Editing Solar symbol (section)

== Solar disk ==
[[File:Nebra disc 1.jpg|thumb|The solar disk, [[crescent|crescent Moon]] and stars as shown on the [[Nebra sky disk]] ({{circa|1600 BC}})]]
The basic element of most solar symbols is the circular solar disk.

The disk can be modified in various ways, notably by adding rays (found in the Bronze Age in Egyptian depictions of [[Aten]]) or a [[Sun cross|cross]]. In the ancient Near East, the solar disk could also be modified by addition of the [[Uraeus]] (rearing cobra), and in ancient Mesopotamia it was shown with [[Winged sun|wings]].

=== Bronze Age writing ===
[[File:sun disk.svg|thumb|upright 0.5|The sun disk used in ancient Egypt as the crown for [[Ra]] and other gods]]
[[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] have a large inventory of solar symbolism because of the central position of solar deities ([[Ra]], [[Horus]], [[Aten]] etc.) in [[ancient Egyptian religion]].

<div>The main logogram for "Sun" was a representation of the solar disk, <hiero>N5</hiero> ([[Gardiner's sign list#N|Gardiner N5]]), with or without a dot or circle in the center, with a variant including the [[Uraeus]], <hiero>N6</hiero> (N6).</div>

The "Sun" logogram in early [[Chinese writing]], beginning with the [[oracle bone script]] (c. 12th century BC) also shows the solar disk with a central dot (analogous to the Egyptian hieroglyph); under the influence of the writing brush, this character evolved into a square shape (modern [[:wikt:日|日]]).

=== Classical era ===
[[file:Sun symbol (late classical and medieval mss).png|thumb|The disk with a ray as a symbol for the Sun in late Classical (4th c.) and medieval Byzantine (11th c.) mss<ref name=jones-1999>{{cite book
| title = Astronomical papyri from Oxyrhynchus
| last = Jones
| first = Alexander
| date = 1999
| pages = 62–63
| publisher = American Philosophical Society
| isbn = 0-87169-233-3
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8MokzymQ43IC}}</ref>]]

In the Greek and European world, until approximately the 16th century, the astrological symbol for the Sun was a disk with a single ray, [[File:Sun symbol (medieval).svg|24px|🜚]] ({{unichar|1F71A}}). This is the form, for example, in Johannes [[Kamateros]]' 12th century ''Compendium of Astrology''.<ref name=neugebauer-1987>{{cite book
| title = Greek Horoscopes
| url = https://archive.org/details/greekhoroscopesm00neug_004
| url-access = limited
| last1 = Neugebauer
| first1 = Otto
| last2 = Van Hoesen
| first2 = H. B.
| date = 1987
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/greekhoroscopesm00neug_004/page/n6 1], 159, 163
| isbn = 9780871690487
}}</ref>

=== Astronomical symbol ===
The modern [[astronomical symbol]] for the Sun, a circled dot ({{unichar|2609|Sun}}), was first used in the Renaissance.