The sun is frequently described as a male emblem, associated with reason, consciousness, and benevolence. The antagonism between the ‘‘masculine" sun and the ‘‘feminine" moon, the latter embodying such attributes as emotion and irrationality (‘‘lunacy" is derived from the Latin word for moon) is commonly described by writers influenced by essentialist views of gender. However, cross-cultural mythical comparisons do not support such arguments.
The sun has been regarded as a goddess by more cultures than as a deity. The Celts, pre-Hellenic Greeks, Baltic peoples such as Lithuanians and Latvians, Finns and related Hungarians, Scandinavians and Germans, and Slavic peoples all saw the sun as female in Europe (see Saul, Sól, Beiwe and Xatel-Ekwa, and Solntse in those sections, respectively).
Sun goddesses can be found all over the world:
In Arabia (Al-Lat), Australia (Bila, Walo), India (Bisal-Mariamna, Bomong, Kn Sgni), and Sri Lanka (Pattin); among the Hittites (Wurusemu), Egyptians (Hathor, Sekhmet), and Babylonians (Shapash); in Native America (Unelanuhi), Natchez (Wal Sil), I The sun goddess is frequently pictured as benevolent and maternal, willingly dispersing her warmth among her earthly children. n. Along the Baltic Sea coasts, Lithuanians imagined the sun as Saul, the adored sun-mother who danced in silver shoes on the hilltops on summer nights.
The sun as a spinner or weaver, a lady who casts light strands over the s, is a similar picture. Sól, a Scandinavian, was said to sit at the edge of the globe every dawn, weaving a net of sunlight.
The sun goddess was portrayed as active in providing for her children's needs, much like a mother in a subsistence economy. This would be food and clothes in the case of a human mother; in the case of the sun, the goddess gives the light that helps plants to grow and therefore supplies us nourishment. These sun goddesses were sometimes connected with birth, both because of the sun's mother character and because a child sees the sun for the first time at birth; Roman Lucina, "light," was one such goddess, as was Baltic Sa.
Sun goddesses may express a variety of emotions, not just maternal love.
Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of earthly pleasures, especially the arts and crafts, was represented as a cat. Sekhmet, a kindred goddess, portrayed the luminary's most frightening characteristics, since she could become as enraged and destructive against humankind as the furious desert sun.
The daughter of the Hungarian sun goddess XatelEkwa, who baked young males she considered attractive, combines violence and desire. Myths interpret the sun's departure in the winter as a transgression, often an incestuous Saul's Meita, daughter of the Baltic sun goddess, was defiled by her father, the moon.
Malina, the Inuit sun goddess, was defiled by her brother and tore off one breast before soaring into the sky to leave him; she became the sun, while he became the moon. Her brother threatened the Khasi goddess Ka Sgni with incest, but she escaped by searing his face with ashes, which may still be seen on the moon today (see image below).
The legendary motif is sometimes not rape but the threat of violent violence, such as when the Finnish sun goddess Päivätär was kidnapped from the sky by the winter-winter gods. After being threatened with death by gremlins, the Saami Akanidi (see Finno-Ugric) withdrew from earth.
Sometimes, like in the example of the Japanese Amaterasu, who hid in a cave after being insulted by her brother, the sun retreats on her own own. Similarly, the yearly disappearance of the Siberian Kaja é was seen as the goddess's yearly absence.
A different version of the disappearance narrative may be found in South America, where the sun-woman Akewa was abandoned in the sky when her sister suns descended to the earth because they were curious about the men who had taken her place. The sun ladies were stuck on earth after a hairy earthling bit the solar ladder in half, and they became moms. As a result, themes of withdrawal and loss are part of the sun goddess. s mythology.
From the dawn of time, stories about the sun shifting its location have been told. Miwok Hekoolas, who was stranded on one side of the sky, was hauled into her curre. Among the Cherokee, Kanene Ski Amai Yehi, the spider goddess, was the only animal capable of bringing the sun to this side of the globe in a hand-held vessel. But she placed it too near to the ground, and the animal elders had to push the sun away. Tso, the Tunica sun goddess, relocated herself after realizing she was roasting people with her heat (see North America).
Sun goddesses are associated with death and ultimate rebirth, since the luminary fades into darkness each evening but reappears the next morning.
The British Sul was personified in hot springs in Bath, where she was said to descend at nightfall to go underneath the ground, heating the thermal waters as she travelled through. Those who bathed at her temple were said to absorb the power and endurance of a goddess who might appear to die again every day. Finally, the eye is a frequent emblem for the sun goddess, as the goddess is pictured as an eye in the sky, able to view everything. She is sometimes connected with fortune reading because of her height, which allows her to view the past, present, and future. Hittite Wurusemu was linked with such activities, as were other sun goddesses; she was also a goddess of fate, regulating everyone's fate.
Despite the fact that goddesses inextricably linked to the sun may be found in many civilizations, scholarly prejudice in favor of the solar masculine has led to the misinterpretation of many goddesses with solar connotations.
The well-known image of the Greek Medusa, whose snake-crowned countenance resembles the rayed sun, has been characterized as representing Several Irish characters, such as Griánne and ine, have solar affinities but are not generally referred to as such.
As a result, determining which goddesses may be classified as solar divinities is a worthwhile endeavor.
~Kiran Atma
You may also want to read more about Goddess Symbolism here.
