page_title: Sol Invictus
section_title: Judaism
hierarchical_section_title: Sol Invictus / Legacy / Judaism
caption_attribution_description: English: Byzantine mosaic of a Zodiac Wheel — from the 6th century ancient Beth Alpha synagogue. Located near Beit Alfa kibbitz, in northern Israel. Français&#160;: Israël - Mosaïque de la synagogue antique Beit Alpha à la représentaion naïve, que l'on croirait dessinée par un enfant. De plus les signes du zodiaque ne sont pas correctement disposés par rapport aux 4 saisons. Il s'agit d'une mauvaise imitation, inspirée d'autres mosaiques, où l'exécutant ne comprenait pas réellement ce qu'il dessinait. Il y a aussi la possibilité que les quatres coins ne représentent pas les quatre saisons mais plûtot les gardiens des vents comme l'indique le Sepher Jézirah dans sa description des forces naturelles influençant le monde de l'homme
context_page_description: Sol Invictus was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers. On 25 December AD 274, the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree about whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol, a revival of the cult of Elagabalus, or completely new. The god was favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until the last third-part of the reign of Constantine I. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to AD 387, and there were enough devotees in the fifth century that the Christian theologian Augustine found it necessary to preach against them.
context_section_description: The traditional image of the Sun has also been used in early Jewish art. A mosaic floor in Hamat Tiberias presents David as Helios surrounded by a ring with the signs of the zodiac. As well as in Hamat Tiberias, figures of Helios or Sol Invictus also appear in several of the very few surviving schemes of decoration surviving from Late Antique synagogues, including Beth Alpha, Husefa, all now in Israel, and Naaran in the West Bank. He is shown in floor mosaics, with the usual radiate halo, and sometimes in a quadriga, in the central roundel of a circular representation of the zodiac or the seasons. These combinations "may have represented to an agricultural Jewish community the perpetuation of the annual cycle of the universe or ... the central part of a calendar".
caption: Mosaic in the Beth Alpha synagogue, with the Sun in the centre, surrounded by the twelve zodiac constellations and with the four seasons associated inaccurately with the constellations
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