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Sun Gods and Sun Goddesses

By , About.com Guide

Ra

Ra

CC Flickr User Ralph Buckley
There have been sun gods throughout history. Some are depicted as traveling across the sky in a vessel of some sort, like a boat, chariot, or cup. The sun god of the Greeks and Romans rode in a 4-horse (Pyrios, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon) chariot. The Egyptians differentiated among the aspects of the sun, and had several gods associated with it: Khepri for the rising sun, Atum, the setting, and Ra, at noon, who rode across the sky in a solar bark. The Greeks and Romans also had more than one sun god. It seems that most sun deities are male and counterparts to the often female moon deities, although there are goddesses of the sun and gods of the moon.

Name Nationality/Religion God or Goddess or ? Notes
Amaterasu Japan Sun Goddess
Arinna (Hebat) Hittite (Syrian) Sun Goddess The Iconography of Religion in the Hittite, Luwian, and Aramaean Kingdoms PDF
Apollo Greece and Rome Sun God
Freyr Norse Sun God Not the main Norse sun god, but a fertility god associated with the sun.
Garuda Hindu Bird God
Helios (Helius) Greece Sun God Before Apollo was the Greek sun god, Helios held that position.
Hepa Hittite Sun Goddess The consort of a weather god, she was assimilated with the sun goddess Arinna.
Huitzilopochtli (Uitzilopochtli) Aztec Sun God
Hvar Khshaita Iranian/Persian Sun God Earlier than Mithras.
Inti Inca Sun God
Liza West African Sun God
Lugh Celtic Sun God
Mithras Iranian/Persian Sun God "Mit(h)ra(s) and the Myths of the Sun" David H. Sick. Numen (2004).
Re (Ra) Egypt Mid-day Sun God An Egyptian god shown with a solar disk. Center of worship was Heliopolis. Later associated with Horus as Re-Horakhty. Also combined with Amun as Amun-Ra, a solar creator god.
Shemesh/Shepesh Ugarit Sun goddess Female solar deities (Jürg Eggler) PDF
Sol (Sunna) Norse Sun Goddess She rides in a horse-drawn solar chariot.
Sol Invictus Roman Sun God The unconquered sun. A late Roman sun god. The title was also used of Mithras.
Surya Hindu Sun God Rides the sky in a horse-drawn chariot.
Tonatiuh Aztec Sun God
Utu (Shamash) Mesopotamia Sun God

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