Sol (Roman mythology)

Sol
God of the Sun
Sol on a disk
AbodeSky
PlanetSun
SymbolChariot, solar disk
DaySunday (dies Solis)
Genealogy
SiblingsLuna, Aurora
Equivalents
AlbanianDielli
CanaaniteShapash
EtruscanUsil
GreekHelios
Indo-EuropeanSeh₂ul
NorseSól

Sol is the personification of the Sun and a god in ancient Roman religion. It was long thought that Rome actually had two different, consecutive sun gods: The first, Sol Indiges (Latin: the deified sun), was thought to have been unimportant, disappearing altogether at an early period. Only in the late Roman Empire, scholars argued, did the solar cult re-appear with the arrival in Rome of the Syrian Sol Invictus (Latin: the unconquered sun), perhaps under the influence of the Mithraic mysteries.[1] Publications from the mid-1990s have challenged the notion of two different sun gods in Rome, pointing to the abundant evidence for the continuity of the cult of Sol, and the lack of any clear differentiation – either in name or depiction – between the "early" and "late" Roman sun god.[2][3][4][5]

  1. ^ Halsberghe, Gaston (1972). The Cult of Sol Invictus. Leiden: Brill. EPRO 223.
  2. ^ Hijmans, Steven (1996). "The Sun which did not rise in the East: The cult of Sol Invictus in the light of non-literary evidence". Babesch. 71: 115–150. doi:10.2143/BAB.71.0.2002277.
  3. ^ Berrens, Stefan (2004). Sonnenkult und Kaisertum von den Severern bis zu Constantin I. (193-337 n. Chr.) (in German). Vol. 185. Stuttgart: Historia Einzelschriften. ISBN 3-515-08575-0.
  4. ^ Matern, Petra (2001). Helios und Sol: Kulte und Ikonographie des griechischen und römischen Sonnengottes. Istanbul: Ege. ISBN 978-975-8070-53-4.
  5. ^ Hijmans, Steven (2009). Sol: The Sun in the art and religions of Rome (Thesis). University of Groningen. ISBN 9789036739313.