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A solar deity or sun deity is a deity who represents the Sun or an aspect thereof. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The Sun is sometimes referred to by its Latin name Sol or by its Greek language name Helios. The English language word sun derives from Proto-Germanic * sunnǭ.In most romance languages the word for "sun" is masculine (e.g. le soleil in French, el sol in Spanish, Il Sole in Italian). In most Germanic languages it is feminine (e.g. Die Sonne in German). In Proto-Indo-European, its gender was inanimate.
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 Inca Empire Inti.
In Germanic mythology, the solar deity is Sol; in Vedas, Surya; and in Greek, Helios (occasionally referred to as Titan) and (sometimes) as Apollo. In Proto-Indo-European mythology the sun appears to be a multilayered figure manifested as a deity but also perceived as the eye of the sky father Dyeus.
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 . 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 Etymology 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.
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.
Solar boats and similar vessels also appear in Indo-European mythologies, such as a 'hundred-oared ship' of Surya in the Rigveda, the golden boat of Saulė in Baltic mythology, and the golden bowl of Helios in Greek mythology. Numerous depictions of solar boats are known from the Bronze Age in Europe. (2022). 9780714123493, British Museum Press. ISBN 9780714123493 (2025). 9783926982957, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. ISBN 9783926982957 Possible solar boat depictions have also been identified in Neolithic Europe petroglyphs from the Megalith in western Europe, and in Mesolithic petroglyphs from northern Europe.
Examples of solar vessels include:
Chariots were introduced to Egypt in the Hyksos period, and were seen as solar vehicles associated with the sun god in the subsequent New Kingdom period. A gold solar boat model from the tomb of Ahhotep II, dating from the beginning of the New Kingdom (), was mounted on four-spoked chariot wheels. Similarities have been noted with the Trundholm Sun Chariot from Denmark, dating from –1400 BC, which was also mounted on four-spoked wheels.
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 that drew the sun chariot as a vehicle for the continuous progress of time. The following is an excerpt from the poem:
The cobra (of Pharaoh, son of Ra), the (daughter of Ra), and the cow (daughter of Ra), are the dominant symbols of the most ancient Egyptian deities. They were female and carried their relationship to the sun atop their heads, and their cults remained active throughout the history of the culture. Later another sun god (Aten) was established in 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).
From at least the 4th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, the Sun was worshiped as the deity Ra (meaning simply the sun), and portrayed as a falcon-headed god surmounted by the solar disk, and surrounded by a serpent. Ra supposedly gave warmth to the living body, symbolized as an ankh: a "☥" shaped amulet with a looped upper half. The ankh, it was believed, was surrendered with death, but could be preserved in the corpse with appropriate mummification and funerary cult. The supremacy of Ra in the Egyptian pantheon was at its highest with the Fifth Dynasty, when open-air solar temples became common.
In the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Ra lost some of his Greatness to Osiris, lord of the west, and judge of the dead. In the New Empire period, the Sun became identified with the dung beetle, whose spherical ball of dung was identified with the Sun. In the form of the sun disc Aten, the Sun had a brief resurgence during the Amarna Period when it again became the preeminent, if not only, divinity for the pharaoh, Akhenaten. (2025). 9780521848558, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521848558 (2025). 9780486411385, Dover Publications. ISBN 9780486411385
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, Apep. (2025). 9780674015173, Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. . ISBN 9780674015173 (2025). 9780674015173, Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. . ISBN 9780674015173 The "solarisation" of several local gods (Khnum-Ra, Min-Ra, Amun-Ra) reached its peak in the period of the Fifth Dynasty.
Rituals to the god Amun, who became identified with the sun god Ra, were often carried out on the top of temple pylons. A pylon mirrored the hieroglyph for 'horizon' or akhet, which was a depiction of two hills "between which the sun rose and set",Wilkinson, op. cit., p.195 associated with recreation and rebirth. On the first pylon of the temple of Isis at Philae, the pharaoh is shown slaying his enemies in the presence of Isis, Horus, and Hathor.
In the Eighteenth Dynasty, the earliest-known monotheistic head of state, Akhenaten, changed the polytheistic religion of Egypt to a monotheistic one, Atenism. All other deities were replaced by the Aten, including 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.
Soon after Akhenaten's death, worship of the traditional deities was reestablished by the religious leaders (Ay the High-Priest of Amun-Ra, mentor of Tutankhaten/Tutankhamen) who had adopted the Aten during the reign of Akhenaten.
Albanians were firstly described in written sources as worshippers of the Sun and the Moon by German humanist Sebastian Franck in 1534, but the Sun and the Moon have been preserved as sacred elements of Albanian tradition since antiquity. Illyrians material culture shows that the Sun was the chief cult object of the Illyrian religion.; ; ; ; . Finding correspondences with Albanian folk beliefs and practices, the Illyrian Sun-deity is figuratively represented on Iron Age plaques from Lake Shkodra as the god of the sky and lightning, also associated with the fire altar where he throws lightning bolts. The symbolization of the cult of the Sun, which is often combined with the Lunar phase Moon, is commonly found in a variety of contexts of Albanian folk art, including traditional tattooing, grave art, jewellery, embroidery, and house carvings.; ; ; ; ; . Solemn oaths (Besa), good omens, and curse formulas, involve and are addressed to, or taken by, the Sun.; ; . Prayers to the Sun, ritual bonfires, and animal sacrifices have been common practices performed by Albanians during the ritual pilgrimages on mountain tops.; ; .
In Albanian pagan beliefs and mythology the Sun is a personified male deity, and the Moon (Hëna) is his female counterpart. In pagan beliefs the fire hearth (vatra e zjarrit) is the symbol of fire as the offspring of the Sun. In some folk tales, myths and legends the Sun and the Moon are regarded as husband and wife, also appearing as the parents of E Bija e Hënës dhe e Diellit ("the Daughter of the Moon and the Sun"); in others the Sun and the Moon are regarded as brother and sister, but in this case they are never considered consorts. Nëna e Diellit ("the Mother of the Sun" or "the Sun's Mother") also appears as a personified deity in Albanian folk beliefs and tales.; ; ; ; .
Albanian beliefs, myths and legends are organized around the dualistic struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, which cyclically produces the Cosmos renewal.; ; ; The most famous representation of it is the constant battle between drangue and kulshedra, which is seen as a mythological extension of the cult of the Sun and the Moon, widely observed in Albanian traditional art.; ; ; ; ; ; . In Albanian traditions, kulshedra is also fought by the Daughter of the Moon and the Sun, who uses her light power against pride and evil, or by other heroic characters marked in their bodies by the symbols of celestial objects, such as Zjermi (), who notably is born with the Sun on his forehead.
In Irish language, 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. 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.
The British Sulis has a name cognate with that of other Indo-European solar deities such as the Greek Helios and Indic Surya,Delamarre, Xavier, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise, Errance, 2003, p. 287Zair, Nicholas, Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Celtic, Brill, 2012, p. 120 and bears some solar traits like the association with the eye as well as epithets associated with light. The theonym Sulevia, which is more widespread and probably unrelated to Sulis,Nicole Jufer & Thierry Luginbühl (2001). Les dieux gaulois : répertoire des noms de divinités celtiques connus par l'épigraphie, les textes antiques et la toponymie. Editions Errance, Paris. pp. 15, 64. is sometimes taken to have suggested a pan-Celtic role as a solar goddess.
The Welsh mythology Olwen has at times been considered a vestige of the local sun goddess, in part due to the possible etymological associationSimon Andrew Stirling, The Grail: Relic of an Ancient Religion, 2015 with the wheel and the colors gold, white and red.
Brighid has at times been argued as having had a solar nature, fitting her role as a goddess of fire and light.
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.
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.
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 moon goddess Chang'e and her festivals are very popular among followers of Chinese folk religion and Taoism. The goddess and her holy days are ingrained in Chinese popular culture.
First century historian Tacitus, in his book Germania, mentioned that "beyond the 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".
In Norway, Sun worship was common until the last century, usually as a simple ritual of leaving butter in a saucer on a windowsill, so the Sun can melt it, when its light comes into the window. Alternatively, the glass on the window itself could be smeared by butter, or the butter could be put on the roof or wall. Similar rituals are attested among the Sami people. Usually, the ritual was connected to the day, when the sun shows up from horizon or mountain (or in the eastern window of the main house of the farm) after the period of polar night, when there is no sun at all, or the sun is so low, that it is hidden behind mountains. Because of these reasons, the date of the ritual varied from farm to farm, or wasn’t practiced at all (e.g. in Oslo area, which is flat and has no real polar night).
A ritual of greating the first sun after the polar night while standing on top of a mountain is mentioned by Procopius in his description of the Northerners, but is also attested in modern time in area of Glomfjord, and a similar one in southern Vest-Agder. Another ritual is known from southern Vest-Agder, when small round stones are supposed to be taken up to a mountain top and put in a heap as an offering to the Spring Sun. The stone offering heaps itself are very common in Scandinavia, but only in Vest-Agder they are connected to the Sun worship.
Among famous people, who were practicing the butter-in-saucer ritual were poets Ivar Mortensson-Egnund and .
The Greek astronomer Thales of Miletus described the scientific properties of the Sun and Moon, making their godship unnecessary. Anaxagoras was arrested in 434 BC and banished from Athens for denying the existence of a solar or lunar deity. Electra of Sophocles' Electra refers to the Sun as "All-seeing". Hermeticism author Hermes Trismegistus calls the Sun "God Visible".
The Minotaur has been interpreted as a solar deity (as Moloch or Chronos), including by Arthur Bernard Cook, who considers both Minos and Minotaur as aspects of the sun god of the Cretans, who depicted the sun as a bull.
Much more ancient was the cult of Sol Indiges, supposed to have been introduced among Roman deities by the Sabines at the times of Titus Tatius.
In the Aztec calendar, Tonatiuh is the lord of the thirteen days from 1 Death to 13 Flint. The preceding thirteen days are ruled over by Chalchiuhtlicue, and the following thirteen by Tlaloc.
The Inca dedicated many ceremonies to the Sun in order to ensure the Sapa Inca's welfare. 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.
The pseudodocumentary (2007) asserts that Judas Iscariot is an allegory of Scorpius (with Jesus being a personification of the sun passing through the twelve constellations). When the sun transits Scorpio, Judas schemes with the Sanhedrin to arrest Jesus by kissing him. 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.Nicholas Campion, The Book of World Horoscopes, The Wessex Astrologer, 1999, p. 489 clearly refers to both conventions adopted by many astrologers basing the Ages on either the zodiacal constellations or the sidereal signs. The three days after 21 December 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. After 25 December, the Sun moves 1 degree north, which indicate longer days or Jesus's resurrection.
American theosophist Alvin Boyd Kuhn had postulated that Jesus or the Abrahamic God is a sun god, with other figures in the Old Testament such as Samson (whose name means "sun" in Hebrew), King David, Solomon, Saul (meaning soul, or sol, the sun), Abraham, Moses, Gideon and Jephtha also being solar allegories. To corroborate his argument about God being a solar deity, Kuhn cites the 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". This is a reprint; Kuhn died in 1963.
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.Wallraff 2001: 174–177. Hoey (1939: 480) writes: "An inscription of unique interest from the reign of Licinius embodies the official prescription for the annual celebration by his army of a festival of Sol Invictus on December 19". The inscription (Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 8940) actually prescribes an annual offering to Sol on November 18 (die XIV Kal(endis) Decemb(ribus), i.e. on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of December).Text at [2] Parts 6 and 12 respectively.
The earliest-known example of the idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December because it was the date of an already existing festival of the Sol Invictus was expressed in an annotation to a manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian bishop 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."(cited in Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p. 155) 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia: Christmas: Natalis Invicti
In Tamil Nadu, the Tamil people worship the sun god during the Tamil culture month of Tamil calendar, after a year of crop farming. The month is known as the harvesting month and people pay respects to the sun on the first day of the Thai month known as Thai pongal, or Pongal, which is a four-day celebration. It is one of the few indigenous worships by the Tamil people.
In other parts of India, the festival is celebrated as Makar Sankranti and is mostly worshiped by Hindu diaspora.
In Thelema, Ra-Hoor-Khuit represents the active, warlike aspect of the solar deity Horus, embodying the principles of strength and power. The Stele of Revealing, a funerary tablet from the 26th dynasty of Egypt, plays a central role in Crowley's cosmology, symbolizing the New Aeon of Horus. This Aeon is characterized by the themes of individualism, self-realization, and the discovery of one's True Will.
One of the key practices in Thelema is the daily performance of Liber Resh vel Helios, a set of solar adorations composed by Crowley. These rituals are performed at dawn, noon, sunset, and midnight, each directed towards different aspects of the Sun—Ra, Hathor, Atum, and Khepri, respectively. The practice aims to align the practitioner with the natural cycles of the Sun and to integrate the physical and spiritual dimensions of existence in accordance with Thelemic principles.
The adoration of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and the performance of Liber Resh are intended to serve as daily reminders of the central Thelemic tenet, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." By engaging in these rituals, Thelemites seek to harmonize their personal will with the divine will, achieving greater spiritual enlightenment and alignment with the cosmic order.
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