"Sun, Sun, Chief..." October 21, 2020 – Posted in: Magazine – Tags: editorial, space, Dionysis P. Simopoulos, science

Helios: Introductory note of Dionysis P. Simopoulou, Honorary director Eugenidei Planetariou for the #6 issue of the magazine How it works

One of the most interesting articles in this issue describes the spacecraft mission Solar Orbiter of the European Space Agency aiming at the star of the day. And although today we know that our Sun is nothing more than a simple and comparatively indifferent star of our Galaxy, for us it is particularly important since its presence in the sky is, without a doubt, a necessary condition for the development and maintenance of life on Earth. on earth. That is why it is not at all strange that since ancient times the Sun was worshiped by man as a god and a demon together, while all cultures without exception treated him with respect and fear as the sovereign master of the evolution of everything that happened on Earth.
The Egyptians called him Ra, Aten and Osiris. The Babylonians called him Shamakh, Baal, Marduk and Nergal. The Hindus Brahma and Vishnu. And the Persian Mithras. For the ancient Greeks, depending on the circumstances, it was Zeus or Pluto, Bacchus, Dionysus, or Phoebus Apollo. But regardless of the name given to him, all peoples established many and famous festivals in his honor, especially during the periods of change from one era to another.

In Greek mythology the god of the Sun was mainly Apollo, the twin brother of Artemis and son of Zeus and Letus. He was born in Delos, where his large sanctuary was created, with a similar radiance to his other famous sanctuary in Delphi. According to some versions, the disc of Helios was likened to a golden three-wheeled chariot, which was pulled by four all-white horses (Ios, Aethon, Pyroes and Phlegon are some of the names given to them), which emitted flames from their nostrils and light. Standing on his chariot, the tireless god shot jets of light around him. The Rhodians, in particular, worshiped Helios as the creator god of their race. His colossal statue by Charis of Lindius was one of the seven wonders of the world.

 

 

Long before the Greeks, in Mesopotamia 2000 BC, the famous Epic of Gilgamesh tells us the adventures of the king of Uruk in his quest to gain immortality by traveling to the Garden of the Sun. To get there, Gilgamesh had to pass through the Sun Gates, located behind the horizon mountains and guarded by two anthropomorphic scorpions. Some researchers even believe that the guardians mentioned in the epic were the progenitors of the constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpio. But either way, Gilgamesh seems to have accomplished the impossible and thus obtained his longed-for immortality.

In Egypt the Sun was Aten, the main god of Egyptian monotheism, with his worship center in Heliopolis, Egypt, from where the polytheistic trend of Egyptian religion later began. Despite all these mythological references, there were many ancient philosophers who tried to give a natural assessment, even if it was wrong, of its nature and size. According to Anaxagoras, the Sun was "a mass of superheated rocks, a little larger than the area of Greece", while a century later the founder of the heliocentric system, Aristarchus of Samios, tried to geometrically measure the size and distance of the Sun and found that it was correct that "they receive the light of the moon rather than the sun".
In the Americas, long before the time of the European conquistadors, the Aztecs had created a highly detailed and intelligent calendar depicted in the famous stone Sun Disc located in the National Archaeological Museum in Mexico City. Also in Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula, is Chichen Itza, the famous city of the Toltecs and Mayas, which developed between 700 and 1000 AD. One of its famous architectural buildings, known as El Castillo, is the pyramidal temple of Kukulkan, with a height of about 23 meters. This temple has captured in its construction three important astronomical events, including the length of the year, which is represented by the 91 steps located on the four sides of the pyramid – with a total of 364 steps plus a final step at the top, which thus completing the length of the year of 365 days.