Solar deity

A solar deity is a god that represents the sun or its different parts.

These beings are usually linked to great power and strength. People have found ways to worship the sun throughout most of recorded history. The word "sun" comes from an old Germanic word called *sunnǭ. In many languages, the word for sun changes its gender. In French and Spanish, the sun is masculine. In German, the word for sun is feminine.

This shows how many different ways people have thought about the sun.

Many ancient stories describe how the sun moves across the sky. One common idea is that the sun travels in a boat.

In ancient Egypt, the god Ra used a solar barque to travel. He might ride through an underground channel at night to rise again in the east. Other cultures had similar ideas about sun boats. The Greek god Helios is sometimes linked to a golden bowl. In Baltic mythology, the goddess Saulė uses a golden boat.

Even in the Bronze Age, people made art showing these sun vessels.

Another way to imagine the sun is through a chariot. A chariot is a vehicle with wheels pulled by animals.

This idea became popular after people invented the chariot in the second millennium BC. The Greek god Helios is often shown riding in a chariot. In Norse mythology, the goddess Sól also uses a chariot. The Trundholm sun chariot from Denmark is a famous example from the Nordic Bronze Age.

In Hindu tradition, the deity Surya rides a chariot pulled by seven horses.

Solar deities can be men or women. While many people think of sun gods as male, many traditions have sun goddesses.

For example, Amaterasu is a sun goddess in Japanese culture. The Lithuanians and Latvians also have sun goddesses named Saulė and Saule. In Egypt, goddesses like Hathor and Sekhmet were linked to the sun.

In the Kongo religion, the sun is part of the Sky Father, Nzambi Mpungu. These different names show the many ways people view the sky.

Researchers have tried to study why these myths are so similar. Max Müller used the study of languages to look for links between deities.

He believed that many different names for the sun led to many different myths. He looked at how names changed between different groups of people. However, other thinkers like Alfred Lyall disagreed with these ideas. He showed that some gods were actually real people from history. The study of the sun helps us see how humans have wondered about the world for thousands of years.