The Sun as a Cultural Symbol
Illumination. Vigor. Power. Glory. The sun has long been associated with these ideas and has often been seen as the primary source of life on earth.
Rulers have often used the sun as symbol to burnish their own power and authority. The Incas of Peru believed the sun god Inti was the ancestor of the Inca royal family. In Japanese tradition, the country's imperial family is said to be descended from Amaterasu, the sun goddess. Most notoriously, King Louis XIV of France called himself the Sun King as a way of asserting absolute power over his subjects.
The sun has also been used as a symbol of fertility and healing. The Hittites of ancient Turkey worshiped Arinna, an important goddess of both the sun and fertility. The Romans saw their sun god Apollo as an avatar of healing. Celtic peoples believed Belenus (their god of sunlight) drove away the predawn mists each day, and likewise could melt away disease from the sick.
In many myths, the sun deity travels across the heavens in a chariot or boat. Therefore, the sun often represents a journey or adventure. The Greek sun god Helios drove his fiery chariot through heavens by day and each night floated back across the ocean in a golden bowl.
The Egyptian sun god Ra journeyed across the sky, and at night he passed through the underworld, visiting the dead. Ra's daily cycle symbolized death and rebirth. For the Egyptians each sunrise was a celebration of the eternal return and a sacred victory of life and light over death and darkness.