The glyph at the centre, the branches of Uranus' symbolism around it: gods (gold), archetypes (blue), traditions (green) and narratives (red). Tap a branch and its explanation opens on the right.
OuranosGreek
Sky; son and husband of Gaia, whom she bore alone. He imprisons his children inside Gaia; his youngest son Cronus castrates him with a sickle. From his blood the Erinyes and the Giants are born, from his seed fallen into the sea Aphrodite. The first sky king, the first overthrown father. Uranus in the Greek family tree →
AnuMesopotamian
Sumer's An, Akkad's Anu: the sky, the distant father of the gods, the source of kingship. Father of Enlil and Enki; the middle band of the sky is 'the Path of Anu'. Distant, authoritative and passive, like Ouranos. Anu in the Mesopotamian family tree →
NutEgyptian
In Egypt the sky is feminine: Nut arches over Geb (the earth), swallows the sun each evening and bears it each morning. Shu (air) separates the two. A cosmology the reverse of the Greek: sky mother, earth father. Nut in the Egyptian family tree →
Varuna and DyausHindu
The Vedic Dyaus Pitar, 'sky father', shares a root with Zeus and Iuppiter; Varuna is the god of the vault of heaven, of cosmic law (rita) and of the waters, and his name is held to be cognate with Ouranos. Sky and law together.
CaelusRoman
The Roman sky god; the Latin counterpart of Ouranos. Counted the father of Saturnus, his cult is weak; Cicero and Varro begin the genealogy of the gods with him.
TianChinese
'Heaven'; less a personified god than a principle of law and authority. The Mandate of Heaven (tianming) gives the ruler legitimacy, and when he loses it revolution becomes legitimate. Uranus' triad of sky, authority and revolution lives on in China as a concept.
The sky fatherDistant, authoritative, untouchable
In most pantheons the sky gods are distant and passive; they grant authority but do not interfere. Ouranos does not want to see his children, Anu sits in his temple. The image of the cold father who rules from afar.
The castrated kingThe overthrown order
The overthrow of Ouranos with the sickle is the first revolution in the history of the gods; the same pattern is applied to Cronus, and to Apsu in Enuma Elish. The sudden cutting off of the old order, the conflict of generations, the son who takes the father's place.
PrometheusThe one who stole fire
In modern astrology (Richard Tarnas, Prometheus the Awakener) the true mythological counterpart of Uranus is held to be not Ouranos but Prometheus: the rebel who steals fire from the gods, gives it to humans, breaks the rule and is punished. Discovery, technology, liberation. Prometheus in the family tree →
Discovery and the telescopeHerschel, 1781
On 13 March 1781 in Bath the amateur astronomer William Herschel sees a 'comet' through a telescope of his own making; within months it is understood to be a planet. The first addition to the seven planets known since antiquity: the map of the sky changes overnight.
The namingFrom Georgium Sidus to Uranus
Herschel wants to name the planet after King George III (Georgium Sidus); the French say 'Herschel'. The German astronomer Bode proposes Ouranos, father of Saturn: Jupiter's father is Saturn, Saturn's father is Ouranos. The mythological order of descent is written into the order of the planets.
The birth of the TitansHesiod
The children of Ouranos and Gaia are the twelve Titans, the three Cyclopes and the three Hecatoncheires; Ouranos loathes them and pushes them back inside Gaia. Gaia's pain gives birth to the sickle. The creative sky and the father who fears his creation are one figure. Gaia in the family tree →
The vault and the starsThe sphere of the fixed stars
In Ptolemaic cosmology beyond Saturn lies the sphere of the fixed stars; the body of Ouranos, the sky covered with stars. The orbit of Uranus falls exactly outside this old boundary: where the classical seven end.
Two glyphs♅ and ⛢
♅ is derived from Herschel's letter H (Lalande, 1784); ⛢, a spearhead above the circle of the Sun, is the sign Bode proposed and astronomers use. Both are historical, not mythological.
Uranium1789
In 1789 Klaproth gave the new element the name of the planet discovered eight years earlier: uranium. Neptunium and plutonium followed. This is a naming tradition, not a metal correspondence; the classical metal pairings end with the seven planets.
In modern astrologyFor information; not used in this school
20th-century astrology assigned Uranus the meanings of sudden change, revolution, technology and freedom, and the sign Aquarius. This assignment does not exist in the classical sources; Lilly, Ptolemy and the Arabic astrologers did not know the planet. This school keeps rulership to the seven planets.