|
Sol Invictus ("the unconquered sun"), or more fully, Deus Sol Invictus ("the unconquered sun god") was a religious title applied to three distinct divinities during the later Roman Empire.
Unlike earlier, agrarian cult of Sol Indiges ("the sun in-the-earth"), the title Deus Sol Invictus was formed by analogy with the imperial titulature pius felix invictus ("dutiful, fortunate, unconquered").
The title was first introduced by the emperor Heliogabalus, during his abortive attempt to impose the worship of Elegabal, the sun-god of his native city Emesa in Syria. With the emperor's death in 222 AD, however, this cult ceased.
In the second instance, the title was applied to Mithras in private inscriptions by devotees.
Finally, the emperor Aurelian introduced an official cult of Sol Invictus in 270 AD, making the sun-god the premier divinity of the empire. While not officially identified with Mithras, Aurelian's Sol borrowed many features from Mithraism, including the iconographical represenation of the god as a beardless youth. The cult of Sol Invictus continued to be a cornerstone of official paganism until the triumph of Christianity - before his conversion, even the young Constantine portrayed Sol Invictus on his official coinage.
See also Festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun.
See Sol Invictus (band) for the English Pagan folk band.
| 
