Many ancient cultures worshipped the sun as if it were a god. Here, Benvolio paints the image of a mythological sun god rising in the east and shining his light over the earth as he peers down on it.  Shakespeare also engages in some wordplay with the word “peer,” which can mean either to look out from something or to appear in something. Thus, Benvolio’s sun god could be envisioned as either looking out from the window in the east, or as appearing in that window for us to see.