Богът, почитан от всички хора
The God, Honored by All

Summary/Abstract: The article explores the deference to the Sun and the cult towards the Sun-God in the European southeast with a focus on the Thracian culture and religiosity. The astral knowledge of the ancient literary cultures, as well as the cults and rituals connected with them and with the Sun-God, has long been researched. However, this is not the case with the non-literary societies and specifically with the Thracian one. In the non-literary societies, knowledge was passed in the family and the clan, in the professional groups and in the religious communities via special rites. The Thracian society has a developed aristocratic culture, and special knowledge, such as observation of the sky, remains a privilege of a closed circle of initiated persons. The ancient literary tradition connects the Thracian aristocratic societies of initiated persons with the names of Orpheus and Zalmoxis, and with Orpheus in particular – the deference to the Sun-God. The article examines the few texts that have reached us through the ages, that discuss the deference to the Sun and cult to the Sun-God, and illustrates the arguments with images from cult objects from gold and silver and with the results from the archaeo-astronomical research of rock-cut and megalithic sites. The article also underlines how Bulgarian traditional culture and folklore have preserved the deference to the Sun. A logical assumption arises as to whether the extremely popular welcoming of the sunrise during the days of the summer solstice by people of all ages (especially young ones) and the philosophy and rituals from Danov’s followers represents an activation of the cultural memory.

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