See Also: Worship(medicine)
WORSHIP, Eng(law)
sun worship(encyclopedia)
worship(2)(dictionary)
worship(1)(dictionary)
will-worship(dictionary)
WORSHIP(law)
ancestor worship(encyclopedia)
hero worship(dictionary)
worship 1, verb(dictionary)

sun worship (sh)




Veneration of the sun or its representation as a deity.

It appears in several early cultures, notably in ancient Egypt, Indo-Europe, and Mesoamerica, where urban civilizations were combined with a strong ideology of sacred kingship, in which kings ruled by the power of the sun and claimed descent from it. The imagery of the sun as the ruler of both the upper and the lower world, which he visits daily, was prominent. Sun heroes and deities also figure in many mythologies, including Indo-Iranian, Greco-Roman, and Scandinavian. In late Roman history, sun worship was of such importance that it was later called "solar monotheism." See also Amaterasu, Re, Shamash, Sol, Surya, Tonatiuh.