Talas ( sq-definite, Talasi) is a

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), ...

god in Albanian mythology and folklore. A mythical tale concerning the god Talas has been documented in the early 20th century from the

Shala Shala (Šala) was a Mesopotamian goddess of weather and grain and the wife of the weather god Adad. It is assumed that she originated in northern Mesopotamia and that her name might have Hurrian origin. She was worshiped especially in Karkar a ...

region in northern

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the ...

Name

The Albanian theonym ''Talas'' may be of

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

Pre-Greek The Pre-Greek substrate (or Pre-Greek substratum) consists of the unknown pre-Indo-European language(s) spoken in prehistoric Greece before the coming of the Proto-Greek language in the Greek peninsula during the Bronze Age. It is possible that ...

origin (cf. ''Θάλασσα'' '' Thálassa'', "sea"). The word ''talas'' means "wave" in

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: ** Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the countr ...

, synonymous with . The word ''θάλασσα'', with its prenasalized variant δαλάγχαν, is typically Pre-Greek.

Myth

According to a mythical tale from the

region, as the wife of the highest god was soaring over the seas to delight in the sight of the order which her husband's wisdom had created, the god Talas noticed her. She was so beautiful that no other goddess could match her. So the god Talas went after the wife of the highest god and as soon as he reached her, he raped her through the use of brute force. Afterwards the wife of the highest god, despite being above all the other goddesses, decided to take her own life due to the desecration she suffered, but only after telling her husband what she had been through. So she stepped before her husband, and immedatelly after reporting what happened, she seized a weapon and stretched herself as a corpse before the highest of the gods. Because of that horrible suicide, but more than that, because of the defilement which his wife had suffered from the god Talas, the highest god swore an oath to take vengeance on the god who did that disgrace to him. After some time the highest god accomplished his revenge by hitting Talas with one of his cruel thunderbolts that tore him to pieces, after which his corpse would have emitted a stormy wind that no one could approach, so his whole body was buried in the ground. The god Talas did not smell like humans, but rather more pleasant. Hence the interpretation that he was the god of the sea-storm or the god of the

storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the ...

References

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Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * *{{cite book, last=Poghirc, first=Cicerone, title=The Encyclopedia of Religion, volume=1, chapter=Albanian Religion, editor=Mircea Eliade, place=New York, publisher=MacMillan Publishing Co, year=1987, pages=178–180 Albanian mythology Wind gods Sea and river gods