Curiosmos
  • Home
  • Unsolved Mysteries
  • Ancient Civilizations
  • Cosmic Phenomena
  • Alien Theories
  • Curious Lists
No Result
View All Result
Like us on Facebook
Curiosmos
  • Home
  • Unsolved Mysteries
  • Ancient Civilizations
  • Cosmic Phenomena
  • Alien Theories
  • Curious Lists
No Result
View All Result
Curiosmos
No Result
View All Result

The Ancient Worship of the Sun; 5 Ancient Civilizations That Venerated It

Ivan PetricevicbyIvan Petricevic
September 15, 2020 - Updated on January 21, 2024
in Ancient Civilizations
An ancient Egyptian illustration showing the worship of the sun disk Aten.

An ancient Egyptian illustration showing the worship of the sun disk Aten.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Thousands of years ago, cultures around the globe worshipped the sun. This is no surprise since the sun is the brightest object in the sky, rising and setting each day since time immemorial. To ancient civilizations, the Sun and the Moon must have been objects of great interest. The veneration of the Sun throughout history is well attested, and many ancient cultures developed solar worship; the ancient Egyptians did so, as did Indo-European cultures and Mesoamerican cultures.

The Sun, a cosmic father?

The Sun was the cosmic father to the ancients, the giver of life, and the bringer of light. Ancient cultures saw our star as a special object in the sky, responsible for bringing back the light after dark. The sun is the bringer of knowledge and giver of life, and as such, it isn’t a surprise that kings who ruled over some of the greatest empires in history claimed to have been descended from the Sun god. One such example was the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, who was directly responsible for introducing monotheism–the worship of one God–to ancient Egypt.

The worship of the Sun Disk

Legends from South America tell us that the Inca ruler Pachacuti obtained power over the land from a mirrored sun disk. Akhenaten had its version of the sun disk; the Aten—nearly all world religions point to a single omnipotent deity. Traditional beliefs and mythology seem to point to the worship of a single deity in its origins. However, we can observe polytheistic traditions that seem to have evolved from the erosion of monotheism. What was once one omnipotent deity turned into many.

A solar god represents the Sun or aspects of it

Eventually, many deities would be replaced by one omnipotent deity as religion evolved. A solar god represents the Sun or aspects of it, such as the sun’s rays. This was the case of the Sun disk of Akhenaten the Aten. In the mythology of many ancient civilizations, the Sun was a god venerated throughout history. The ancient Egyptians, the Mesopotamians, the Mexica, the Inca, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Greeks, and even the ancient Hindus all had deities connected to the Sun or represented it.

Related Posts

Pharaoh Amnhotep II. YAYIMAGES.

The Birth of Ancient Egypt and the Zero Dynasty

January 11, 2023
The Lycurgus Cup. Image Credit: British Museum.

The Lycurgus Cup: A Mystical Ancient Artifact and Its Five Remarkable Features

April 5, 2023 - Updated on January 20, 2024

It is considered that the cult of the Sun could be the origin of henotheism and, later, monotheism. Solar deities and the Sun’s worship are found throughout our recorded history in various forms and nearly across all continents. Although many other civilizations had solar deities, I mention five in this article.

Ancient Egypt’s Sun veneration

The sun represented growth, heat, power, and light for the ancient Egyptians. This alone made the solar deities important. In Egypt, the Sun’s cult prevailed for centuries, and its power was associated with many gods, including Horus, Ra, Wadjet, Sekhmet, Hathor, Nut, Isis, and Bat. From the fifth dynasty, the local gods merge with Ra to create syncretic divinities: Atum-Ra, Min-Ra, or Amun-Ra. During the 18th dynasty, Pharaoh Akhenaten temporarily changed the polytheism practiced in Egypt, proclaiming a monotheism around Aten, represented by the solar disk, possibly to counteract the great influence of the clergy of Amun.

The Veneration of the Sun deity in Mesopotamia

The Sumerian sun god Utu (in Akkadian Šamaš), who was at the same time the god of justice, played an important role in the Mesopotamian area during the Bronze Age. He brought warmth and light to the land; without him, plants and crops could not grow. As the sun filled the sky with light, Šamaš oversaw everything that occurred during the daytime. He was part of an astral triad with the lunar god Nanna (in Akkadian, Sin) and the goddess of love and war, Inanna, whose symbol was the morning star.

The worship of the Sun in Ancient Greece

According to the Greeks, the god of the sun was Helios, who was conceived as a beautiful deity who wore a gold crown of great and powerful shine. He drove a chariot daily through the sky to the ocean, the perfect river that encircled the earth, Gaea. Helios was the guardian of oaths and the god of sight. Homer points to Helios’ chariot as being drawn by bulls made of fire, although Pindar described them as “fire-throwing horses.” Hesiod also tells us that Eos was a Greek solar goddess associated with the aurora and the daughter of the titan Hyperion and Tea.

Sun worship and the ancient Inca

One of my favorite ancient civilizations is the Inca, and just like many others before them, they, too, developed powerful worship of the Sun god. The Inca culture, which settled in what is now Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, part of Chile, and Argentina, had a Sun god called Inti, one of their most important deities. The Inca or emperor was considered the son of Inti.

It is said in the legend of Manco Inca and Mama Ocllo that they were sent by their father, the Sun, born on the island of the sun, within the sacred Lake Titicaca. With the Spanish colonization and the imposed Catholic religion, the subjects of the Inca empire were forced to stop worshiping it. Inti’s wife, Quilla, was the Moon, goddess of women and female chores. In honor of the sun god, the Inti Raymi is celebrated every June 24, and the Cápac Raymi in December.

Ancient Aztec veneration of the Sun

According to the ancient Mexica–Aztecs–, the Sun was considered a very important deity, and due to their beliefs, human sacrifices were used to deliver their “divine breath” to Tonatiuh–the god of the Sun–and keep it alive. Interestingly, The Mexica people saw Tonatiuh as the leader of heaven, a deity from the beyond. Tonatiuh was also known as the Fifth Sun because the Mexica believed that it assumed control when the Fourth Sun was expelled from the sky. According to ancient Aztec Cosmogony, each Sun was a god with its cosmic era.

Have something to add? Visit Curiosmos on Facebook. Join the discussion in our mobile Telegram group

Share157Tweet98Share27ShareSend
Ivan Petricevic

Ivan Petricevic

I've been writing passionately about ancient civilizations, history, alien life, and various other subjects for more than eight years. You may have seen me appear on Discovery Channel's What On Earth series, History Channel's Ancient Aliens, and Gaia's Ancient Civilizations among others.

Related Posts

A model of the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. Image Credit: Teotihuacan Museum / Wikimedia Commons.
Ancient Civilizations

3 Ancient Pyramids You Probably Didn’t Know Are the Worlds Largest

January 25, 2020 - Updated on January 21, 2024
An ancient sarcophagus in Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. Shutterstock.
Ancient Civilizations

5 Baffling Discoveries Made Beneath Egypt’s Golden Sands

July 10, 2019 - Updated on January 22, 2024
Water Glyphs
Ancient Civilizations

The Enigmatic Water Glyphs of the American Southwest

April 24, 2023 - Updated on January 20, 2024
A photograph of a shipwreck. YAYIMAGES.
Ancient Civilizations

The Mystery of Shipwrecks: How Many Are There in the World?

March 9, 2023
An image of the underground city of Derinkuyu. Depositphotos.
Ancient Civilizations

There Are 200 Ancient Underground Cities in Turkey Alone

June 1, 2019 - Updated on May 2, 2023
Restored ziggurat in ancient Ur, sumerian temple, Iraq. YAYIMAGES.
Ancient Civilizations

This Was the Ancient Sumerian Civilization, One of the Oldest in History

February 23, 2023
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Fair Use Notice
  • DMCA / Removal
  • Impressum
  • Contact
  • Fact-Checking Policy
  • Ethics Policy
  • Ownership and Funding Information
  • Impressum
CURIOSMOS.COM

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Unsolved Mysteries
  • Ancient Civilizations
  • Cosmic Phenomena
  • Alien Theories
  • Curious Lists