Winged sun

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Stele to Assurnasiripal II at Nimrud (9th century BC), detail showing the winged sun.

"Winged Sun of Thebes" (from Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity by Samuel Sharpe, 1863)

The winged sun is a symbol associated with royalty and power in the Ancient Near East (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia).

The symbol evolved into the Faravahar in Zoroastrian Persia.

Contents

1 Ancient Near East
2 Ancient Egyptian use
3 Modern use
4 Literature
5 External links

Ancient Near East

In Ancient Egypt, the symbol is attested from the Old Kingdom (Sneferu, 26th century BC), often flanked on either side with a uraeus. In early Egyptian religion, the symbol (Behedeti) represented Horus of Edfu, later identified with Ra-Harachte. It is sometimes depicted on the neck of Apis, the bull of Ptah.

From roughly 2000 BC, the symbol spread to the Levant and to Mesopotamia. It appears in reliefs with Assyrian rulers and in Hieroglyphic Luwian as a symbol for royalty, transcribed as SOL SUUS ("his majesty").

From ca. the 8th century BC, it appears on Hebrew seals, by now as a generic symbol for "power". One example is a seal where the winged sun is flanled by two Ankh symbols and a Hebrew inscription translating to "possession of Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, king of Juda". Numerous pottery finds dating to the same time bear the symbol together with the inscription lemelekh "king's [property]".

Compare also Malachi 4:2, referring to a winged "Sun of righteousness",

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings... (KJV)

Ancient Egyptian use

All of the subordinated gods of Egypt were considered part of the Sun god Horus.
List of gods represented in the Winged sun center disk:

*Horus, –the hawk(the pharaoh)

*Horus, –(= Ra), the pharaoh

*Mut, –the pharaohs wife/consort, (the Protectress of Egypt)

*Xeper, –the Pharaoh, transformed into the Sun God

*etc., (various others)

Modern use

as a symbol in Alchemy: a winged sun hovers over a sepulchre filled with water (from Rosary of the Philosophers).

The Egyptian symbol appeared in Jehovah's Witnesses literature during the 1910s, and was also in use by various groups such as Freemasonry, Theosophy and Rosicrucians.

Literature

R. Mayer, Opificius, Die geflügelte Sonne, Himmels- und Regendarstellungen im Alten Vorderasien, UF 16 (1984) 189-236.
D. Parayre, Carchemish entre Anatolie et Syrie à travers l'image du disque solaire ailé (ca. 1800-717 av. J.-C.), Hethitica 8 (1987) 319-360.
D. Parayre, Les cachets ouest-sémitiques à travers l'image du disque solaire ailé, Syria 67 (1990) 269-314.

External links

http://www.seanet.com/~raines/disc.html

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