Solar Worship

Many ancient cultures worshipped solar deities. Such sun gods tended to be humanised in that they had emotional responses to events and often had back stories involving emotional interactions with other gods or humans.

Some cultures assigned more than one god to representing the sun such as the Egyptians who had Khepri for the rising sun, Atum (or Aten) for the setting sun, and Ra who would ride across the sky at noon. Although the majority of sun gods were male (forming a dichotomy with the often feminised moon), this wasn’t always the case as there were some sun goddesses. I have given an overview of ancient sun deites below and then, afterwards, given more detailed descriptions of the solar cults I believe to have been of most historical importance.

Aztec worship of the sun

The cult of Re

The cult of Helios

Greek worship of the sun was manifested in reverence of the god Helios and, as the god of light, Apollo. Helios best exemplifies a recurring characteristic of sun gods throughout history: the riding of a chariot or boat. Helios rides his chariot across the sky each day, pulled by the horses Pyrois, Aethon, Phlegion and Aeos. It is in this riding of the chariot that Helois was thought to pull the sun, thus creating the sun’s daily rise and fall in to night.

Helios was thought to be the offspring of the titan Hyperion and titaness Theia, and as such was a titan himself. There is debate regarding the prominence of the cult of Helios. It is thought that worship of Helios was strong amongst pre-Hellenic Greek culture, but that the strength of of this worship declined in later periods. It is unclear how different geographical areas of Greek rule worshipped Helios – as different parts seem to give the god varying levels of importance. It seems that the island of Rhodes was one place were Helios was given an important cult, as can be ascertained from the Colossus of Rhodes – a giant staute of Helios supposedly once situated in the bay of Rhodes, although the truth of its existence, as well as the details of its stance, material and size, is unclear.

Helios is most famous for the story regarding his son, Phaeton, which – as I spoke about in the myths section of this website – bares similarities with the myth of Icarus. The repetition of this narrative and the emphasis placed by Greek and, subsequently, Roman culture, on the notion of hubris finds reflection in real life tragedies such as the many shipwrecks which plagued the Greek and Roman era as well as the rise and fall of figures of political power. Helios is also, at times, referred to as Sol.

The cult of Mithras – a Roman deity who appears in historical records in the late 1st century CE until around the 4th century CE – was a major Roman, all male cult, particularly popular with freedmen. Mithras’s temples were always in an underground space, such as a cave, and would feature a relief of Mithras sleighing a bull.

The myth from which the cult stems was made form various literary texts as well as from images in temples. The myth starts with Mithras being born from a rock. After killing a bull, he meets the sun who bows down to him. It is this interaction with the sun in which I am most interested as I think it shows how man’s desire to dominate nature is deep-rooted in the history of many cultures.

After bowing to him, it is said that the sun and Mithras shook hands and ate a selection of bull parts. There are certain ancient monuments which show additional episodes of the myth, but it is this interaction with the sun which most defines Mithras as a deity and idol of worship. Such additional episodes include paintings at Dura Europos,, which follow a strange sequence starting with Jupiter fighting against the giants, then a bearded man lying on a rocky surface (a man who might be Oceanus). These unusual scenes precede the classic Mithras sun myth.