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Sun and Sun Worship Sunday THE, NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
producing the moon-god). Native conceptions vary from the animistic, which induce worship of the physical sun (still to be seen), to the anthropomorphic which regards her as a deity whose sphere of control centers in the sun. She figures as a beneficent goddess whose chief care is the welfare of .mankind, in the exercise of this providing them with seeds and showing them how to cultivate rice. The mirror is her emblem, and as such is in itself an object of reverence and worship, with ceremonies peculiar to itself. The sun crow, a fabulous creation, is her sacred bird and messenger (cf. the eagle-hawk of the Egyptian-Semitic-Greek deities and the ravens of W otan or Odin). For a prayer to this deity offered in 870 A.D. cf. W. G. Ashton, Shinto, pp. 125-127 (London, 1905). The idea of different sun-gods for different parts of the day reappears in Japan. Waka-hirume (" young-sun-female ") is the morning sun, as is also Ho-no-akari, while Ho-no-susori is the noon sun and Ho-no-wori the evening sun. Other mythical sun-gods are known, as Nigi-hays-hi (" gentle-swift-sun "), and Hiruko, the first-born of Izanagi and Izanami.
8. Western Indo-European Peoples: Among the Aryan nations of the West the cult of the sun takes a relatively unimportant place. The Greeks and Romans, it is true, were devoted to Apollo. But the mature form of this deity is the result of a long period of development, as is manifest from the diverse epithets and the variant rites employed in his worship. Amalgamation with other gods is evident, and that solar deities were among these is unquestionable. Helios (Latin, Sol) and Apollo were originally distinct (cf. L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, iv. 136 sqq., Oxford, 1907), and the merging of the two was completed only by the Romans of imperial times, so that not until the Christian era was Apollo made to ride in the chariot of the sun, and apparently not till the Roman period in Greek history did he receive the rayed crown. The identification of Helios and Apollo at the end of the second Christian century is explicitly attested by Pausanias (VIL, xxiii. 8; Frazer's transl., i. 364, London, 1898), but how much earlier this had come about is uncertain. Among the gods who went into the composition of Apollo is a Cretan deity figured with rays streaming from his shoulders much like those of the Babylonian Shamash (ut sup., II., 2; cf. A. J. Evans, in Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxi., 1901, p. 170). The identification of Apollo had, however, been growing for centuries, and it was in part due to this phase of his being, though also to his activities as an oracle god and to his relation to music, that he was one of the most influential members of the Greco-Roman pantheon. He inspired some of the noblest productions both in art and literature (cf. the Homeric hymn to Apollo, Eng. trans). and discussion by Andrew Lang in Homeric Hymns, London, 1899). The early Teutons and Scandinavians undoubtedly had a cult of the sun-such antiquities as a sun chariot with six wheels and disk and horse being conclusive (cf. K. Blind, " A Prehistoric SunChariot in Denmark," in Westminster Review, elx., 1903, pp. 552-558). Evidential also is the cycle of festivals at critical points in the year,-at the winter and summer solstices and in spring and autumn.
But the Teutonic pantheon as reflected in the Eddas and sagas seems to contain no sun-deity unless Balder be one. That he was a light-god is clear, but that he was solar is disputed.
9. Primitive Peoples : In the barbarous stage of civilization, as well as among the more advanced stages, the cult of the sun is often registered by symbolic acts which, though they do not always involve actual worship, yet are indicative of a high degre8 of reverence. Such are the Sioux customs of looking toward,the sun when they smoke the ceremonial pipe and of presenting to him the calumet; that of the Natchez of smoking toward the east at sunrise, and that of burial of the dead facing the east as practised by Ainus, Guarayos, Yunanas, and Australians. Sometimes the evidence demonstrates worship, as is the case among many American Indian tribes which perpetuate the sun-dance, an annual ceremony performed during the first week of July. In this ceremony the sun's benefactions are remembered and he is praised as the giver of life to man and its supporter, the donor of corn and the one who makes it grow, and also as giving success in the hunt. At that time prayers are offered for continuation of his gifts and sacrifices are made to him. Primitive peoples often registered their adoration of the sun by cruel rites, especially by human sacrifice. In Central and South America the first-born was usually the sacrifice to the sun (cf. J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough, ii. 52 sqq., London, 1900; where cases are collected). In the Aztec region one of the great deities of the official cult was the sun-god Ometecutli (" twice lord," i.e., supreme lord), and a sort of derivative was Uitzilopochtli, the sun of spring, summer, and autumn, whose messenger was the humming bird. He was beloved, the people called themselves his children, and they delighted in praising his qualities of kindness and his benefactions. His worship was performed eight times each twenty-four hours, conducted by courses of priests. At three annual festivals his glory was celebrated, in May, August, and December. At the last was performed one of the rites which so astounded the early Roman Catholic missionaries-the making of an image of the sun-god in dough mixed with the blood of slaughtered infants, piercing it with an arrow (to typify the death of the fading sun), and then eating it in sacramental fashion. The winter sun, Tezeatlipoca, brother of Uitzilopochtli, was different in qualities, being stern where his brother was kind, a god of judgment and retribution. Among the Gonds, a Dravidian tribe of India, the sun was the chief object of worship and to him human sacrifices were offered, which were later represented by a manikin of straw. Similarly the Khonds of India offered human beings in sacrifice to him, though he was not their chief deity. The Santhals regard the sun as the highest of all spirits. Among other Dravidian tribes he was adored both as the creator and as the paradise of souls. GEO. W. GILMORE.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: For the cult of the sun in the SemiticEgyptian-Hittite region consult: E. Renan, Mission de Phenicie, Paris, 1864; E. M. De Vogue, Melanges d'archkologie orientale, Paris, 1869; idem, Syrie, Palestine, Mount Athos, ib. 1876; C. R. Conder, in PEF, Quarterly Statement, 1881. 80-84; F. A. Palsy, Gold-TVOrship in its Relation to Sun-worship, in Contemporary Review, xlvi (1884),
