The sun has "masculine attributes" and is connected with rulers and fathers. It is associated with the heart and the metal gold (Bruce-Mitford 113).

In Egyptian mythology, the sun is an astronomical object of great importance. The sun is the source of all life as we know it on the face of the Earth. This is why the Egyptians view the sun god as the creator. The Egyptians called their sun god by various names, including Ra, Re, and Phra. Ra first manifested himself in the stone object in the form of an obelisk (an upright, four-sided pillar, gradually tapering as it rises, and terminating in a pyramid called pyramidion) called benben, in the city of Heliopolis. It is ordinarily a large block of stone. Egyptian obelisks are commonly covered with hieroglyphic writing from top to bottom. (Lindermans 15-21)

Ra was indeed a creator; he was the source of the Egyptians' great gods. Ra was the father of Shu and Tefnut, grandfather of Geb and Nut, and the great-grandfather of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. These eight great gods, along with their creator Ra, formed the divine company or Ennead of Heliopolis. (Lindermans 15-21)

Ra's name in hieroglyphics

In Greek mythology, Apollo was the solar god, the god of the light. The Greeks did not believe that he was the sun itself. Instead they attributed that relationship to Helios. Helios was believed to be one of the Sidereal and Meteorological Gods. Apollo was a god of tremendous power. He gave the light that allowed the plants and crops of the Romans to grow. Apollo used his powers of destruction to protect the mice from infesting the fields and drove locusts away to prevent the lost of harvests. At the same time this god of giving was one of wrath. "Apollo was thought of as an archer-god who shot his arrows from afar (Hecatebolos) as the god of sudden death; but also as a healer-god who drove away illness (Alexikakos)." (Lindermans 119-120)