List of solar deities

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A solar deity is a god or goddess who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it, usually by its perceived power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The following is a list of solar deities:

Contents

African

The Bakongo Cosmogram, depicting Nzambi's four moments of the sun Kongo Cosmogram 3.png
The Bakongo Cosmogram, depicting Nzambi's four moments of the sun

Bakongo mythology

Bantu mythology

Berber/Amazigh mythology

Igbo mythology

Dahomey mythology

Egyptian mythology

Nubian mythology

Zulu mythology

American

Aztec mythology

Brazilian mythology

Inca mythology

Mapuche mythology

Inuit mythology

Maya mythology

Muisca mythology

Other American Indian mythology

Asian

Ainu mythology

Arabian mythology

Armenian mythology

Buddhist mythology

Canaanite mythology

Chinese mythology

Statue of the goddess Xihe charioteering the Sun, being pulled by a dragon, in Hangzhou Xi He.JPG
Statue of the goddess Xihe charioteering the Sun, being pulled by a dragon, in Hangzhou

Elamite

Filipino mythology

Hindu mythology

Surya WLANL - 23dingenvoormusea - Suryabeeldje.jpg
Surya

Hittite mythology

Japanese mythology

Amaterasu emerging out of a cave, bringing sunlight back to the universe. Amaterasu cave - large - 1856.jpeg
Amaterasu emerging out of a cave, bringing sunlight back to the universe.

Mesopotamian mythology

Scythian religion

Tocharian

Turkic mythology

Persian mythology

Zunism

Vietnamese mythology

European

Albanian mythology

Sun (Dielli) and Fire (Zjarri) symbols in Albanian traditional tattoo patterns (19th century). Albanian tattoo patterns - Sun and Fire symbols.png
Sun (Dielli) and Fire (Zjarri) symbols in Albanian traditional tattoo patterns (19th century).

Armenian mythology

Idol of the Saule used for peasant rituals in early 20th century from Paluse, Ignalina District Apeigine saule.jpg
Idol of the Saulė used for peasant rituals in early 20th century from Palūšė, Ignalina District

Baltic mythology

Basque mythology

Celtic mythology

Etruscan mythology

Finnish mythology

Germanic mythology

Greek mythology

Hungarian mythology

Lusitanian mythology

Minoan mythology

Proto-Indo-European mythology

Roman mythology

Sami mythology

Slavic mythology

Oceania

Australian Aboriginal mythology

Māori mythology

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solar deity</span> Sky deity who represents the Sun

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 name Helios. The English word sun derives from Proto-Germanic *sunnǭ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helios</span> Greek god and personification of the Sun

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Helios is the god who personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion and Phaethon. Helios is often depicted in art with a radiant crown and driving a horse-drawn chariot through the sky. He was a guardian of oaths and also the god of sight. Though Helios was a relatively minor deity in Classical Greece, his worship grew more prominent in late antiquity thanks to his identification with several major solar divinities of the Roman period, particularly Apollo and Sol. The Roman Emperor Julian made Helios the central divinity of his short-lived revival of traditional Roman religious practices in the 4th century AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bathala</span> Supreme deity according to the indigenous religious beliefs of the Tagalog people

In the indigenous religion of the ancient Tagalogs, Bathalà/Maykapál was the transcendent Supreme God, the originator and ruler of the universe. He is commonly known and referred to in the modern era as Bathalà, a term or title which, in earlier times, also applied to lesser beings such as personal tutelary spirits, omen birds, comets, and other heavenly bodies which the early Tagalog people believed predicted events. It was after the arrival of the Spanish missionaries in the Philippines in the 16th century that Bathalà /Maykapál came to be identified with the Christian God, hence its synonymy with Diyós. Over the course of the 19th century, the term Bathala was totally replaced by Panginoón (Lord) and Diyós (God). It was no longer used until it was popularized again by Filipinos who learned from chronicles that the Tagalogs' indigenous God was called Bathalà.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippine mythology</span>

Philippine mythology is rooted in the many indigenous Philippine folk religions. Philippine mythology exhibits influence from Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, and Christian traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sól (Germanic mythology)</span> Norse deity

Sól or Sunna is the Sun personified in Germanic mythology. One of the two Old High German Merseburg Incantations, written in the 9th or 10th century CE, attests that Sunna is the sister of Sinthgunt. In Norse mythology, Sól is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bicolano people</span> Ethnic group of the eastern Philippines

The Bicolano people are the fourth-largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. Their native region is commonly referred to as Bicolandia, which comprises the entirety of the Bicol Peninsula and neighboring minor islands, all in the southeast portion of Luzon. Males from the region are often referred to as Bicolano, while Bicolana may be used to refer to females.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Sun in culture</span> Depictions of the Sun in culture

The Sun, as the source of energy and light for life on Earth, has been a central object in culture and religion since prehistory. Ritual solar worship has given rise to solar deities in theistic traditions throughout the world, and solar symbolism is ubiquitous. Apart from its immediate connection to light and warmth, the Sun is also important in timekeeping as the main indicator of the day and the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weather god</span> Deity associated with thunder, rains and storms

A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of one feature of a storm, they will be called after that attribute, such as a rain god or a lightning/thunder god. This singular attribute might then be emphasized more than the generic, all-encompassing term "storm god", though with thunder/lightning gods, the two terms seem interchangeable. They feature commonly in polytheistic religions, especially in Proto-Indo-European ones.

A dawn god or goddess is a deity in a polytheistic religious tradition who is in some sense associated with the dawn. These deities show some relation with the morning, the beginning of the day, and, in some cases, become syncretized with similar solar deities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tagalog religion</span> Indigenous Philippine religion

Tagalog religion mainly consists of Tagalog Austronesian religious elements, supplemented with other elements later obtained from Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Islam. It was contemporaneously referred to by Spanish priests as tagalismo. It is also referred to by some as anitism, after the Tagalog term "anito" meaning "god" or "deity".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solar myths</span> Myths dealing with the sun

Solar myth — mythologization of the Sun and its impact on earthly life; usually closely associated with lunar myths.

*Seh₂ul and *Meh₁not are the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European Sun deity and Moon deity respectively. *Seh₂ul is reconstructed based on the solar deities of the attested Indo-European mythologies, although its gender is disputed, since there are deities of both genders. Likewise, *Meh₁not- is reconstructed based on the lunar deities of the daughter languages, but they differ in regards to their gender.

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