Sol, the Sun. - This glorious luminary was originally regarded and worshipped by the Pagans as being the most brilliant and the most useful object in the universe -- as constituting by his light and heat the natural source of life and health both to the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and as imparting his splendor to the other heavenly bodies, and his glory to the whole firmament. The more deeply investigations are carried into heathen mythology, the more clearly it is to be seen that almost all its principal divinities resolve themselves into an identity with the Sun, to whose predominating influence over the moon and stars the government and preservation of all things both in heaven and earth were ascribed. Ancient monuments represent the Sun under the form of a man, with a youthful face, the head encircled with rays: sometimes he is mounted on a chariot drawn by winged horses. A horse was sacrified to him, on account of the great swiftness of that animal, a usage especially practiced by the Lacedemonians. The Sun was called Mithras by the Persians; Osiris by the Egyptians.