While working on the previous post about Hurakan, the Mayan god from whom we derive the word hurricane, I tried to find a comprehensive cross-cultural list of storm gods. I wasn’t able to find one though, so I want to put together a tentative one, and fill it in as time goes by. I’m hoping to give other people a starting point for further comparative investigation.

One of the main difficulties here is defining a storm god. Many sky gods and father gods are associated are associated with thunder, like Zeus/Jupiter. Other gods are more specifically associated with something like rain, or wind. So it gets kind of tricky. Also, most of the gods have multiple overlapping attributes, sometimes meaning one thing, sometimes another. Rather than try to split hairs, I’m just going to include anybody who I find who has attributes which might conceivably make them qualify as some sort of storm god.

1. Zeus (Greek, thunder)
2. Jupiter (Roman, thunder during daytime)
3. Summanus (Roman/Etruscan, thunder at night)
4. Pluvius (Roman, an alternate name for Jupiter, means “Sender of Rain”)
5. Taranis (Celtic/Gallic, thunder)
6. Hurakan (Mayan, hurricane, deluge)
7. Apocatequil (Inca, lightning)
8. Apu Illapu (Inca, thunder)
9. Catequil (Inca, thunder & lightning)
10. Illapa (Inca, thunder, lightning, rain, weather in general)
11. Kon (Inca, rain)
12. Mama Pacha (Inca, earthquakes)
13. Pariacaca (Inca, rain, water & storms) [ Here’s the list of Inca gods above ]
14. Set or Seth (Egyptian, storms)
15. Teisheba (Slavonic, storms)
16. Leucetios (Celtic, storm, thunder)
17. Muireartach (Ireland, Scotland, storm-tossed seas)
18. Manannan MacLir (Ireland, Wales, storms)
19. Poseidon (Greek, storms at sea, earthquakes)
20. Ran (Norse, goddess of storms)
21. Thor (Norse, thunder)
22. Harpies (Greek, storms)
23. Tempestes (Roman, goddesses of storms)
24. Iskur (Mesopotamian, storms)

There are a couple places you could go for further research:

1. Wikipedia has a cross-cultural “List of deities” spanning 66 cultures and faiths
2. Godchecker has a search feature which allows you to search by attribute. Three relevant ones to this you could try that they have are “sky,” “rain,” & “thunder.”
3. The always useful Encyclopedia Mythica also has a great search feature. It’s strictly a text search though, so just enter whatever word you are looking for.
4. For the truly inspired seeker, Wikipedia even has a section on “Fictional Deities” from books and gaming-systems. (Also check here)

Happy hunting!