva (Holmberg), Finno-Ugric, Siberian (The Mythology of All Races IV, 1927) (secondary); K. Rédei, Uralisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (1986-88), s.v. *ilma (secondary)
- equated with: Jen the Good CreatorPermic sibling high gods: Udmurt in(m)- and Komi jen 'sky, god' (same *ilma family — reconstruction flagged); both head dualist creation myths against an adversary (Keremet ~ Omöl'); profiles heavily Christianized.N. Konakov et al., Komi Mythology (Encyclopaedia of Uralic Mythologies 1, 2003) (secondary); U. Harva (Holmberg), Finno-Ugric, Siberian (The Mythology of All Races IV, 1927) (secondary)
Sources
- Inmar is the supreme sky-god of the Udmurts (Votyaks), god of sky and air, conceived as dwelling in the heavens.: Aado Lintrop, 'The Udmurt Pantheon', Sator 22, 2021 (secondary); Udmurt Vos, Wikipedia (tertiary)
- The name Inmar (in- 'sky') is cognate with Finnish ilma 'air/sky' and the sky-smith name Ilmarinen and Estonian Ilmarine.: Uno Holmberg, Permalaisten uskonto, 1914 (secondary); Komi-Zyrian and Votjak Sacred Cosmology (summary of Harva) (tertiary)