What does the sun disk mean in ancient Egypt?

The sun, the day and the god Ra. The sign writes “day” and stands in the names of kings as “son of Ra”.

What the sign shows: A circle with a point at its centre: the sun.
How Gerald Massey read it in 1907: He stresses that the disk is an emblem and not the god: the circle the sun draws between the two horizons.
Where you see it today: The same dotted circle is still the astronomer’s symbol for the sun.
Where it stands in Massey’s book: Massey names it 53 times across the book. Book VII, p. 454: “The sun as a flaming sword”; Book V, p. 314: “The kneeler and the lyre”; Book X, p. 672: “The bush that burned unconsumed”.
Signs that look like it: Shen ring, Star and Horizon. The app’s Symbol Trainer sets them side by side, so the eye learns to tell them apart.
In Massey’s words: “The disk was but an emblem of the circle made by Aten as the god of both horizons.” (Gerald Massey, Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World (1907), Book VI, p. 338)
In the app: Trainer › Symbol Trainer › Sun disk. The app’s Symbol Trainer reads 42 signs this way, each with Massey’s own words and the page they stand on.

Last updated October 25, 2026.

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