Uranus was the primal Greek god personifying the sky. His name in Roman mythology was Caelus. In Ancient Greek literature, Uranus or Father Sky was the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth. According to Hesiod's Theogony, Uranus was conceived by Gaia alone, but other sources cite Aether as his father. Uranus and Gaia were the parents of the first generation of Titans, and the ancestors of most of the Greek gods, but no cult addressed directly to Uranus survived the usual themes of Greek painted pottery. Elemental Earth, Sky and Styx might be joined, however, in a solemn invocation in Homeric epic.
The most probable etymology traces the name to a Proto-Greek form *worsanós (Ϝορσανός) enlarged from *ṷorsó- (also found in Greek ouréō 'to urinate', varṣá 'rain', ṷarša- 'fog, mist'). The basic root is *ṷérs- 'to rain, moisten' (also found in Greek eérsē 'dew', Sanskrit várṣati 'to rain', aiβi.varəšta 'it rained on'), making Ouranos the 'rainmaker'. A less likely etymology is a derivative with meaning 'the one standing on high' from *ṷérso- (cf. Sanskrit várṣman 'height, top', viršùs 'upper, highest seat', Russian verx 'height, top'). 's equation of Ouranos' name with that of the deity ( Aruna), god of the sky and waters, is etymologically untenable.
In Hesiod's , Uranus is the offspring of Gaia, the earth goddess. and elaborate that Uranus was fathered by , the god of heavenly light and the upper air. Under the influence of the philosophers, , in ("Concerning the Nature of the Gods"), claims that he was the offspring of the ancient gods and , Air and Day. According to the , Uranus was the son of , the personification of night.[] Uranus was the brother of Pontus, the God of the sea.
