Sharing a fate similar to nordic Tyr's, already in the Rig Veda, Dyaus Pita is all but featureless, appearing in hymns 1.89, 1.90, 1.164, 1.191 and 4.1 in simple invocations.
In RV 1.89.4b, Pita Dyaus "Father Sky" appears alongside Mata Prthivi "Mother Earth".
Details of the myth are sketchy, but Indra seems to have killed his father (RV 4.18.12). Thomas Oberlies tentatively identifies Asura and Dyaus in pre-vedic religion (both appear as Indra's father, but Asura is never associated with Prthivi, so there is a possibility of two conflicting myths).
In art, he appears in two different forms: as a red bull who bellows thunder, or as a black horse adorned with pearls, symbolizing the stars.
Literature
Thomas Oberlies, Die Religion des Rgveda, Wien 1998.
But the Greek sky-god Zeus evidently corresponds to the Hindoo sky-god Dyaus, and this word is derived from a root dyu meaning "to shine." Zeus then, the Greek theos, and the Latin deus, meant originally "the glistening ether." Similarly other Greek names are explained by their counterparts, or cognate words in Sanscrit.
DYAUS was, as we have already indicated, the god of the bright sky, his name being connected with that of Zeus through the root dyu.
The epithet, Dyaus pitar, is simply Zeus pater — Zeus the father; or, as it is spelled in Latin, Jupiter.
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