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Sol Invictus

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For the folk music band, see Sol Invictus (band).
Coin of Emperor Probus, circa 280, with Sol Invictus riding a quadriga, with legend SOLI INVICTO, "to the Unconquered Sun". Note how the Emperor (on the left) wears a radiated solar crown, worn also by the god (to the right).

Sol Invictus ("the Unconquered Sun") or, more fully, Deus Sol Invictus ("the Unconquered Sun God") was the late Roman state sun god. The cult was created by the emperor Aurelian in 274 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 phrase

Sol 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 Romans held a festival 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, Sol, the patron god of Emperor Aurelian, and Mithras.[1]

Emperor Elagabalus (218-222) introduced the festival, and it reached the height of its popularity under Aurelian, who promoted it as an empire-wide holiday.[2]

Repoussé silver disc of Sol Invictus, Roman, 3rd century, found at Pessinus (British Museum)

December 25 was also considered to be the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called bruma. It was therefore the day the Sun proved itself to be "unconquered." Taking place on the day of the year which had the shortest amount of daylight hours, winter solstice began the celebration of the rebirth of the sun, for from then on, daylight hours would grow longer and the nights shorter.[3]

Septimius Severus

The type of Sol Invictus, though not the name, appears on imperial coinage from the time of Septimius Severus onwards[citation needed].

Elagabalus

The 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.

Mithras

Sol Invictus

In the second instance, the title invictus was applied to Mithras in private inscriptions by devotees. It also appears applied to Mars.

Aurelian

Aurelian in his radiated solar crown, on a silvered bronze coin struck at Rome, 274-275

The 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;[4] 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.[5]

Constantine

Coin of Emperor Constantine I depicting Sol Invictus with the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI, circa 315.

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 (March 7, 321) 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 Christianity

Mosaic of Sol (the Sun) in Mausoleum M in the pre-fourth-century necropolis under St Peter's Basilica. Some have interpreted it as representing Christ.

That 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).[6] Other recent Christian commentators [7] [8] 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 26th sermon:

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 22nd sermon, 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[9] as Jesus was considered to be the "sun of righteousness."[10] 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"[11]. Some consider this to be in opposition to Sol Invictus[citation needed]. Some see an allusion to Malachi 4:2.

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.[12]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sol Invictus.

Notes

  1. ^ ""Mithraism", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913.
  2. ^ "Sol." Encyclopædia Britannica, Chicago (2006).
  3. ^ (Selena Eilidh Ask) When Julius Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar in 45 BCE, December 25 was approximately the date of the solstice. In modern times, the solstice falls on December 21 or 22.
  4. ^ The Ludi Solis, "Games of the Sun" are recorded in the Calendar of 354, under 19 through 22 October. (M. R. Salzman, "New Evidence for the Dating of the Calendar at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome" Transactions of the American Philological Association 111 (1981, pp. 215-227) p. 221.
  5. ^ Allan S. Hoey, "Official Policy towards Oriental Cults in the Roman Army" Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 70 (1939, pp. 456-481) pp 456, 479ff.
  6. ^ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans. John Saward (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), p. 108; cf. p. 100. He regards the old theories as no longer sustainable. March 25th was also considered to be the day of Jesus’ death, and the day of creation. See also H. Rahner, Griechische Mythen in christlicher Deutung. Darmstadt, 1957. An English translation is available as Greek Myths and Christian Mystery, trans. Brian Battershaw (New York: Harper Row, 1963).
  7. ^ Tighe, William J. Calculating Christmas, 2003
  8. ^ Schmidt, Alvin J.(2001), "Under the Influence", HarperCollins, p377-9
  9. ^ "Christmas, Encyclopædia Britannica Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006.
  10. ^ Malachi 4:2
  11. ^ New Catholic Encyclopedia, "Christmas"
  12. ^ Text at [1] Parts 6 and 12 respectively.

Further reading

  • Halsberghe, L. 1972. The Cult of Sol Invictus (Leiden)


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