Winged sun


The winged sun is a symbol associated with divinity, royalty and power in the Ancient Near East.

Ancient Egypt

In ancient Egypt, the symbol is attested from the Old Kingdom, 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. As time passed all of the subordinated gods of Egypt were considered to be aspects of the sun god, including Khepri.

Mesopotamia and the Levant

From roughly 2000 BC, the symbol also appears in the Levant and Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. It appears in reliefs with Assyrian rulers and in Hieroglyphic Anatolian as a symbol for royalty, transcribed into Latin as SOL SUUS.

Hebrew

From ca. the 8th century BC, the winged solar disk appears on Hebrew seals connected to the royal house of the Kingdom of Judah. Many of these are seals and jar handles from Hezekiah's reign, together with the inscription l'melekh. Typically, Hezekiah's royal seals feature two downward-pointing wings and six rays emanating from the central sun disk, and some are flanked on either side with the Egyptian ankh symbol. Prior to this, there are examples from the seals of servants of king Ahaz and of king Uzziah.
Compare also Malachi 4:2, referring to a winged "Sun of righteousness",

Zoroastrianism

The symbol evolved into the Faravahar in Zoroastrian Persia.

Greece

The winged sun is conventionally depicted as the knob of the Staff of Hermes.

Modern use

The symbol was used on the cover of Charles Taze Russell's textbook series Studies in the Scriptures beginning with the 1911 editions. Various groups such as Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Thelema, Theosophy and Unity Church have also used it. Variations of the symbol are used as a trademark logo on vehicles produced by the Chrysler Corporation, Mini, Bentley Motors, Lagonda and Harley Davidson.
The winged sun symbol is also cited by proponents of the pseudoscientific Nibiru cataclysm.

Heraldic use

A winged sun is used in the heraldry of the North America Trade Directory.

Literature