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Sol Invictus
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Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun") or, more fully, Deus Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun God") was the late Roman state sun god. The cult was created by the emperor Elagabalus in 228 and continued until the abolition of paganism under Theodosius I.
The title Sol Invictus was also applied to a number of other deities before and during this period.
Use of the phraseSol Invictus was a religious title applied to at least three distinct divinities during the later Roman Empire: Elagabalus, Mithras, and Sol.
Unlike the earlier, agrarian cult of Sol Indiges ("the native sun" or "the invoked sun" - the etymology and meaning of the word "indiges" is disputed), the title Deus Sol Invictus was formed by analogy with the imperial titulature pius felix invictus ("dutiful, fortunate, unconquered").
The Roman Emperor Elagabalus (218-222) introduced a festival culminating on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun." The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elagabalus, a Syrian sun god, , the patron god of Emperor Aurelian, and Mithras.
December 21st is and was the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called bruma. For three days before the 21st and three days afterward the movement of the sun is imperceptible.
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274 Roman emperor Aurelian has a temple dedicated to Sol Invictus on the third day after the solstice and day of rebirth of the Sun. This religion, which is in essence monotheistic, becomes the state religion of Rome.
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Encyclopedia
Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun") or, more fully, Deus Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun God") was the late Roman state sun god. The cult was created by the emperor Elagabalus in 228 and continued until the abolition of paganism under Theodosius I.
The title Sol Invictus was also applied to a number of other deities before and during this period.
Use of the phraseSol Invictus was a religious title applied to at least three distinct divinities during the later Roman Empire: Elagabalus, Mithras, and Sol.
Unlike the earlier, agrarian cult of Sol Indiges ("the native sun" or "the invoked sun" - the etymology and meaning of the word "indiges" is disputed), the title Deus Sol Invictus was formed by analogy with the imperial titulature pius felix invictus ("dutiful, fortunate, unconquered").
The Roman Emperor Elagabalus (218-222) introduced a festival culminating on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun." The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elagabalus, a Syrian sun god, , the patron god of Emperor Aurelian, and Mithras.
December 21st is and was the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called bruma. For three days before the 21st and three days afterward the movement of the sun is imperceptible. The 25th December is the first day that the dawn of the sun can be perceived to have moved North from its most Southerly solstice position. Dies Natalis Solis Invicti was the celebration of the rebirth of the sun, for from then on daylight hours would grow longer and the nights shorter.
Septimius SeverusThe type of Sol Invictus, though not the name, appears on imperial coinage from the time of Septimius Severus onwards.
ElagabalusThe title first gained prominence under the emperor Elagabalus, who abortively attempted to impose the worship of the sun-god of his native city Emesa in Syria. With the emperor's death in 222, however, this religion ceased, though emperors continued to be portrayed on coinage with the radiant sun-crown for close to a century.
MithrasIn the second instance, the title invictus was applied to Mithras in private inscriptions by devotees. It also appears applied to Mars.
AurelianThe Roman gens Aurelia was associated with the cult of Sol. After his victories in the East, the emperor Aurelian introduced an official cult of Sol Invictus, making the sun-god the premier divinity of the empire, and wearing his radiated crown himself. He founded a college of pontifices, and dedicated a temple to Sol Invictus in 274. It is possible that he created the festival called dies natalis Solis Invicti, "birthday of the undefeated Sun", which is recorded in 354 (in the Chronography of 354) as celebrated on the 25th December; but no earlier reference to it exists. The cult of Sol Invictus was the leading official cult of the fourth century
In the legions, where a policy of individual religious freedom is attested by personal inscriptions, on shrines and through votive offerings in every part of the Empire, outside the camps themselves, the only Eastern cult that was officially tolerated, probably from Aurelian's reign, and certainly under Constantine, was that of Sol Invictus.
Constantine
Emperors up to Constantine portrayed Sol Invictus on their official coinage, with the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI, thus claiming the Unconquered Sun as a companion to the Emperor. The statuettes of Sol Invictus, carried by the standard-bearers, appear in three places in reliefs on the Arch of Constantine. Constantine's official coinage continues to bear legends relating to Sol Invictus until 323.
Constantine decreed dies Solis—day of the sun, "Sunday"—as the Roman day of rest [CJ3.12.2]:
- On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.
The religion of Sol Invictus continued to be part of the state religion until paganism was abolished by decree of Theodosius I on February 27, 390.
Sol Invictus and ChristianityThat the 'Sol Invictus' festival has a "strong claim on the responsibility" for the date of Christmas (Catholic Encyclopedia (1908)) has been called into question. Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, challenged this theory by arguing that a December 25th date was determined simply by calculating nine months beyond March 25th, regarded as the day of Jesus’ conception (the Feast of the Annunciation). The problem is, that March 25th coincides with the Vernal Equinox also known as Spring (nowadays March 21st), whose concepts of "new life" and "rebirth" have been associated by Christianity with Jesus, thus the Feast of the Annunciation date may have been again just simply calculated from the ancient solar calendar. Other recent Christian commentators also agree that the identification of Christ's birthday pre-dates the Sol Invictus festival, noting the earliest record of the celebration of Christ's birthday on December 25 dates to 243 A.D. [But this claim may be incorrect if Elagabalus instituted the festival before his death in 222.]
Other Christians accept the idea that Sol Invictus may be behind the date of Christmas, with the understanding that the early church "baptized" the holiday by imbuing it with a new, Christian meaning. In the 5th c., Pope Leo I (the great) spoke of this in several sermons on the Feast of the Nativity. Here is an excerpt from his :
But this Nativity which is to be adored in heaven and on earth is suggested to us by no day more than this when, with the early light still shedding its rays on nature, there is borne in upon our senses the brightness of this wondrous mystery.
In his , he directly addressed those who attributed the Nativity to Sol Invictus:
Having therefore so confident a hope, dearly beloved, abide firm in the Faith in which you are built: lest that same tempter whose tyranny over you Christ has already destroyed, win you back again with any of his wiles, and mar even the joys of the present festival by his deceitful art, misleading simpler souls with the pestilential notion of some to whom this our solemn feast day seems to derive its honour, not so much from the nativity of Christ as, according to them, from the rising of the new sun . Such men's hearts are wrapped in total darkness, and have no growing perception of the true Light: for they are still drawn away by the foolish errors of heathendom, and because they cannot lift the eyes of their mind above that which their carnal sight beholds, they pay divine honour to the luminaries that minister to the world.
Solar symbolism was popular with early Christian writers as Jesus was considered to be the "sun of righteousness." This is also apparent in the prayers and hymns of the Church, such as the Eastern Orthodox Troparion of the Nativity:
Thy birth, O Christ our God,
rose upon the world as the light of knowledge;
for through it those who worshipped the stars
were taught by a star to adore Thee, the Sun of Righteousness,
and to know Thee, the Sunrise from on high.
O Lord, glory to Thee.
Christian iconography adopted some of the artistic language of paganism. The depiction of Christ with a halo relates to late antiquity usage, but the radiated crown also appears.
According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, article on Constantine the Great:
- "Besides, the Sol Invictus had been adopted by the Christians in a Christian sense, as demonstrated in the Christ as Apollo-Helios in a mausoleum (c. 250) discovered beneath St. Peter's in the Vatican."
Indeed "...from the beginning of the 3rd century "Sun of Justice" appears as a title of Christ". Some consider this to be in opposition to Sol Invictus. Some see an allusion to .
The date for Christmas may also bear a relation to the sun worship. According to the scholiast on the Syriac bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi, writing in the twelfth century:
- "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day." (cited in "Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries", Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p155)
However this pagan feast is first documented only in the Chronography of 354, which also contains the earliest certain reference to 25 December as the feast of the birth of Christ.
Use in popular cultureIn the roleplaying game Exalted, the Unconquered Sun appears as the most powerful god in all of Creation. His chosen, the Solar Exalted, are the default protagonists of the setting.
In the computer game Rome: Total War (Barbarian Invasion Expansion Pack), Sol Invictus is a possible pagan entity to be worshipped throughout the Roman Empire.
A large and popular guild found in the roleplaying game Everquest on The Tribunal server. Known for many server and game firsts, the guild home page can be found at: http://www.solinvictus.org/eq/
See also
Further reading- Halsberghe, L. 1972. The Cult of Sol Invictus (Leiden)
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