Sun
deity figure · 39 works · 116 mentions · 255 anchored passages
also in the atlas: Sun the idea
Sūrya · the Sun · the sun · Helios · Āditya · Sūryā · sun · Bhāskara · Mārtāṇḍa · Sol
spoken of as
6 expressionsSūrya“Sun”68 mentions
Atharvaveda (Paippalāda) (Sanskrit) · Rigveda (Sanskrit) · Sāmaveda (Sanskrit) · Bṛhaspati Smṛti (Sanskrit) · Manusmṛti (Sanskrit) · Parāśara Smṛti (Sanskrit)
Sūrya is long-lived;
Helios“the Sun”14 mentions
Orations (Greek) · Cratylus (Greek) · Protrepticus (Greek) · The Histories (Greek) · Theogony (Greek) · Iliad (Greek)
and of these very gods, Rhodes is the Sun's, Onchestus Poseidon's, but Corinth both.
the Sun10 mentions
Orations (Greek) · Meditations (Greek) · Sāṃkhyatattvavivecana (Sanskrit) · De Spectaculis (Latin) · Yājñavalkya Smṛti (Sanskrit) · On Providence (Latin)
But as it is, like one touching the notes on a lyre in tune, he never departs from the pure and consummate harmony, ever going the one and the same road.
Helius“Sun”1 mention
Theogony (Greek)
And Theia was subject in love to Hyperion and bore great Helius (Sun) and clear Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn) who shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven.
Phoebus“the Sun”1 mention
On Providence (Latin)
When that high-spirited youth had heard this, he said:
in the texts
first 24 worksRigveda
Personified solar deity, explicitly called 'Sun god and goddess' moving by cosmic ordinance.
the sun rises from the earth;
The broad, most spacious path of ṛta has been seen;
Visible in all quarters, worthy of hymning, praiseworthy, worthy of praise for great and small alike to live.
Atharvaveda (Paippalāda)
The solar deity, invoked as instrument, model of radiance, purifier, and scorching power in love magic.
With the mouth of Bṛhaspati I implore you;
Sent by Sūrya, O owl — I cook you together.
Just as gold shines at the rising of the sun, so may my face shine with golden color, O Aśvins.
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa
The sun, personified and described as sympathetically affected by the sorrow of Rāma's exile.
the sun seemed to disappear;
the sun gave no warmth to the world — the entire universe was thrown into confusion.
Surveying the entire city and thinking only of Rāma, the lamenting king entered his palace as the sun enters a cloud.
Orations
The sun personified as a god who tirelessly serves and sustains mankind, used as an extended analogy for the ideal king's selfless labor.
But as it is, like one touching the notes on a lyre in tune, he never departs from the pure and consummate harmony, ever going the one and the same road.
But where God, the fairest and most conspicuous of all, does not disdain through all time to care for men, surely a man who is god-beloved and prudent ought not to be burdened by such a task, but should, so far as he is able, imitate that god's power and humanity?
—making and distinguishing the seasons, increasing and nourishing all living things and all plants, furnishing the fairest and sweetest of sights, light, without which there is no benefit even in the other fair things, neither heavenly nor earthly—nay, not even in living;
Sāmaveda
The sun-deity, addressed directly as the unsetting traveler who beholds the whole world.
truly you are great, O Āditya.
You travel, O Sun, as the unsetting one.
Āditya, Viṣṇu, Sūrya, Brahmā, and Bṛhaspati —
Vīramitrodaya
The sun, treated as a celestial deity subject to eclipse by Rāhu
this becomes its eclipse.
in a solar eclipse, it enters the sun.
'In its own eclipse' = in a lunar eclipse.
Theogony
Sun-god, son of Hyperion and Theia, named among the gods praised by the Muses and among the children of Hyperion.
And Theia was subject in love to Hyperion and bore great Helius (Sun) and clear Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn) who shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven.
Thence they arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising Zeus the aegis-holder, and queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals, and the daughter of Zeus the aegis-holder bright-eyed Athena, and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon the earth holder who shakes the earth, and revered Themis, and quick-glancing …
And Perseis, the daughter of Ocean, bore to unwearying Helios Circe and Aeetes the king.
Manusmṛti
Solar deity whose gradual, sustained drawing of water models the king's taxation of his kingdom.
As the Sun for eight months draws up water with its rays, so should he constantly draw taxes from his kingdom;
A king should follow the brilliant conduct of Indra, of the Sun, of the Wind, of Yama, of Varuṇa, of the Moon, of Agni, and of the Earth.
Through his power, he is Agni and he is the Wind, he is the Sun, he is Soma, he is the King of Dharma (Yama);
Cyropaedia
A divine recipient of horses and a sacred chariot in Cyrus's procession.
and next, for the Sun, a chariot drawn by white horses and wreathed with garlands like the other.
then they gave the horses to the flames in honour of the Sun;
Against Ctesiphon
Divine or cosmic witness invoked in the closing appeal.
Be ye my witnesses, O Earth and Sun, and virtue and Conscience, and Education, by which we distinguish the honorable and the base, that I have heard my country’s call, and have spoken.
Clouds
Helios/the Sun, briefly personified in the parabasis as withdrawing his light in protest against Cleon's election.
and the Sun immediately drew in his wick to himself, and declared he would not give you light, if Cleon should be your general.
On the Nature of the Gods
The sun, argued to be a fiery living being and reckoned among the gods, and described governing the seasons.
And first the sun, which holds the chief place among the stars, moves so that, when it has filled the lands with its broad light, it shadows the same now from these parts now from those;
Wherefore, since the fire of the sun is like those fires which are in the bodies of living creatures, the sun too must be a living being, and likewise the rest of the stars which arise in that heavenly heat which is called ether or sky.
'Therefore,' he says, 'since the sun is fiery and is fed by the moisture of the Ocean' (for no fire can endure without some nourishment), 'it must of necessity be either like that fire which we employ for use and for living, or like that which is contained in the bodies of living creatures.
Protrepticus
Sun-god shown wounded like a mortal, per Panyassis.
yes, and Homer says that Aïdoneus was shot by Heracles, and Panyassis records that Helios was.
Phoenissae
The sun god, addressed by Jocasta at the very start of the play as the source of light over doomed Thebes.
Jocasta:
The Histories
Sun-god whose heat, in the daughter's dream and its fulfillment, is imagined as anointing the crucified Polycrates with sweat.
she dreamt that she saw her father in the air overhead being washed by Zeus and anointed by Helios;
for he was washed by Zeus when it rained, and he was anointed by Helios as he exuded sweat from his body.
Epigrams
The solar deity identified as Circe's father.
And you, too, daughter of the Sun, Circe the witch, come and cast cruel spells;
Iliad
Sun god invoked as recipient of sacrifice and as witness to Agamemnon's oath.
furthermore let Talthybios find me a boar from those that are with the host, and make it ready for sacrifice to Zeus and to the sun.
The other Achaeans sat where they were all silent and orderly to hear the king, and Agamemnon looked into the vault of heaven and prayed saying, "I call Zeus the first and mightiest of all gods to witness, I call also Earth and Sun and the Erinyes who dwell below and take vengeance on him who shall swear falsely, that I have laid no hand upon the girl Briseis, neither to take her to my bed nor oth …
Odyssey
The Sun-god whose sacred cattle were eaten by Odysseus's companions, causing their destruction.
but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer recklessness in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Helios;
Hymn 2 to Demeter
Helios is the sun god and witness who reveals to Demeter that Zeus gave Persephone to Hades.
So they came to Helios, who is watchman of both gods and men, and stood in front of his horses:
And Hades seized her and took her loudly crying in his chariot down to his realm of mist and gloom.
None other of the deathless gods is to blame, but only cloud-gathering Zeus who gave her to Hades, her father's brother, to be called his buxom wife.
Hymn 28 to Athena
Helios appears by patronymic as the bright son of Hyperion whose horses stop during Athena's manifestation.
the bright Son of Hyperion stopped his swift-footed horses a long while, until the maiden Pallas Athena had stripped the heavenly armour from her immortal shoulders.
Hymn 31 to Helios
Solar deity, child of Hyperion and Euryphaessa, sibling of Eos and Selene, who shines on gods and mortals while riding through heaven.
And now, O Muse Calliope, daughter of Zeus, begin to sing of glowing Helios whom mild-eyed Euryphaessa, the far-shining one, bare to the Son of Earth and starry Heaven.
Then, when he has stayed his golden-yoked chariot and horses, he rests there upon the highest point of heaven, until he marvelously drives them down again through heaven to Ocean.
Hymn 4 to Hermes
Helios is invoked by Hermes as a revered god during his denial before Zeus.
I reverence Helios greatly and the other gods, and you I love and him I dread.
Meditations
The Sun, treated both as one of 'the other gods' and as a natural phenomenon used in extended analogy.
Even the Sun will say, "I have come into being for some work," and so the other gods.
The sun seems to be poured down, and on every side indeed it is poured out, yet not poured away.
Olympian
Sun god, husband of Rhodes, overlooked when the gods first divided the earth, who then received the island of Rhodes as his own by divine oath and fathered seven sons upon it.
And when Helios mentioned it, Zeus was about to order a new casting of lots, but Helios did not allow him.
And there he once lay with Rhodes, and begat seven sons who inherited from him the wisest minds in the time of earlier men;
The ancient stories of men tell that when Zeus and the immortals were dividing the earth among them, Rhodes was not yet visible in the expanse of the sea, but the island was hidden in the salty depths.
Also present in:
Cratylus · Symposium · On Providence · Sāṃkhyatattvavivecana · Ajax · Oedipus at Colonus · Oedipus Tyrannus · Ad Nationes · Apologeticum · De Spectaculis · Bṛhaspati Smṛti · Parāśara Smṛti · Vratisasana · Vrhaspatitattva · Yājñavalkya Smṛti