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A solar deity is a
* Nzambi Mpungu, Kongo god of the Sun and creation
* Magec,
* Mawu,
* Apedemak, the Meroitic god of war and sometimes depicted as the god the Sun
* uMvelinqangi, Xhosa and
*
*
*
*Init-init: the Itneg god of the Sun married to the mortal Aponibolinayen; during the day, he leaves his house to shine light on the world
*Chal-chal: the Bontok god of the Sun whose son's head was cut off by Kabigat; aided the god Lumawig in finding a spouse
*Mapatar: the Ifugao sun deity of the sky in charge of daylight
*Sun God: the Ibaloi deity who pushed up the skyworld and pushed down the underworld, creating earth, after he was hit by a man's arrow during the war between the peoples of the skyworld and the underworld
*Elag: the Bugkalot deity of the Sun, worshiped with the moon and stars; has a magnificent house in the sky realm called Gacay; retreats to his home during nights; giver of light and growth
*Apo Init: the Ilocano deity of the sun
*Amman: the Ilocano god of the Sun, where the sun is his eye
*Agueo: the morose and taciturn Pangasinense sun god who is obedient to his father, Ama; lives in a palace of light
*Algao: the Aeta Sun god who battled the giant turtle Bacobaco
*Mangetchay: also called Mangatia; the Kapampangan supreme deity who created life on earth in remembrance of his dead daughter; lives in the Sun; in other versions, she is the creator and net-weaver of the heavens
*Aring Sinukûan: the Kapampangan Sun god of war and death, taught the early inhabitants the industry of metallurgy, wood cutting, rice culture and even waging war; lives in Mount Arayat, and later included a female form
*Apolaki: the Tagalog god of sun and warriors; son of Anagolay and Dumakulem;Jocano, F. L. (1969). Philippine Mythology. Quezon City: Capitol Publishing House Inc. sometimes referred as son of Bathala and brother of Mayari; ruler of the world during daytime
*Quadruple Deities: the four childless naked Tau-buid Mangyan deities, composed of two gods who come from the Sun and two goddesses who come from the upper part of the river; summoned using the paragayan or diolang plates
*Adlao: the Bicolano son of Dagat and Paros; joined Daga's rebellion and died; his body became the sun; in another myth, he was alive and during a battle, he cut one of Bulan's arm and hit Bulan's eyes, where the arm was flattened and became the earth, while Bulan's tears became the rivers and seas
*Unnamed God: a Bicolano Sun god who fell in love with the mortal, Rosa; refused to light the world until his father consented to their marriage; he afterwards visited Rosa, but forgetting to remove his powers over fire, he accidentally burned Rosa's whole village until nothing but hot springs remained
*Sanghid: the Waray giant who wove cloth on a gold loom with supernatural speed; has the power to move back the Sun
*Liadlao: the gold-bodied Bisaya son of Lidagat and Lihangin; killed by Kaptan's rage during the great revolt; his body became the Sun
*Adlaw: the Bisaya Sun deity worshiped by the good
*Launsina: the Capiznon goddess of the Sun, Moon, stars, and seas, and the most beloved because people seek forgiveness from her
*Magrakad: the Tagbanwa god found at exactly noontime on the other side of the Sun; gives the warmth which sustains life and, when the people are ill, carries away sicknessFox, R. B. (1982). Religion and Society Among the Tagbanuas of Palawan Island, Philippines. Manila: National Museum.
*Tumangkuyun: wash and keep clean the trunks of the two sacred cardinal trees in Sidpan and Babatan by using the blood of those who have died in epidemics; the blood he uses causes the colors of the sunrise and sunset
*Libtakan: the Manobo god of sunrise, sunset, and good weather
*Unnamed Gods: the Bagobo gods whose fire create smoke that becomes the white clouds, while the Sun creates yellow clouds that make the colors of the rainbow
*Kadaw La Sambad: one of the two T'boli supreme deities; married to Bulon La Mogoaw; lives in the seventh layer of the universe
*Lageay Lengkuos: the greatest of Teduray heroes and a shaman (beliyan) who made the earth and forests; the only one who could pass the magnet stone in the straight between the big and little oceans; inverted the directions where east became west, inverted the path of the Sun, and made the water into land and land into water
*Sun Deity: the divine Maranao being depicted in an anthropomorphic form as a flaming young man; angels serve as his charioteers
*
*
* The Zunbil dynasty and the subjects of Zabulistan worshiped the Sun, which they called Zun. They believed that the Sun was the god of justice, the force of good in the world and, consequently, the being that drove out the darkness and allowed man to live another day.
* Nap Király, the Hungarian god of sun who rides his silver fur horse everyday from east to west.
* Nap Anya, Goddess of the sun and partner of Nap király
* Endovelicus, god of health and safety, worshipped both as a solar deity and a chthonic one
* Neto, potentially both a solar and war deity
* A possible sun goddess, whose cult was believed to have become that of
* Possibly the
* Beiwe, goddess of the Sun, spring, fertility, and sanity
god
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
or goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...
who represents the Sun
The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
, 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
Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world h ...
in various forms. The following is a list of solar deities:
African
Bantu mythology
Bantu religion is a system of various spiritual beliefs and practices that relate to the Bantu people of Central Africa, Central, East Africa, East, and Southern Africa, Southern Africa. Although Bantu peoples account for several hundred differe ...
* Nyambe, the Bantu god of the Sun and creation
Tenerife
Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...
goddess of the Sun and light
Igbo mythology
Odinani, also known as Odinala, Omenala, Odinana, and Omenana (), is the traditional cultural belief and practice of the Igbo people of south east and Igbo people of south south Nigeria.Afulezy, Juj"On Odinani, the Igbo Religion", ''Niger Del ...
* Anyanwu
Anyanwu (''anyaanwū'', meaning "eye of the sun" in Igbo) is the sun goddess of the good fortune, knowledge, and wisdom in the traditional Igbo religion called Odinala. She is an alusi, a tutelary spirit that was created by the Supreme god, ...
, Igbo god believed to dwell in the Sun
Dahomey
The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history, kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. It developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in ...
goddess associated with the Sun and the Moon
Egyptian mythology
Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian pantheon, Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part ...
* Amun
Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, r ...
, creator deity sometimes identified as a Sun god
* Aten
Aten, also Aton, Atonu, or Itn (, reconstructed ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system formally established in ancient Egypt by the late Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. Exact dating for the Eighteenth Dynasty is contested, thou ...
, god of the Sun, the visible disc of the Sun
* Atum
Atum (, Egyptian: ''jtm(w)'' or ''tm(w)'', ''reconstructed'' ; Coptic ''Atoum''), sometimes rendered as Atem, Temu, or Tem, is the primordial God in Egyptian mythology from whom all else arose. He created himself and is the father of Shu and ...
, the "finisher of the world" who represents the Sun as it sets
* Bast, cat goddess associated with the Sun
* Hathor
Hathor (, , , Meroitic language, Meroitic: ') was a major ancient Egyptian deities, goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god R ...
, mother of Horus and Ra and goddess of the Sun
* Horus
Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...
, god of the sky whose right eye was considered to be the Sun and his left the Moon
* Khepri
Khepri (Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''ḫprj,'' also transliterated Khepera, Kheper, Khepra, Chepri) is a scarab-faced Egyptian pantheon, god in ancient Egyptian religion who represents the rising or morning sun. By extension, he can also repres ...
, god of the rising Sun, creation and renewal of life
* Ptah
Ptah ( ; , ; ; ; ) is an ancient Egyptian deity, a creator god, and a patron deity of craftsmen and architects. In the triad of Memphis, he is the husband of Sekhmet and the father of Nefertem. He was also regarded as the father of the ...
, god of craftsmanship, the arts, and fertility, sometimes said to represent the Sun at night
* Ra, god of the Sun
* Sekhmet
In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet ( or Sachmis , from ; ) is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of medicine.
Sekhmet is also a solar deity, sometimes given the epithet "the Eye of Ra, eye of Ra". She is often associated with the goddesses Hatho ...
, goddess of war and of the Sun, sometimes also plagues and creator of the desert
* Sopdu
Sopdu (also rendered Septu or Sopedu) was a god of the sky and of eastern border regions in the religion of Ancient Egypt.Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). ''The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt''. Thames & Hudson. p. 211
He was Khensit ...
, god of war and the scorching heat of the summer Sun
Guanche mythology Guanche may refer to:
*Guanches
The Guanche were the Indigenous peoples, indigenous inhabitants of the Spain, Spanish Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean some to the west of modern Morocco and the North African coast. The islanders sp ...
* Magec, was god or goddess (actual gender is unknown) of the Sun
Zulu people
Zulu people (; ) are a native people of Southern Africa of the Nguni people, Nguni. The Zulu people are the largest Ethnic groups in South Africa, ethnic group and nation in South Africa, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
They o ...
's god of the Sun and sky
* iNyanga, Zulu people
Zulu people (; ) are a native people of Southern Africa of the Nguni people, Nguni. The Zulu people are the largest Ethnic groups in South Africa, ethnic group and nation in South Africa, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
They o ...
, goddess of the Moon
* Ukhulukhulwana, Zulu people
Zulu people (; ) are a native people of Southern Africa of the Nguni people, Nguni. The Zulu people are the largest Ethnic groups in South Africa, ethnic group and nation in South Africa, living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
They o ...
's ancestor who came from the stars. He taught them to build huts and taught them the high laws of isiNtu
American
Aztec mythology
Aztec mythology is the body or collection of myths of the Aztec civilization of Central Mexico. The Aztecs were a culture living in central Mexico and much of their mythology is similar to that of other Mesoamerican cultures. According to legend ...
* Huitzilopochtli, god of the Sun and war
* Nanahuatzin, god of the Sun
* Teoyaomicqui, god of lost souls, the Sun, and the sixth hour of the day
* Tonatiuh, god of the Sun and ruler of the heavens
Brazilian mythology
Brazilian mythology is a rich and diverse part of Brazilian folklore with cultural elements, comprising folk tales, traditions, characters, and beliefs. The category is representative of Brazil’s greater culture, being a melting pot of Iberic ...
* Guaraci, god of the Sun ( Guarani mythology)
* Jurupari, solar hero or god ( Tupian mythology)
* Meri, folk hero
A folk hero or national hero is a type of hero – real, fictional or mythology, mythological – with their name, personality and deeds embedded in the popular consciousness of a people, mentioned frequently in Folk music, folk songs, folk tales ...
and god of the Sun
Inca mythology
Inca mythology of the Inca Empire was based on pre-Inca beliefs that can be found in the Huarochirí Manuscript, and in pre-Inca cultures including Chavín, Paracas, Moche, and the Nazca culture. The mythology informed and supported Inca re ...
* Apu Inti, also known as Apu Punchaw, god of the Sun and patron deity of the Inca Empire
The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...
* Ch'aska ("Venus") or Ch'aska Quyllur ("Morning star") was the goddess of dawn, twilight, youth, and, the planet itself
Mapuche mythology
Mapuche religion is the traditional Native American religion of the Mapuche people. It is practiced primarily in south-central Chile and southwest Argentina. The tradition has no formal leadership or organizational structure and displays much in ...
* Antü, Sun deity or pillán of the mapuche from Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
and Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
Inuit mythology
Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the Inuit, an Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous people from Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and parts of Siberia. Their religion shares many similarities with some A ...
* Akycha, Sun goddess worshiped in Alaska
Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
* Siqiniq, goddess of the Sun found across Greenland, northern Canada, and Alaska.
Maya mythology
Maya mythology or Mayan mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. The legends of the era have to be ...
* Ah Kin, god of the Sun, bringer of doubt, and protector against the evils associated with darkness
* Hunahpu, one of the Maya Hero Twins
The Maya Hero Twins are the central figures of a narrative included within the colonial Kʼicheʼ document called Popol Vuh, and constituting the oldest Maya myth to have been preserved in its entirety. Called Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the Kʼ ...
; he transformed into the Sun while his brother transformed into the Moon
* Kinich Ahau, god of the Sun
Sué
Sué, Xué, Sua, Zuhe or Suhé was the deity, god of the Sun in the Muisca religion and mythology, religion of the Muisca. He was married to Moon goddess Chía (goddess), Chía.Ocampo López, 2013, Ch.4, p.33 The Muisca people, Muisca and their Mu ...
, god of the Sun and husband of Chía, the Moon
Other American Indian mythology
* Aqalax, Kathlamet sun woman. * Jóhonaaʼéí, theNavajo
The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language.
The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...
Sun god, known as "The One Who Rules the Day"
* Kisosen, the Abenaki
The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pred ...
solar deity, an eagle whose wings opened to create the day and closed to cause the nighttime
* Napioa, the Blackfoot deity of the Sun
* Tawa, the Hopi
The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...
creator and god of the Sun
* Wi, Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
*Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language
Lakota ( ), also referred to as Lakhota, Teton or Teton Sioux, is a Siouan languages, Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of ...
god of the Sun
* Aba' Bínni'li', the Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...
creator deity, strongly associated with the sun.
* Unelanuhi, Cherokee
The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...
sun goddess.
Asian
Ainu mythology
The Ainu are an Indigenous peoples, indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Ku ...
* Chup Kamui, a lunar goddess who switched places with her brother to become goddess of the Sun
Arabian mythology
In pre-Islamic Arabia, the dominant religious practice was that of Arab polytheism, which was based on the veneration of various deities and spirits, such as the god Hubal and the goddesses al-Lāt, al-‘Uzzā, and Manāt. Worship was ...
* Malakbel, god of the Sun
* Shams/Shamsun, a solar goddess exalted in Himyar
Himyar was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According to class ...
and by the Sabaeans
Sheba, or Saba, was an ancient South Arabian kingdom that existed in Yemen from to . Its inhabitants were the Sabaeans, who, as a people, were indissociable from the kingdom itself for much of the 1st millennium BCE. Modern historians agree th ...
.
Armenian mythology
Armenian mythology originated in ancient Proto-Indo-European religion, Indo-European traditions, specifically Proto-Armenian, and gradually incorporated Hurrian religion, Hurro-Urartian religion, Urartian, Ancient Mesopotamian religion, Mesop ...
* Ar/Arev, the Sun god with its people as "children of the Sun"
Buddhist mythology
The Buddhist traditions have created and maintained a vast body of mythological literature. The central myth of Buddhism revolves around the purported events of the life of the Buddha. This is told in relatively realistic terms in the earlie ...
* Marici, goddess of the heavens, the Sun, and light
* Surya
Surya ( ; , ) is the Sun#Dalal, Dalal, p. 399 as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchaya ...
, god of the Sun (Suriya Pariththa, Suthra Pitaka, Pali canon, Theravada Buddhism)
Shapash
Shapshu (Ugaritic: 𐎌𐎔𐎌 ''špš'', "sun") or Shapsh, and also Shamshu, was a Canaanite sun goddess. She also served as the royal messenger of the high god El, her probable father. Her most common epithets in the Ugaritic corpus are ''nrt ...
, goddess of the Sun
* Ba'al
Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord' in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods. Scholars previously associated the t ...
, god of life and fertility, also associated with the Sun and storms
Chinese mythology
Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature throughout the area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology encompasses a diverse array of myths derived from regional and cultural tradit ...
* Doumu
Dǒumǔ (), also known as , and , is a goddess in Chinese religion and Taoism. She is also named through the honorific Tiānhòu ( "Queen of Heaven"), shared with other Chinese goddesses, especially Mazu, who are perhaps conceived as her aspect ...
, Sun goddess sometimes conflated with Marici.
* Xihe, Sun goddess and mother of the ten suns
* Yu Yi, god that carries the Sun across the sky
* Xu Kai, god of the Sun star
Elam
Elam () was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of modern-day southern Iraq. The modern name ''Elam'' stems fr ...
ite
* Nahundi, god of the Sun and law
Hindu mythology
Hindu mythology refers to the collection of myths associated with Hinduism, derived from various Hindu texts and traditions. These myths are found in sacred texts such as the Vedas, the Itihasas (the ''Mahabharata'' and the ''Ramayan ...
* Surya
Surya ( ; , ) is the Sun#Dalal, Dalal, p. 399 as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchaya ...
, the Sun god, rides across the sky in a horse-drawn chariot à la Helios and Sol.
* Aruna, charioteer of Surya, god of the morning Sun.
* Aryaman, god of the midday Sun.
* Savitr
Savitṛ ( , nominative Grammatical number, singular: , also rendered as Savitur), in Vedic scriptures is an Ādityas, Aditya (i.e., an "offspring" of the Vedic primeval mother goddess Aditi). His name in Vedic Sanskrit connotes "impeller, ro ...
, god of the twilight Sun, also known as sunrise and sunset.
* Mitra
''Mitra'' (Proto-Indo-Iranian language, Proto-Indo-Iranian: wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Iranian/mitrás, ''*mitrás'') is the name of an Indo-Iranians#Religion, Indo-Iranian divinity that predates the Rigveda, Rigvedic Mitra (Hindu god), Mitrá ...
, often associated with the Sun.
* Mihir, meaning Sun.
* Tapati, Sun goddess.
* Ushas, goddess of dawn.
Hittite mythology
Hittite mythology and Hittite religion were the religious beliefs and practices of the Hittites, who created an empire centered in Anatolia from .
Most of the narratives embodying Hittite mythology are lost, and the elements that would give ...
* Istanu, goddess/god of the Sun and judgment
* Sun goddess of Arinna
* Sun god of Heaven
The Sun god of Heaven ( Hittite: nepišaš Ištanu) was a Hittite solar deity. He was the second-most worshipped solar deity of the Hittites, after the Sun goddess of Arinna. The Sun god of Heaven was identified with the Hurrian solar deity, ...
, daylight god of judgement
* Sun goddess of the Earth, infernal goddess of the underworld.
Japanese mythology
Japanese mythology is a collection of traditional stories, folktales, and beliefs that emerged in the islands of the Japanese archipelago. Shinto traditions are the cornerstones of Japanese mythology. The history of thousands of years of contac ...
* Amaterasu
, often called Amaterasu () for short, also known as and , is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. Often considered the chief deity (''kami'') of the Shinto pantheon, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the () ...
, goddess of the Sun
Mesopotamian mythology
Mesopotamian mythology refers to the myths, religious texts, and other literature that comes from the region of ancient Mesopotamia which is a historical region of Western Asia, situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system that occupie ...
* Shamash
Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...
, Akkadian god of the Sun and justice
* Utu
Shamash ( Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu ( Sumerian: dutu " Sun") was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in the world every day, and was therefore responsible for justice and protection ...
, Sumerian god of the Sun and justice
* Šerida, Sumerian goddess of light, married to the god of the Sun (Akkadian name Aya)
Scythian religion
The Scythian religion refers to the mythology, ritual practices and beliefs of the Scythian cultures, a collection of closely related ancient Iranian peoples who inhabited Central Asia and the Pontic–Caspian steppe in Eastern Europe throughout ...
* Tabiti, ancient Iranian goddess possibly connected with the Sun.
Tocharian
* A "sun deity" (''kaum näkte''), possibly a goddess.
Turkic mythology
Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrism, Tengrist and Shamanism in Central Asia, Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and wa ...
* Gun Ana, common Turkic solar deity, seen as a goddess in the Kazakh and Kyrgyz traditions
* Koyash, god of the Sun
Persian mythology
Iranian mythology, or Persian mythology in western term (), is the body of the myths originally told by ancient Persians and other Iranian peoples and a genre of ancient Persian folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the worl ...
* Mithra
Mithra ( ; ) is an ancient Iranian deity ('' yazata'') of covenants, light, oaths, justice, the Sun, contracts, and friendship. In addition to being the divinity of contracts, Mithra is also a judicial figure, an all-seeing protector of Truth ( ...
, often associated with the Sun.
* Hvare-khshaeta, the Sun yazata
Yazata () is the Avestan word for a Zoroastrian concept with a wide range of meanings but generally signifying (or used as an epithet of) a divinity. The term literally means "worthy of worship or veneration",.. and is thus, in this more general ...
Vietnamese mythology
Vietnamese mythology () comprises folklore, national myths, legends, or fairy tales from the Vietnamese people with aspects of folk religion in Vietnam. Vietnamese folklore and oral traditions may have also been influenced by historical conta ...
* Goddess Thần Mặt Trời, the embodiment of the sun, the daughter of Ông Trời
Ông Trời (), commonly referred to as Trời ("sky, heaven"), is one of the most important gods in Vietnamese folk religion, traditional Vietnamese folk religion. Later, due to the influence of Taoism, he was merged and identified with the Jade ...
, old sister of Thần Mặt Trăng, she and her sister have a husband who is a bear, when the Bear God wants to meet them, a solar or lunar eclipse will appear.
European
Albanian mythology
Albanian paganism comprises the pagan customs, beliefs, rituals, myths and legends of the Albanian people. The elements of Albanian mythology are of ancient Paleo-Balkanic origin and almost all of them are pagan. Ancient paganism persisted among ...
* Dielli, the Sun, god of light
Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...
, sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...
and weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmo ...
, giver of life, health and energy, and all-seeing eye.
Armenian mythology
Armenian mythology originated in ancient Proto-Indo-European religion, Indo-European traditions, specifically Proto-Armenian, and gradually incorporated Hurrian religion, Hurro-Urartian religion, Urartian, Ancient Mesopotamian religion, Mesop ...
* Arev
* Areg
* Arpʻi
Baltic mythology
Baltic mythology is the body of mythology of the Baltic peoples stemming from Baltic paganism and continuing after Christianization and into Baltic folklore.
History
Baltic mythology ultimately stems from Proto-Indo-European mythology. The Bal ...
* Saulė, goddess of the Sun
Basque mythology
The mythology of the ancient Basques largely did not survive the arrival of Christianity in the Basque Country between the 4th and 12th century AD. Most of what is known about elements of this original belief system is based on the analysis o ...
* Ekhi, goddess of the Sun and protector of humanity
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the body of myths belonging to the Celtic peoples.Cunliffe, Barry, (1997) ''The Ancient Celts''. Oxford, Oxford University Press , pp. 183 (religion), 202, 204–8. Like other Iron Age Europeans, Celtic peoples followed ...
* Áine, Irish goddess of love, summer, wealth, and sovereignty, associated with the Sun and midsummer
Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer, taking place on or near the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the longest Daytime, day of the year. The name "midsummer" mainly refers to summer solstice festivals of Eu ...
* Alaunus, Gaulish
Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...
god of the Sun, healing, and prophecy
* Belenos, Gaulish
Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...
god of the Sun
* Brighid, Irish sun goddess
* Étaín
Étaín or Édaín (Modern Irish spelling: Éadaoin) is a figure of Irish mythology, best known as the heroine of '' Tochmarc Étaíne'' (''The Wooing of Étaín''), one of the oldest and richest stories of the Mythological Cycle. She also fi ...
, Irish Sun goddess
* Grannus, god associated with spas, healing thermal and mineral springs, and the Sun
* Lugh
Lugh or Lug (; ) is a figure in Irish mythology. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, a group of supernatural beings, Lugh is portrayed as a warrior, a king, a master craftsman and a saviour.Olmsted, Garrett. ''The Gods of the Celts and the I ...
, Sun god as well as a writing and warrior god
* Macha, "Sun of the womanfolk" and occasionally considered synonymous with Grian
* Olwen, female figure often constructed as originally the Welsh Sun goddess
* Sulis, British goddess whose name is related to the common Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
word for "Sun" and thus cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language.
Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...
with Helios
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; ; Homeric Greek: ) is the god who personification, personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion ("the one above") an ...
, Sól, Sol, and Surya
Surya ( ; , ) is the Sun#Dalal, Dalal, p. 399 as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchaya ...
and who retains solar imagery, as well as a domain over healing and thermal springs. Probably the de facto solar deity of the Celts.
Etruscan mythology
Etruscan religion comprises a set of stories, beliefs, and religious practices of the Etruscan civilization, heavily influenced by the mythology of ancient Greece, and sharing similarities with concurrent Roman mythology and religion. As the ...
* Usil
Usil is the Etruscan god of the sun, shown to be identified with '' Apulu'' (Apollo). His iconic depiction features Usil rising out of the sea, with a fireball in either outstretched hand, on an engraved Etruscan bronze mirror in late Archaic ...
, Etruscan equivalent of Helios
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; ; Homeric Greek: ) is the god who personification, personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion ("the one above") an ...
Finnish mythology
Finnish mythology commonly refers of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a Finnish Neopaganism, modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many shared features with Estonian mythology, Estonian and othe ...
* Päivätär, goddess of the Sun
Germanic mythology
Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon paganism#Mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. It was a key element of Germanic paganism.
O ...
* Sól/Sunna/Sunne, the common Sun goddess among the Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...
, who according to Nordic mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...
is chased across the sky in her horse-drawn chariot by a wolf
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
*Helios
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; ; Homeric Greek: ) is the god who personification, personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion ("the one above") an ...
, god and personification of the Sun who drives across the sky in a chariot
* Apollo
Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
, god of the Sun and light, among others. His most common epithet is Phoebus (“Radiant”)
* Eos
In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Eos (; Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic Greek, Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic Greek, Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric Greek, Doric ''Āṓs'') is the go ...
, goddess and personification of the dawn
* Hemera, goddess of the day
* Electryone, goddess of the sunrise
Virgin Mary
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
Nossa Senhora de Antime.
Snake Goddess A snake goddess is a goddess associated with a snake theme.
Examples include:
* Meretseger ("She Who Loves Silence"), an Egyptian snake goddess
* Minoan snake goddess figurines, Minoan archaeological artifacts
*Medusa (to guard, to protect), a Gree ...
.
Proto-Indo-European mythology
Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, speakers of the hypothesized Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested – since Proto-Ind ...
* Sehul
* eye of Dyēws
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans, and is a form of Roman folklore. "Roman mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to th ...
* Aurora
An aurora ( aurorae or auroras),
also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...
, goddess of dawn
* Sol, god of the Sun, rides in a horse-drawn chariot
Slavic mythology
Slavic paganism, Slavic mythology, or Slavic religion refer to the Religion, religious beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before Christianisation of the Slavs, Christianisation, which occurred at various stages between the 8th and ...
* Dažbog
Dazhbog (), alternatively Daždźboh (), Dazhboh (), Dažbog, Dazhdbog, Dajbog, Daybog, Dabog, Dazibogu, or Dadźbóg, was one of the major gods of Slavic mythology, most likely a solar deity and possibly a cultural hero. He is one of several a ...
, god of the Sun
* Hors, god of the Sun
Oceania
Australian Aboriginal mythology
* Bila, cannibal sun goddess of the Adnyamathanha * Gnowee, solar goddess who searches daily for her lost son; the light of her torch is the Sun * Wala, solar goddess * Wuriupranili, solar goddess whose torch is the Sun * Yhi, Karraur goddess of the sun, light and creation
Māori mythology
Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand's Māori people, Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern tales of supernatural events relating to the origins of what was the ...
* Tama-nui-te-rā, personification of the Sun
See also
*List of lunar deities
A lunar deity is a deity who represents the Moon, or an aspect of it. Lunar deities and Moon worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The following is a list of lunar deities:
African
American Aztec mythology
* ...
* Dawn goddess
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solar Deities Lists of deities *