CHAPTER ONE

The sun and the living world

The Sun god

As soon as man began to think he tried to understand and be in the universe, and he could not ignore the considerable influence exercised on his own life, the elements of its environment and first, the sun beats day and night that regulate its activity, seasons that trigger the phenomena of vegetation, the years carry slowly toward the grave. PLATO, who taught philosophy four centuries BC, asserted that "the demiurge of all that has been done is the general geometry and arithmetic of the universe, the sun".

The ancient civilizations have given great importance to the Sun, but not quite understanding what was its nature and how he acted, they were believed to conciliate his favor in the deifying. It is striking indeed to see, and many archaeological research have revealed the number of gods who once called the sun. A flight quickly these old beliefs:

In Mesopotamia, which has established one of the oldest civilizations, that of Sumer, about 4000 BC, the Sun God was UTU (there is also the spelling Hutu, and these small differences are very common in all archaeological publications). In this area subject to intense sunlight, the influence of sunlight, benefit in the spring, could be harmful in summer, and the old Sumerian legend relates the gardener, as before, we used the shade of some trees (the sarbatu ?) to host cultures. The Epic of GILGAMESCH hero off in search of the cedars "country living", does not end happily, thanks to the intervention of God UTU.

Settled after Sumer, Mesopotamia, civilizations of ASSUR, north, and BABYLON in the south. In the latter city, the gods could be grouped into triads. The first appeared MARDUK, God of heaven,
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and second, SHAMASH, the Sun God. The latter, often represented by a winged lion as its emblem was the solar disk. SHAMASH symbolized at the same time, justice, because, by definition, the sun hunting at night, enabling the wicked, he floods the world with his light and sees everything. One of the kings of this period, HAMMURABI, prolific legislator, is represented in the position of adoration before the god SHAMASH.

At about the same time, Egypt also honored the sun. When MENES, king of the deserts of the south, extended his dominion, 3000 BC, the whole Nile valley, we saw multiply temples and pyramids, statues and bas-reliefs, frescoes and of manuscripts, deciphered fairly recently showed the importance attached by the Egyptians to the influence of solar gods. The Sun God was RÂ (or Re): "it is morning, God in his boat and takes the name of KHEPRI. At its zenith, it really is RA, then descends to the horizon, lies down and becomes ATOUM ".

It then changes to boat and sailing in the spaces below, within the earth NOUT, he disappears to reappear the next morning. In conjunction with this apparent death, and with this resurrection, the Egyptian priests were at first involve the Pharaoh (son of Re), then a number of dignitaries, then all the people in this solar cycle to the make immortal. This cult was especially developed in HÉLIOPOLIS, whose name is very significant, and MEMPHIS, the Nile delta. The king of gods, AMON, was often associated with Re, the Sun God and the deity AMON-RÊ was worshiped as one God.

But it is especially AMENOPHIS IV (who took the name Akhenaten), nearly 14 centuries BC, who developed the cult of the sun and erected in the state religion. A local god, ATON, was the only known solar god. He was represented by a solar disc whose rays terminated by hands, caressing and protecting members of the family of Pharaoh (Fig. 1). He addressed hymns, sometimes very beautiful, like the often quoted excerpt from the "Book of the Dead":

You appear in beauty on the horizon of heaven,
Hard living, who have opened the life ...
.................................

Thy rays nourish the campaign,
When you shine, plants live and grow with you.
You make the seasons to develop what you have created.

It was not until more recent times to find phrases such lyricism and such a surge.

Philosophy Egyptian reported, however, that re, landing on the "primitive hill", had created the visible world, the pyramids were,

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perhaps testing the recovery of the sacred hill. As for temples adorned with obelisks, of significance probably marked a solar symbolism, they were built so that direct light was decreasing until the central sanctuary which was the effigy of every God, as in within the earth NOUT. This God was every year, displayed in ceremony in the light of day.


FIGURE 1 - AKHENATON making a libation to God ATON (Cairo Museum).

The secondary gods were often depicted adorned with a sun disk, HATHOR, HORUS the falcon god, goddess SAKHMET the head of a lioness, HAPIS (or Apis) also, the sacred bull, appealed this symbol.

We could continue to monitor various aspects of these theogonies in primitive European civilizations: the Greeks, ZEUS, the "Father of light," HELIOS and the misadventures of his son PHAETON, and PROMETHEUS, stealing the heavenly chariot radius which was the soul of man.

JUPITER among the Romans and the Celts and EOL BELEN, BELTIN in Scotland, were gods whose brilliance was borrowed from the sun.

In ancient India, the Vedic period, several gods were, as in neighboring Iran, gasoline Solar (VAROUNA = AHURA MAZDAH, God

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Light, MITRA = MITHRA, the Sun God, AGNI, well, god of fire of the sun, and lightning). This nearly 1000 years BC

In Japan, one of the most popular legends is that of AMATERASOUKAMI, the Sun Goddess, who, having retired to a dark cave, the earth deprived of its light. With a magic mirror, the Goddess, still flirtatious wife and was drawn out of his cave, and light again ruled the world. The "Golden Mirror", a work of "Big Smith", reappears later in the mythical history of Japan.

Finally, from America, we know the wonder of the Spanish conquerors to the solar cults, sometimes bloody, still practiced almost 15 centuries AD: Aztecs, Mexico, honoring HUITZILOPOCHTLI, in sacrificing, the effigy of Engineering bloody CHAC-MOOL, mass casualties (20 000, they say, in 1486, during the reign of AHUITZOL) - the Maya, their neighbors, made the same solar worship God PIPlL. Further south, the Incas In the Andes, worshiped the sun as God of MANCO CAPAC, the conquistadors found in this country, temples dedicated to the sun, the houses of the "virgins of the sun" which is devoted to the worship of the sun, and very Many remnants of these beliefs, embodied by objects in gold, widely spread, and the appeal which they did not remain unaffected.

One could multiply and develop these various examples, it would only reinforce the idea that ancient civilizations, and other fairly recent times, deified the sun, making it the most striking tribute to his power and his role .