Solar Deities

Construction for the first phase of Morocco’s Noor 1 power plant is nearing completion. Once complete in 2020, the solar farm will be the largest of its kind in the world. 

But even now, the plant’s half-million solar mirrors are already visible from space.

There’s no question that solar power is the future, an energy trend that’s fueling the development of massive solar farms in such places as California, China, and elsewhere. 

And where better to put these plants than in the desert—areas that feature plenty of sunshine and vast expanses of land that are otherwise useless and inhospitable. 

Morocco’s up-and-coming Noor 1 CSP plant is a prime example. 

The first phase of this concentrated solar power plant, which is being built in the Sahara Desert near the town of Ouarzazate, is almost finished. 

In the middle of nowhere: the plant is 10 miles from the closest town.

 

A view from the ground (Credit: AP)

http://gizmodo.com/watch-a-massive-solar-power-plant-take-shape-in-the-sah-1752261396

Sun Gods and Sun Goddesses

Is it any wonder ancients worshiped the Sun?

In ancient cultures, where you find gods with specialized functions, you'll probably find a sun god or goddess.

Many are humanoid and ride or drive a vessel of sort across the sky. It may be a boat, a chariot, or a cup.

The sun god of the Greeks and Romans rode in a 4-horse (Pyrios, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon) chariot.

There may be more than one god of the sun. The Egyptians differentiated among the aspects of the sun, and had several gods associated with it: Khepri for the rising sun, Atum, the setting, and Ra, at noon, who rode across the sky in a solar bark.

The Greeks and Romans also had more than one sun god.

You may notice that most sun deities are male and act as counterparts to female moon deities, but don't take this as a given. There are goddesses of the sun just as there are male deities of the moon.



Is it any wonder ancients worshiped the Sun?

Name  Nationality/Religion  God or Goddess or ?

 Amaterasu Japan Sun Goddess 

Arinna (Hebat) Hittite (Syrian) Sun Goddess 

The Iconography of Religion in the Hittite, Luwian, and Aramaean Kingdoms PDF

Apollo Greece and Rome Sun God 

Freyr Norse Sun God Not the main Norse sun god, but a fertility god associated with the sun.

Garuda Hindu Bird God

Helios (Helius) Greece Sun God Before Apollo was the Greek sun god, Helios held that position.

Hepa Hittite Sun Goddess The consort of a weather god, she was assimilated with the sun goddess 

Arinna.Huitzilopochtli (Uitzilopochtli)  Aztec Sun God 

Hvar Khshaita Iranian/Persian Sun God Earlier than Mithras.

Inti  Inca  Sun God  

Liza West African Sun God

Lugh Celtic Sun God 

MithrasIranian/Persian Sun God"Mit(h)ra(s) and the Myths of the Sun" David H. Sick. Numen (2004)

Re (Ra) Egypt Mid-day Sun God An Egyptian god shown with a solar disk. Center of worship was Heliopolis. Later associated with Horus as Re-Horakhty. Also combined with Amun as Amun-Ra, a solar creator god. 

Shemesh/Shepesh Ugarit Sun goddess 

Female solar deities (Jürg Eggler) PDF

Sol (Sunna)Norse Sun Goddess She rides in a horse-drawn solar chariot.

Sol Invictus Roman Sun God

The unconquered sun. A late Roman sun god. The title was also used of Mithras

Surya Hindu Sun God Rides the sky in a horse-drawn chariot. 

Tonatiuh Aztec Sun God

  

Utu (Shamash) Mesopotamia Sun God 




http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/sungodsgoddesses/a/070809sungods.htm

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