A light deity is a god or goddess in

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

associated with

light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 tera ...

and/or day. Since stars give off light,

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

deities can also be included here. The following is a list of light deities in various mythologies.

African

Egyptian mythology Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptia ...

* Khepri, god of rebirth and the sunrise *

Nefertem Nefertem (; possibly "beautiful one who closes" or "one who does not close"; also spelled Nefertum or Nefer-temu) was, in Egyptian mythology, originally a lotus flower at the creation of the world, who had arisen from the primal waters.Nefertem p ...

, god who represents the first sunlight

Guanche

Magec Magec ( Guanche Berber ''Ma-ɣeq'', "possesses radiance" or "mother of brightness" ), in Tenerife,Prehistoria de Canarias

, deity of the sun and light, exact gender unknown

Dahomean religion The Dahomean religion was practiced by the Fon people of the Dahomey Kingdom. The kingdom existed until 1898 in what is now the country of Benin. People taken from Dahomey to the Caribbean used elements of the religion to form Vodou and other rel ...

Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa Lisa (born 1967), American actress and lead singer of the Cult Jam * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA", Japanese singer and producer * Lisa Komine (born 1978), J ...

, deity of the sun, heat, sky

American

Lakota mythology Lakota mythology is the body of sacred stories that belong to the Lakota people also known aTeton Sioux Overview The Lakota believe that everything has a spirit; including trees, rocks, rivers, and almost every natural being. This therefore lea ...

Anpao In Sioux mythology (a Native American mythological tradition that includes Lakota mythology), Anpao (Lakota: ''Aŋpáo''), or Anp, is a spirit with two faces that represents the dawn. Anpao dances with Han, a primordial spirit of darkness, to ens ...

, two-faced spirit of the dawn

Maya mythology Maya or Mayan mythology is part of Mesoamerican mythology and comprises all of the Maya tales in which personified forces of nature, deities, and the heroes interacting with these play the main roles. The myths of the era have to be reconstruct ...

Tohil Tohil (, also spelled Tojil) was a deity of the Kʼicheʼ Maya in the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerica. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, Tohil was the patron god of the Kʼicheʼ. Tohil's principal function was that of a fire deity a ...

, god associated with thunder, lightning, and sunrise

Aztec

* Centzonhuitznahua, 400 gods of the southern stars * Centzonmimixcoa, 400 gods of the northern stars *

Cipactonal Cipactonal is the Aztec god of astrology and calendars. Oxomoco and Cipactonal were said to be the first human couple, and the Aztec comparison to Adam and Eve in regard to human creation and evolution. They bore a son named Piltzin-tecuhtli, who ...

, god of the daytime * Citlālicue, goddess who created the stars *Citlalmina, goddess of female stars *

Citlalatonac In Aztec mythology, Citlalatonac created the stars along with his wife, Citlalicue. This pair of gods are sometimes associated with the first pair of humans, Nata and Nena Nata could refer to: __NOTOC__ Places * Nata, Botswana, a village in C ...

, god of male stars * Tianquiztli, star goddesses *

Xiuhtecuhtli In Aztec mythology, Xiuhtecuhtli ("Turquoise Lord" or "Lord of Fire"), was the god of fire, day and heat. In historical sources he is called by many names, which reflect his varied aspects and dwellings in the three parts of the cosmos. He was t ...

, god of fire, day, and heat

Incan

*Inti, god of the sun *Ch'aska ("Venus") or Ch'aska Quyllur ("Venus star"), goddess of dawn and twilight, the planet *Mama Killa, goddess of the moon

Asian

Chinese

* Zhulong, dragon deity of daylight

Hindu

* Aruṇa, personification of the reddish glow of the rising sun *

Dyaus Pita Dyaus ( ), or Dyauspitar (Devanagari द्यौष्पितृ, ), is the Ṛigvedic sky deity. His consort is Prithvi, the earth goddess, and together they are the archetypal parents in the Rigveda. Nomenclature stems from Proto-Ind ...

, continues the name of the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

god of the day-lit sky *

Ushas Ushas (Vedic Sanskrit: / ') is a Vedas, Vedic goddess of dawn in Hinduism. She repeatedly appears in the Rigvedic hymns, states David Kinsley, where she is "consistently identified with dawn, revealing herself with the daily coming of light to t ...

, dawn goddess

Sumerian

Inanna Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political p ...

, primary goddess of the planet Venus *

Ninsianna Ninsianna ( Sumerian: "Red Queen of Heaven") was a Mesopotamian deity considered to be the personification of Venus. This theonym also served as the name of the planet in astronomical texts until the end of the Old Babylonian period. There is evid ...

, goddess of the planet Venus * Šul-pa-e, underworld god who became associated with Jupiter *

Shulsaga Shulshaga (Šulšaga) or Shulsagana (Šulšagana) was a Mesopotamian god. He was a part of the state pantheon of the city-state of Lagash. His name means "youth of his heart" in Sumerian, with the possessive pronoun possibly referring to Shulshaga ...

, stellar goddess * Šerida, goddess of light

European

Etruscan

* Albina, goddess of the dawn and protector of ill-fated lovers *

Thesan In Etruscan mythology, Etruscan Religion and mythology, Thesan is the Etruscan civilization, Etruscan goddess of the dawn, divination, and childbirth and was associated with the generation of life. Roman mythology, Romans identified her with their ...

, goddess of the dawn, associated with new life

Germanic

Baldr Baldr (also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, Baldr (Old Norse: ) is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was kno ...

, god thought to be associated with light and/or day; is known by many other names, all of which have cognates in other Germanic languages, suggesting he may have been a pan-Germanic deity *

Dagr Dagr (Old Norse: , "day")Lindow (2001:91). is the divine personification of the day in Norse mythology. He appears in the ''Poetic Edda'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the ''Prose Edda'', written in the 13th ...

, personification of day * Earendel, god of rising light and/or a star * Eostre, considered to continue the

dawn goddess *

Freyr Freyr (Old Norse: 'Lord'), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested god in Norse mythology, associated with kingship, fertility, peace, and weather. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden an ...

, god of sunshine, among other things * Teiwaz, as a reflex of Dyeus, was probably originally god of the day-lit sky *

Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred groves ...

, god of lightning, thunder, weather, storms, and the sky

Slavic

Dazhbog Dazhbog (russian: Дажьбо́г, Дажбог), alternatively Daždźbok ( be, Даждзьбог), Dažbog, Dazhdbog, Dajbog, Daybog, Dabog, Dazibogu, or Dadzbóg, was one of the major gods of Slavic mythology, most likely a solar deity and ...

, god of the sun and day

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: Greeks, an ethnic group. Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

* Aether, primarily associated with upper air but associated with light in

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet i ...

's ''

Theogony The ''Theogony'' (, , , i.e. "the genealogy or birth of the gods") is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 10 ...

'' *

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

, god of light, among many other things *

Eos In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Eos (; Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric ''Āṓs'') is the goddess and personification of the dawn, who rose each morning from her home at ...

, goddess of the dawn *

Hemera In Greek mythology, Hemera (; grc, Ἡμέρα, Hēméra, Day ) was the personification of day. According to Hesiod, she was the daughter of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night), and the sister of Aether. Though separate entities in Hesiod's ...

, personification of day * Hyperion, Titan of light; sometimes conflated with his son

Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; grc, , , Sun; Homeric Greek: ) is the deity, god and personification of the Sun (Solar deity). His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyper ...

Lampetia In Greek mythology, Lampetia ( grc, Λαμπετίη, translit=Lampetíē or grc, Λαμπετία, label=none, translit=Lampetía, lit=shining) was the daughter of Helios and Neaera; she was the personification of light. Her twin sister, P ...

, goddess of light, and one of the Heliades or daughters of Helios , god of the Sun, and of the nymph Neera . *

Theia In Greek mythology, Theia (; grc, Θεία, Theía, divine, also rendered Thea or Thia), also called Euryphaessa ( grc, Εὐρυφάεσσα) "wide-shining", is one of the twelve Titans, the children of the earth goddess Gaia and the Sky deity ...

, Titaness of sight and the shining light of the clear blue sky. She is the consort of Hyperion and mother of Helios, Selene, and Eos. *

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D� ...

, as a reflex of Dyeus, could be considered god of the day-lit sky *

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...

, goddess of love and beauty.

Mari

Roman

Aurora (mythology) Aurōra () is the Latin word for dawn, and the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry. Like Greek ''Eos'' and Rigvedic ''Ushas'', ''Aurōra'' continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, '' Hausos''. Name Aurōra st ...

, goddess of the dawn *

Jupiter (mythology) Jupiter ( la, Iūpiter or , from Proto-Italic language, Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus "sky father" Greek: Zeus, Δίας or Zeus, Ζεύς), also known as Jove (genitive case, gen. ''Iovis'' ), is the sky god, god of the sky and g ...

, as a reflex of Dyeus, god of the day-lit sky *

Mater Matuta Mater Matuta was an indigenous Latin goddess, whom the Romans eventually made equivalent to the dawn goddess Aurora, and the Greek goddess Eos. Her cult is attested several places in Latium; her most famous temple was located at Satricum. In Rome ...

, goddess associated with Aurora

Oceania

Polynesian

Atanua Atanua (or Atanea) in Polynesian mythology (specifically: the Marquesas Islands) is the goddess of the dawn and wife of Atea (Atea and Atanua emerged from Tanaoa, Atea first, who then made space for Atanua). Their son is the first man, Tu-Mea. ...

Marquesan The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in ...

goddess of the dawn * Atarapa, goddess of the dawn *

Ira Ira or IRA may refer to: *Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name *Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name *Iran, UNDP code IRA Law *Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...

, sky goddess and mother of the stars

Māori mythology Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand's Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern fantastic tales relating to the origins of what was the observable world for the pr ...

Ao (mythology) Ao (''daylight'') is one of the primal deities who are the unborn forces of nature in Māori mythology. Ao is the personification of light, clouds, and the ordinary world, as opposed to darkness () and the underworld. He is spoken of under man ...

, personification of light