Victorian solar mythology and comparative religion

George W. Cox

1827 – 1902

Sir George William Cox was an English clergyman, historian, and mythographer who became one of the most committed proponents of the solar mythology school championed by Max Müller, arguing in The Mythology of the Aryan Nations (1870) that Greek and Vedic myths were fundamentally allegorical idealizations of solar phenomena. His work was translated into French by Stéphane Mallarmé, extending his influence across European comparative mythology. Though the solar mythology school was later superseded, his framework contributed to the Victorian project of finding universal patterns in world mythology that esotericists adapted for their own purposes.