Message #3442

[Europa]

Urtzi

Urtzi, Ortz or Ost seems to have been the name by which Basque referred to the sky and the divinities (normally foreign) that embodied it. In the Middle Ages, the Codex Calixtinus by the French pilgrim Aymericus Picaudus mentions that "they call God Urcia". While no legend has survived on the possible nature of this divinity, many composite Basque names (of weekdays or metereological events) seem to point to Ost, Ortz or Urtzi being the old name of the sky and its divine personifications.