The
Sun is seen as a masculine symbol, a powerful life-enhancing
energy.
Our ancestors saw the all-powerful Sun as
standing for the masculine principle - the power of rational
thinking.
The
Greeks worshipped
the Sun as the god Helios. They believed
that every morning at dawn, crowned
with the shining aureole of the sun, Helios
rose from the sea in the east. Clothed in purple robes this
handsome, beardless god rode in his golden
sun-chariot, pulled by his four
fire-breathing,
winged steeds through the
sky and descended every night in the west. Helios was the subject
of the 'Colossus of Rhodes', completed in 292 BC.
The Romans worshipped Mithras - originally
a Persian god of the sun. In the beginning of time Mithras had
sacrificed the mythical
great
bull, and the blood which was spilt gave life
to earth. Sun worship in the Roman
Empire was officially recognised during the time of Emperor
Aurelian, when he instituted the cult of
'Sol
invictus' - the Invincible Sun. The Romans made Sunday -'the
venerable day of the sun', and an official day
of rest.
Ra was the Egyptian Sun god, depicted crowned with
a sun disc encircled with a cobra on his hawk-like head.
The ancient Egyptians
believed the Sun was his eye and that he journeyed daily across
the sky in a boat. The rising sun was to them the symbol
of creation.
The Hindu Solar god, Surya, is worshipped as a symbol of
health and immortal life, and is depicted
as a red man with three eyes and four arms driving his
chariot with seven horses. Many come to the eastern
banks of the Ganges in Varanasi at sunrise to bathe and pray to
Ganga - the goddess who is the Ganges river - and Surya, the husband
of dawn.
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