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The solar gods vary according to religion and traditions. In early cultures, where deities have specialized functions, it is possible to find one or more sun gods or goddesses within the same religious tradition.
Many goddesses and sun gods have human figures and qualities, and travel or drive some kind of vehicle across the sky. It can be a ship, or a carriage. The sun god of the Greeks and Romans, for example, traveled in a chariot drawn by four steeds: Pyrios, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon. The name of the steeds refers to the qualities of the sun; its meaning is igneous, dawn, resplendent and burning.
In Hindu traditions, the sun god Surya traveled across the sky in a chariot drawn by seven horses, or by a single seven-headed horse. As a deity of the sun, he represents a triple aspect: it illuminates, it gives life and it nourishes. The chariot driver is Aruná, the personification of the god of dawn. In Hindu mythology , the god of the fight against the demons of darkness and are in opposition, since darkness devours life, while the god of the sun is and gives life.
There may be more than one sun god. The Egyptians distinguished between different aspects of the sun and had several gods associated with it: Jepri for the rising sun, Atum for the setting sun, and Horajti for the midday sun, which crossed the sky in a solar barque. Each one of them was an entity referring to the main god Ra, creator of life, and who, depending on the moment of the trip, manifested himself with one of those three expressions. The Greeks and Romans also had more than one sun god.
the solar goddesses
Most of the solar deities are male and act as counterparts to the female lunar deities, but this was not always the case. In some cases the roles were reversed. There are sun goddesses just as there are male moon deities. In Norse mythology, for example, Sól (also called Sunna) is the sun goddess, while her brother Máni is the moon god. Sól rides a carriage drawn by two golden horses, Arvak and Alsvid, who are the ones who emit the light, while Sól provides the heat that gives life.
Another sun goddess is Amaterasu, an important deity in the Shinto religion of Japan. Her brother, Tsukuyomi, is the god of the moon. The Japanese imperial family is said to be descended from the sun goddess.
| Name | Origin/Religion | God or Goddess? | Grades |
| Amaterasu | Japan | Goddess of the sun | Principal deity of the Shinto religion. |
| Arina (Hebat) | Hittite (Syria) | Goddess of the sun | The most important of the three main Hittite sun deities. |
| Apollo | Greece and Rome | God of the sun | |
| Frey | Nordic | sun god | He is not a main Norse god, but a fertility god associated with the sun. |
| Garuda | Hindu | god bird | |
| Helios | Greece | sun god | Before Apollo was the Greek sun god, Helios had that role. |
| Hepa | Hittite | Goddess of the sun | The consort of the weather god was associated with the sun goddess Arianna. |
| Huitzilopochtli (Uitzilopochtli) | Aztec | sun god | |
| Hvar Khshaita | Iranian/Persian | sun god | |
| inti | Inca | sun god | The main god of the Inca culture. |
| liza | West Africa | sun god | |
| Lugus | Celtic | sun god | |
| Miter | Iranian/Persian | sun god | |
| Re (Ra) | Egypt | sun god | Egyptian god represented with a solar disk. The center of his cult was Heliopolis. He was later associated with Horus as Re-Horakhty. He was also associated with Amun as Amun-Ra, a solar creator god. |
| Shemesh/Shepesh | Ugarit | Goddess of the sun | |
| Sol (Sunna) | Nordic | Goddess of the sun | She drives a carriage drawn by solar horses. |
| Sol Invictus | Roman | sun god | A late period Roman sun god. |
| Suria | Hindu | sun god | Ride into the sky in a horse-drawn carriage. |
| tonatiuh | Aztec | sun god | Solar god of the fifth era, or also called the fifth sun. |
| Utu (Shamash) | Mesopotamia | sun god |
Sources
J. G. Frazer. The golden bough: a study in magic and religion . New York, Simon & Schuster, 1996.
W. Burkert. Ancient mystery cults . Cambridge. Harvard University Press , 1987.
