The Sun

## General Information

The sun is a class G2V star in the primary cycle of its life which the planets of our solar system orbit. That means that it's taking hydrogen and fusing it together to produce helium, heat, and white light. While the sun appears yellow (or at times orange or red), it gives off a white light which is diffused through the atmosphere.

The rotation of the earth provides the illusion of the sun rising and falling over the course of the day, the times when the sun is visible being known as daytime, and the time the sun is not visible is known as night. The shift from night to day is known as dawn, occurring along the eastern horizon, and the shift from day to night is known as dusk occurring along the western horizon. When the sun is at its highest point in the cycle, directly above, it's called the zenith.

Because of the axial tilt of the earth, the amount of time the sun is visible in a day varies over the course of a year, the shortest daytime length is the winter solstice, the longest daytime length is the summer solstice, and the days which are divided evenly between night and day are the spring and fall equinoxes: each day marks the semi-official transition from one season into the next, although the weather tends to shift a month to a month and a half ahead of each day in most climates.

Occasionally, the moon will pass in front of the sun, and the relative sizes and distances are coincidentally just right causing the sun to nearly fully disappear behind the moon for a specific region of the world; partial eclipses occur around the area of total eclipse.

## General Impressions

Since the sun is visible during the daytime it associates with that time readily. It also associates with the dawn and dusk (although the impression of the dawn is more direct compared to dusk since the sun is coming rather than going), since its partially visible. The night associates with it antithetically. Additionally, it associates with summer and spring since the sun is more visible during those times of the year.

Since the sun is the direct source of most heat on earth, it quickly associates to heat, warmth, light. It also associates to plant growth and life, since those follow heat and light. The Grecian element of fire also associates with the sun following those impressions of heat, warmth light.

The behavior of reptiles basking in the sun to gather body heat also causes them to associate with the sun.

Since the sun is a near constant object, the sun shining is considered the default weather: this results in the sun associating to time as it's regular enough to keep basic track of things.

Since the moon is most visible when the sun isn't, it associates with the sun antithetically.

Since the sun is often the same set of warm colors it associates to yellow, orange, and red.

## Cultural Specific Impressions

### Grecoroman

There were two sun deities in the Grecoroman pantheon Helios (Sol) was the elder sun deity (a titan), and driving the sun across the sky seems to have been their only divine responsibility, causing few impressions other than chariots, horses, and masculinity (since the deity driving the sun was masculine). When the task later shifted to Apollo (Apollo) who was a much more eclectic god, the sun associated to each of Apollo's other domains including music, poetry, beauty, archery, medicine, plague, prophecy, and goodness. Apollo being one of the more wholesome deities in the pantheon also caused the sun to associate to hope, or more specifically the sun already had the impression of the dawn which associated to hope.

Since Apollo's twin sister Artemis (Diana) gained domain over the moon, the moon was especially antithetical to the sun, and each of her domains including hunting, wildlife (specifically: stags), and virginity. Interestingly, Artemis also used a bow, causing it to associate with the sun both directly and antithetically.

### Egyptian

The old Egyptian pantheon is one of the most complex systems of divinity, with each god having several aspects which are treated separately from each other but are still the same god. The god of the sun Ra was no different, having three or four different aspects as well as each pharaoh being considered an aspect of Ra incarnate that rejoined him after death.

As the former ruler of the pantheon, Ra causes his domain to associate to royalty, which is doubled up by the belief that his

During the day, Ra travels on the sun barge through the sky until night when they have to pass through the underworld. As they enter the underworld, Ra dies; the journey through the underworld is made up of twelve stages during which other divines protect Ra's body from threats. During the journey, the scarab god Khepri merges with Ra and causes Ra to be reborn as their aspect of the dawn-sun Khepri-Ra.

This myth causes the sun to associate to rebirth and scarabs through the dawn, as well as death through dusk and night. Ra's typical iconography as a man with a falcon head causes the sun to associate to falcons as well. The journey also associates Ra antithetically to snakes.

It should be noted that most Egyptian gods don't have a single gender, but are rather genderless with different gendered aspects; this allows the sun to easily associate with masculinity or femininity depending on context.

### Aztec

Huitzilopochtli is the Aztec god of the sun, and they gathered strength from blood sacrifice so that they could raise in the morning and prevent the infinite night. As with most of the Aztec pantheon that we're aware of (as filtered through the quite dubious accounts of Spaniard conquistadors), Huitzilopochtli was a war god first and every other domain was secondary to that: this made the sun associate to war and blood.

## Literary Examples

### "Kiss of the Sun" by Mary Ruefle

In this short poem, the speaker is preplanning the after party at the end of the world so they can be found: the plan is that she will throw an orange as high into the air as possible to catch the addressed attention. The language of the poem associates the orange to the sun, creating a symbol of the orange as a facsimile for the sun.

## Notes

The sun is often associated to lions or vis-versa. The author of this page is currently uncertain about the source of this association.