The Sun is the center of the Solar System and the source of all life and energy here on Earth. It accounts for more than 99.86% of the mass of the Solar System and it’s gravity dominates all the planets and objects that orbit it. Since the beginning of history, human beings have understood the Sun’s importance to our world, it’s seasons, the diurnal cycle, and the life-cycle of plants.
Because of this, the Sun has been at the center of many ancient culture’s mythologies and systems of worship. From the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas to the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Druids, the Sun was a central deity because it was seen as the bringer of all light and life. In time, our understanding of the Sun has changed and become increasingly empirical. But that has done nothing to diminish it’s significance.
Name:
The name “The Sun” is a proper English noun which evolved from the Old English sunne, which may be related to the word south. Other Germanic forms of the name – ranging from sunne and sonne in Old Frisian to sunna in Old High German and Old Norse to sunno in Gothic. All Germanic terms for the Sun stem from the Proto-Germanic “sunnon“, which is in turn derived from the sauel or sauol of Proto-Indo-European.
The English name for Sunday stems from the Old English Sunnandæg (literally “Sun’s day”) which was in use before 700 CE. This name resulted from the Germanic interpretation of Latin dies solis, which is itself a translation of the Greek heméra helíou. The Latin name for the Sun, Sol, is widely known but is not in common use. However, the adjectival form solar is used widely to refer to phenomena or attributes pertaining to the Sun.