Solar deity

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Solar god
)

Examples of solar deities from different cultures (from top): Ra, Helios, Tōnatiuh and Amaterasu.

A solar deity or sun deity is a

Proto-Germanic *sunnǭ.[1]

Overview

A solar representation on an anthropomorphic stele from Rocher des Doms, France, Chasséen culture, 5th-4th millennia BC.

Old Kingdom theocracy gained influence, early beliefs were incorporated into the expanding popularity of Ra and the Osiris-Horus mythology. Atum became Ra-Atum, the rays of the setting Sun. Osiris became the divine heir to Atum's power on Earth and passed his divine authority to his son, Horus.[2] Other early Egyptian myths imply that the Sun is incorporated with the lioness Sekhmet at night and is reflected in her eyes; or that the Sun is found within the cow Hathor during the night and reborn each morning as her son (bull).[3]

Mesopotamian Shamash played an important role during the Bronze Age, and "my Sun" was eventually used to address royalty. Similarly, South American cultures have a tradition of Sun worship as with the Incan Inti.[4]

In Germanic mythology, the solar deity is

Dyeus.[5]

Solar myth

Three theories exercised great influence on nineteenth and early twentieth century mythography. The theories were the "solar mythology" of

J. F. McLennan.[6]

Müller's "solar mythology" was born from the study of Indo-European languages. Of them, Müller believed Archaic Sanskrit was the closest to the language spoken by the Aryans. Using the Sanskrit names for deities as a base, he applied Grimm's law to names for similar deities from different Indo-European groups to compare their etymological relationships to one another. In the comparison, Müller saw the similarities between the names and used these etymological similarities to explain the similarities between their roles as deities. Through the study, Müller concluded that the Sun having many different names led to the creation of multiple solar deities and their mythologies that were passed down from one group to another.[7]

R. F. Littledale criticized the Sun myth theory, pointing out that by his own principles, Max Müller was himself only a solar myth. Alfred Lyall delivered another attack on the same theory's assumption that tribal gods and heroes, such as those of Homer, were only reflections of the Sun myth by proving that the gods of certain Rajput clans were actual warriors who founded the clans a few centuries ago, and were the ancestors of the present chieftains.[6]

Solar vessels and Sun chariots

Solar boats

Ra in his barque
Germany
, c. 1800–1600 BC

The Sun was sometimes envisioned as traveling through the sky in a boat. A prominent example is the

ancient Egyptian mythology.[8] The Neolithic concept of a "solar barge" (also "solar bark", "solar barque", "solar boat" and "sun boat", a mythological representation of the Sun riding in a boat) is found in the later myths of ancient Egypt, with Ra and Horus. Several Egyptian kings were buried with ships that may have been intended to symbolize the solar barque,[9] including the Khufu ship that was buried at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza.[10]

Heracles in the golden cup-boat of the sun god Helios, 480 BC.

Solar boats and similar vessels also appear in Indo-European mythologies, such as a 'hundred-oared ship' of Surya in the Rig Veda, the golden boat of Saulė in Baltic mythology, and the golden bowl of Helios in Greek mythology.[11][12] Numerous depictions of solar boats are known from the Bronze Age in Europe.[13][14][15] Possible solar boat depictions have also been identified in Neolithic petroglyphs from the Megalithic culture in western Europe,[16] and in Mesolithic petroglyphs from northern Europe.[17]

Examples of solar vessels include:

  • Neolithic petroglyphs which are interpreted as depicting solar barges.
  • The many early Egyptian goddesses that were seen as sun deities, and the later gods
    solar barge
    . In Egyptian myths of the afterlife, Ra rides in an underground channel from west to east every night so that he can rise in the east the next morning.
  • The
    Unetice culture, which is thought to show a depiction of a gold solar boat.[18]
  • Gold lunulae associated with the Bell Beaker culture, c. 2400–2000 BC, thought to represent solar boats.[19]
  • Nordic Bronze Age petroglyphs, including those found in Tanumshede, often contain barges and sun crosses in different constellations. Solar boat imagery also appears on bronze razors from the period.
  • Miniature gold boats from Nors in Denmark, dating from the Nordic Bronze Age.[20]
  • The Caergwrle Bowl from Wales, dating from the British Bronze Age, c. 1300 BC.[21]
  • Solar boat motifs depicted on bronze artefacts from the Urnfield culture and Lusatian culture, c. 1300–500 BC.
  • Depictions of solar boats on Iron Age Celtic artefacts, such as the Petrie Crown from Ireland (1st century AD), and ornaments on the
    Vix grave wagon from France (500 BC).[22][23][24]

Solar chariots

Helios in his chariot, c. 430 BC
The Trundholm sun chariot, Denmark, c. 1400 BC

The concept of the 'solar chariot' is younger than that of the solar barge and is typically Indo-European, corresponding with the Indo-European expansion after the invention of the chariot in the 2nd millennium BC.

Proto-Indo-European religion features a 'solar chariot' or 'sun chariot' with which the Sun traverses the sky.[26]

Gold boat model mounted on chariot wheels, from the tomb of queen Ahhotep, c. 1550 BC.[27]

Chariots were introduced to Egypt in the Hyksos period, and seen as solar vehicles associated with the sun god in the subsequent New Kingdom period.[28] A gold solar boat model from the tomb of Queen Ahhotep, dating from the beginning of the New Kingdom (c. 1550 BC), was mounted on four-spoked chariot wheels.[29] Similarities have been noted with the Trundholm Sun Chariot from Denmark, dating from c. 1500–1400 BC, which was also mounted on four-spoked wheels.[18]

Examples of solar chariots include:

In Chinese culture, the sun chariot is associated with the passage of time. For instance, in the poem Suffering from the Shortness of Days, Li He of the Tang dynasty is hostile towards the legendary dragons that drew the sun chariot as a vehicle for the continuous progress of time.[33] The following is an excerpt from the poem:[33]

I will cut off the dragon's feet, chew the dragon's flesh,
so that they can't turn back in the morning or lie down at night.
Left to themselves the old won't die; the young won't cry.

The Sun was also compared to a wheel, for example, in Greek hēlíou kúklos, Sanskrit suryasya cakram, and Anglo-Saxon sunnan hweogul, all theorized to be reflexes of

PIE *swelyosyo kukwelos. Scholarship also points to a possible reflex in poetic expressions in Ukrainian folk songs.[a][citation needed
]

Gender

Goddess Amaterasu

Solar deities are often thought of as male (and

Malina), and Miwok (He'-koo-lās); and in Asia among the Japanese (Amaterasu).[35]

The

eighteenth dynasty on top of the other solar deities, before the "aberration" was stamped out and the old pantheon re-established. When male deities became associated with the sun in that culture, they began as the offspring of a mother (except Ra, King of the Gods who gave birth to himself).[citation needed
]

Africa

The Kongo Cosmogram

Kongo

In Kongo religion, Nzambi Mpungu is the Sky Father and god of the Sun, while that his female counterpart, Nzambici, is Sky Mother and the god of the Moon and Earth.[36] The Sun is very significant to Bakongo people, who believe that the position of the sun marks the different seasons of a Kongo person's life as they transition between the four moments of life: conception (musoni), birth (kala), maturity (tukula), and death (luvemba). The Kongo cosmogram, a sacred symbol in Bakongo culture, depicts these moments of the sun.[36][37]

Ancient Egypt

Sun worship was prevalent in

Bast, Bat, and Menhit. First Hathor, and then Isis, give birth to and nurse Horus and Ra, respectively. Hathor the horned-cow is one of the 12 daughters of Ra, gifted with joy and is a wet-nurse to Horus.[38]

Ra Enthroned in the Tomb of Roy

From at least the

5th Dynasty
, when open-air solar temples became common.

In the

Akhenaton.[39][40]

The Sun's movement across the sky represents a struggle between the Pharaoh's soul and an avatar of Osiris. Ra travels across the sky in his solar-boat; at dawn he drives away the god of chaos,

N27
Akhet (horizon)
in hieroglyphs
Aker guarding the horizon

Rituals to the god Amun, who became identified with the sun god Ra, were often carried out on the top of temple

Philae, the pharaoh is shown slaying his enemies in the presence of Isis, Horus, and Hathor.[45]

In the

Amun-Ra, the reigning sun god of Akhenaten's own region. Unlike other deities, Aten did not have multiple forms. His only image was a disk—a symbol of the Sun.[46]

Soon after Akhenaten's death, worship of the traditional deities was reestablished by the religious leaders (Ay the High-Priest of Amen-Ra, mentor of Tutankhaten/Tutankhamen) who had adopted the Aten during the reign of Akhenaten.[47]

Additional solar gods

The

Nyame, and the Dogon deity of creation, Nommo.[citation needed
]

Asia and Europe

Yazidism

In

Feast of the Assembly, a ceremonial bull sacrifice is performed in front of his shrine at Lalish.[48][49][50][51] Yazidi religious texts refer to the light of the sun as a manifestation of God's light, therefore, Yazidis direct their faces in the sun's direction while praying. There are daily Yazidi prayers that are recited during the daytime, divided into three main phases of the day, the morning prayers include Dua Şifaqê (The Dawn prayer), Dua Sibê (The Morning prayer), Duaya Rojhelatî (The Sunrise prayer). For the noon there is Dua Nîvro (The Noon prayer) and at evening there is the Duaya Hêvarî (The Evening prayer).[51]

Armenian mythology

In Armenian mythology and in the vicinity of Carahunge, the ancient site of interest in the field of archaeoastronomy, people worshiped a powerful deity or intelligence called Ara, embodied as the sun (Ar[52] or Arev). The ancient Armenians called themselves "children of the sun".[53] (Russian and Armenian archaeoastronomers have suggested that at Carahunge seventeen of the stones still standing were associated with observations of sunrise or sunset at the solstices and equinoxes.[54])

Baltic mythology

Those who practice

deities in Baltic mythology and traditions.[55]

Celtic mythology

The sun in

Belenos, Grannos, and Lug, were masculine.[59][60][61]

In Irish, the name of the Sun, Grian, is feminine. The figure known as Áine is generally assumed to have been either synonymous with her, or her sister, assuming the role of Summer Sun while Grian was the Winter Sun.[62] Similarly, Étaín has at times been considered to be another theonym associated with the Sun; if this is the case, then the pan-Celtic Epona might also have been originally solar in nature,[62] though Roman syncretism pushed her towards a lunar role.[citation needed]

The British

Sulevia, which is more widespread and probably unrelated to Sulis,[65] is sometimes taken to have suggested a pan-Celtic role as a solar goddess.[56]

The Welsh Olwen has at times been considered a vestige of the local sun goddess, in part due to the possible etymological association[66] with the wheel and the colors gold, white and red.[56]

Brighid has at times been argued as having had a solar nature, fitting her role as a goddess of fire and light.[56]

Chinese mythology

Statue of the sun goddess Xihe charioteering the sun, being pulled by a dragon, in Hangzhou

In Chinese mythology (cosmology), there were originally ten suns in the sky, who were all brothers. They were supposed to emerge one at a time as commanded by the Jade Emperor. They were all very young and loved to fool around. Once they decided to all go into the sky to play, all at once. This made the world too hot for anything to grow. A hero named Hou Yi, honored to this day, shot down nine of them with a bow and arrow to save the people of the Earth.[67]

ancient Shu people. The center is a sun pattern with twelve points around which four birds fly in the same counterclockwise direction, Shang dynasty

In another myth, a solar eclipse was said to be caused by a magical dog or dragon biting off a piece of the Sun. The referenced event is said to have occurred around 2136 BC; two royal astronomers, Ho and Hi, were executed for failing to predict the eclipse. There was a tradition in China to make lots of loud celebratory sounds during a solar eclipse to scare the sacred beast away.[68]

The Deity of the Sun in Chinese mythology is Ri Gong Tai Yang Xing Jun (Tai Yang Gong/Grandfather Sun) or Star Lord of the Solar Palace, Lord of the Sun. In some mythologies, Tai Yang Xing Jun is believed to be Hou Yi.[citation needed]

Tai Yang Xing Jun is usually depicted with the Star Lord of the Lunar Palace, Lord of the Moon, Yue Gong Tai Yin Xing Jun (Tai Yin Niang Niang/Lady Tai Yin). Worship of the

Chinese popular culture.[69]

Germanic mythology

In

Sunna. In the Norse traditions, Sól rode through the sky on her chariot every day, pulled by two horses named Arvak and Alsvid. Sól also was called Sunna and Frau Sunne.[citation needed
]

First century historian

Suiones [tribe]" a sea was located where the sun maintained its brilliance from its rising to its sunset, and that "[the] popular belief" was that "the sound of its emergence was audible" and "the form of its horses visible".[70][71][72]

Greco-Roman world

Hellenistic mythology

In

Ancient Greeks also associated the Sun with Apollo, the god of enlightenment. Apollo (along with Helios) was sometimes depicted as driving a fiery chariot.[73]

The Greek astronomer Thales of Miletus described the scientific properties of the Sun and Moon, making their godship unnecessary.[74] Anaxagoras was arrested in 434 BC and banished from Athens for denying the existence of a solar or lunar deity.[75] The titular character of Sophocles' Electra refers to the Sun as "All-seeing". Hermetic author Hermes Trismegistus calls the Sun "God Visible".[76]

The

Cretans, who depicted the sun as a bull.[citation needed
]

Roman mythology

During the

festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun (or Dies Natalis Solis Invicti) was celebrated on the winter solstice—the "rebirth" of the Sun—which occurred on 25 December of the Julian calendar. In late antiquity, the theological centrality of the Sun in some Imperial religious systems suggests a form of a "solar monotheism". The religious commemorations on 25 December were replaced under Christian domination of the Empire with the birthday of Christ.[78]

Modern influence

Copernicus
describing the Sun mythologically, drawing from Greco-Roman examples:

In the middle of all sits the Sun on his throne. In this loveliest of temples, could we place the luminary in any more appropriate place so that he may light the whole simultaneously. Rightly is he called the Lamp, the Mind, the Ruler of the Universe: Hermes Trismegistus entitles him the God Visible. Sophocles' Electra names him the All-seeing. Thus does the Sun sit as upon a royal dais ruling his children the planets which circle about him.[76]

Pre-Islamic Arabia

The concept of the sun in

Himyar, and possibly exalted by the Sabaeans .[80][unreliable source?][81][82]

Americas

Aztec mythology

Huitzilopochtli
, the Aztec god of the sun and war.

In

Tollan (heaven). He was also known as the fifth sun, because the Aztecs believed that he was the sun that took over when the fourth sun was expelled from the sky. According to their cosmology, each sun was a god with its own cosmic era. According to the Aztecs, they were still in Tonatiuh's era. According to the Aztec creation myth, the god demanded human sacrifice as tribute and without it would refuse to move through the sky. The Aztecs were fascinated by the Sun and carefully observed it, and had a solar calendar similar to that of the Maya. Many of today's remaining Aztec monuments have structures aligned with the Sun.[83]

In the

]

Incan mythology

The Emperor Pachacútec worshiping Inti in the temple Coricancha, drawing by Martín de Murúa of 1613.

Inti is the ancient Incan sun god. He is revered as the national patron of the Inca state. Although most consider Inti the sun god, he is more appropriately viewed as a cluster of solar aspects, since the Inca divided his identity according to the stages of the sun.[citation needed] Inti is represented as a golden disk with rays and a human face.

The Inca dedicated many ceremonies to the Sun in order to ensure the Sapa Inca's welfare.[84] The Incas would set aside large quantities of natural and human resources throughout the empire for Inti. Each conquered province was supposed to dedicate a third of their lands and herds to Inti as mandated by the Inca. Each major province would also have a Sun Temple in which male and female priests would serve.[84]

World religions

Christianity

Horus left and Jesus right, both presented as "solar messiahs" in Zeitgeist: the Movie.

The comparison of Christ with the astronomical

Malachi 4[86] "the fathers, from Justin downward, and nearly all the earlier commentators understand Christ, who is supposed to be described as the rising sun".[87] The New Testament itself contains a hymn fragment in Ephesians 5: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."[88] Clement of Alexandria wrote of "the Sun of the Resurrection, he who was born before the dawn, whose beams give light".[89]

The documentary

Judas schemes with the Sanhedrin to arrest Jesus by kissing him.[91] In the metaphorical sense, as the sun exited Libra in late autumn it enters Scorpio to be "kissed" by its stinger, which signifies the sun getting weaker as winter approaches.[92][93][94] The three days after December 21 are the darkest as the sun is low in the sky, under Sagittarius's arrow, and therefore it is allegorized that, at this time, Jesus (the sun) dies for three days.[95] After December 25, the Sun moves 1 degree north, which indicate longer days or Jesus's resurrection.[96]

American theosophist

Psalm's verses such as, "Our God is a living fire," "Our God is a consuming fire", "The Lord God is a sun", in addition to Jesus's "Christ will shine upon thee!", "I am come to send fire on earth" and "I am the light of the world".[97]

Christianization of Natalis Invicti

According to one hypothesis about Christmas, the date was set to 25 December because it was the date of the festival of Sol Invictus. The idea became popular especially in the 18th[98][99] and 19th centuries.[100][101][102]

The

Philocalian calendar of AD 354 marks a festival of Natalis Invicti on 25 December. There is limited evidence that the festival was celebrated at around the time before the mid-4th century.[103][104]

The earliest-known example of the idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of

Jacob Bar-Salibi. The scribe who added it wrote: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day."[105][106][107][108]

Christian iconography

St. Peter's in the Vatican
, which some interpret as representing Christ.

The charioteer in the

Saint Peter's Basilica and in an early-4th-century catacomb fresco.[110] The nimbus of the figure under Saint Peter's Basilica is rayed, as in traditional pre-Christian representations.[110] Clement of Alexandria had spoken of Christ driving his chariot across the sky.[111] This interpretation is doubted by others: "Only the cross-shaped nimbus makes the Christian significance apparent".[112] and the figure is seen by some simply as a representation of the sun with no explicit religious reference whatever, pagan or Christian.[113]

Hinduism

Worship of Surya

The Hindu solar deity Surya being driven across the sky in his chariot

The ritual of

Surya Namaskār, performed by Hindus
, is an elaborate set of hand gestures and body movements, designed to greet and revere the Sun.

In India, at

Sri Suryanarayana
Swami, the deity at the temple.

Hindi: छठ, also called Dala Chhath) is an ancient Hindu festival dedicated to Surya, unique to Bihar, Jharkhand and the Terai. The major festival is also celebrated in the northeast region of India, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Chhattisgarh. Hymns to the Sun can be found in the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism. Practiced in different parts of India, the worship of the Sun has been described in the Rigveda. In the state of Odisha, there is another festival called Samba Dashami
which celebrates Surya.

The sun is prayed to by South Indians during the harvest festival.[114]

In

Tamil people.[116]

In other parts of India, the festival is celebrated as

New religious movements

Solar deities are revered in many

new religious movements
.

Thelema

Theosophy

The primary local deity in theosophy is the Solar Logos, "the consciousness of the sun".[119]

Other

In Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, folklorist Charles Leland alleges that a pagan group of witches in Tuscany, Italy viewed Lucifer as the god of the Sun and consort of the goddess Diana, whose daughter is the messiah Aradia.[120]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Колесом сонечко на гору йде ("The Sun goes up, as a wheel") and Горою сонечко колує ("Above (us) the Sun is wheeling/rotating").[34]
  2. ^ see Colossus of Rhodes.

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  102. ^ Text at [2] Parts 6 and 12 respectively.
  103. ^ (cited in Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p. 155)
  104. ), p. 45
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Bibliography

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