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Universal Brilliance - Sun Mythologies

© Wayne Kreger

Anyone who studies mythology quickly learns that there are currents that run though the traditions of the world. An almost universal mythological constant is the sun. Nearly every tradition in our world history speaks of the sun, most often as a deity - though not exclusively. As well, we will discover that the sun plays a variety of roles in mythological life.

The myths that are most likely to spring to our minds when discuss sun myths are the myths of Apollo and Ra. Despite proximity in history and geography these two figures are not identical. Apollo, known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as the god of music and medicine, was also the god of the sun. He was a significant god, worshiped at Delphi, but was not a supreme god - this was the role of Zeus (Jupiter). He was a troubled figure - he was punished by Zeus for killing the cyclopes, and had many failed romances. The sun traveling across the sky was Apollo traveling in his chariot. Ra, on the other hand, was a very important god. He reigned supreme in Egypt and was thought to have created the world. Like Apollo, it was believed by some that Ra was the sun crossing the sky, though his passage was the growth from a child into an elderly man, then passing away and journeying through the underworld, only to be born to cross the sky again the following day.

A less famous but no less important sun god is the god of war in Aztec mythology, named Huitzilopochtli. It is believed that the figure may be based on an actual historical person, though mythology says he was born from the goddess Coatlicue. Aztec stories tell that Huitzilopochtli led the people on their long migration to their new home, and due to this great deed he received a great deal of sacrifices. His symbol was the hummingbird.

A further important mythical figure relating to the sun is Aten, another Egyptian sun god. It is interesting to note that most historians agree that Aten was likely the first god of a large - though brief existing - monotheism (worship of only one god). The common speculation is that the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten reformed the polytheistic Egyptian religion to make Aten its primary creator deity. However, following Akhenaten's death Egyptian reverted to its former ways. Aten is the god of the noon-time solar disc, and at the time of Akhenaten his importance was elevated beyond Ra's in the Egyptian pantheon.

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