Happy Summer Solstice! Today is the first day of summer and the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. This bronze relief of the Etruscan sun god, Usil, shows him wearing a rayed crown, and with his wings outstretched—ready for the long day’s journey through the sky. Usil was the Etruscan equivalent of the Greek god Helios and the Roman god Sol. This figure of Usil merges into a large plate decorated with undulating lines, suggesting the sea from which the sun emerges at daybreak, and into which it sinks at dusk. This and other similar bronze representations of the god served as decorative attachments for chariots that were driven in ceremonial or funerary processions. . . . 🏷 #GettyMuseum #GettyVilla #AncientArt #Antiquities #Bronze #SummerSolstice #Mythology #Sun 🌞: Appliqué depicting the Sun God Usil, 500–475 B.C., Etruscan. The J. Paul Getty Museum