The 25th of December is not only the day of the winter solstice, but also the birthday of the god Sol invictus, who has been known since the 2nd century AD in his usual form with a crown of rays. The Greek god Helios corresponds to him, with whom he also has many similarities in his outward appearance. However, like many other gods, he was not taken over from the Greek religion. Rather, Sol is of purely Roman origin.
Sol played a special role in various aspects of Roman religion and increasingly became a special patron god in the imperial cult during the Roman imperial period. Independently of this, with the cult of the Syrian sun god Elagabal, another 'sun god' entered Roman religion in the course of the 3rd century, or rather a mixture of the Sol invictus cult with that of Elagabal took place. Under Emperor Elagabal (218-222) this became the state religion.
During this period, many works of Roman art were created that show the god with a crown of rays. It is no longer possible to say with certainty to which work of art or to which original genre this relief can be assigned. It is possible that it is a partial fragment of an ash box or the narrow side of a small sarcophagus. (AVS)
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