In a few hours, the sun and moon will kiss, and their embrace will cast a deep and rare darkness across the land.
In a tumultuous political environment— where black and white are the primary focus— our binary thinking puts the solar eclipse in a stark frame. There is darkness, there is light, but today, there will be a lot in between.
The science is fascinating, but rarely does science provide us with spiritual meaning. More often, science prompts its discovery. We find meaning when science demonstrates facts. We fill the void left when curiosity is satisfied by answers. We bring subjectivity to a conversation of objectivity. We comfort ourselves. Our imagination is truly a fountain.
So today, when the earth darkens and light leaves us in awe, it will be difficult to not pause and wonder— when will the sun come back? And when light returns, will it feel different?
Questions like this aren’t tied to our time. In fact, the solar eclipse has brought wonder— and fear— to humanity throughout history.
Let’s visit the past.
(quotations via David Le Conte of MrEclipse.com)
“. . . and the Sun has perished
out of heaven,
and an evil mist hovers over all.“
Homer (Greek), The Odyssey (8th century BC).
Said to refer to a total solar eclipse of 16 April 1178 BC.
“The eclipse of the Moon which took place in Marchesvan (month VIII) began [in the east]. That is bad for Subartu. What [is wrong]? After it, Jupiter ent[ered] the Moon three times. What is being done to (make) its evil pass? . . .“
Bel-suma-iskun (Babylonian scribe).
Refers to a lunar eclipse of 675 BC.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth’s Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 125.
“If the Sun at its rising is like a crescent and wears a crown like the Moon: the king will capture his enemy’s land; evil will leave the land, and (the land) will experience good… “
Rasil the older, Babylonian scribe to the king.
Refers to a solar eclipse of 27 May 669 BC.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth’s Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 125.
“Zeus, the father of the
Olympic Gods, turned
mid-day into night, hiding the light
of the dazzling Sun;
and sore fear came upon men.“
Archilochus (c680-c640 BC), Greek poet
Refers to the total solar eclipse of 6 April 648 BC.
“Nothing can be surprising any more or impossible or miraculous, now that Zeus, father of the Olympians has made night out of noonday, hiding the bright sunlight, and . . . fear has come upon mankind. After this, men can believe anything, expect anything. Don’t any of you be surprised in future if land beasts change places with dolphins and go to live in their salty pastures, and get to like the sounding waves of the sea more than the land, while the dolphins prefer the mountains.“
Archilochus, Greek poet (c680-640 BC)
May refer to a total solar eclipse of 6 April 648 BC.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth’s Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 338. Partly quoted in Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98.
“God can cause unsullied light to spring out of black night. He can also shroud in a dark cloud of gloom the pure light of day“
Pinder (Greek poet) Ninth Paean, addressed to the Thebans.
Likely refers to the solar eclipse of 30 April 463 BC, which was nearly total at Thebes.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth’s Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 344, and, in part, in Encyclopedia Britannica CD 98.
“And the moon in haste eclipsed her,
and the Sun in anger swore
He would curl his wick within him
and give light to you no more.“
Aristophanes (Greek, c450-385 BC) Chorus of Clouds (423BC)
Said to refer to a lunar eclipse of 425 BC, and an annular solar eclipse of 424 BC.
“But about the first watch the Moon in eclipse hid at first the brilliance of her heavenly body, then all her light was sullied and suffused with the hue of blood.“
Curtius, History of Alexander.
Refers to a lunar eclipse at moonrise in Sicily and at Arbela, of 20/21 September 331 BC.
Quoted in Historical Eclipses and Earth’s Rotation, by F Richard Stephenson, Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 372.
“And I will show portents in the sky above, and signs on the earth below – blood and fire and drifting smoke. The Sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before that great, resplendent day, the day of the Lord, shall come.“
Peter in Acts of the Apostles
This reference to a blood-red Moon, and the following references in the Gospels to a darkening sky, have been interpreted as placing the date of the crucifixion to 24 November AD 29, when there was an eclipse of the Sun, or Friday, 3 April AD 33, when there was a partial eclipse of the Moon over Jerusalem.
“They call it a great wonder
That the Sun would not
though the sky was cloudless
Shine warm upon the men.“
Sighvald, Icelandic poet.
Said to refer to a solar eclipse of AD 1030, during a battle near Trondheim.
Trick of the Moon’s eclipse
“When, in February 1504, the Indians refused to supply any more food to the fifty-odd Spaniards marooned in the small bay of Santa Gloria in Jamaica, Columbus conceived of a ploy to trick the Indian caciques. He had aboard the Capitana a copy of Johannes MÜller’s Calendarium published in Nuremberg about 1474. It contained predictions of lunar eclipses for many years ahead. It revealed that a full eclipse was due on 29 February 1504 – leap year.
On this day Columbus entertained all the local caciques abroad the Capitana. He addressed them all. He explained that the Spaniards were Christians, that they believed in one God who lived in the Heavens, rewarded the good and punished the bad. His God, he warned them, was about to punish them with pestilence and famine if they did not supply food to the Spaniards.
As a mark of His intent He would display a sign in the sky – a blacking-out of the moon. ‘Some feared and other mocked’, Thacher reports, then right on cue a dark shadow began to pass over the face of the moon. Abject fear gripped the Indians. They begged Columbus to intercede on their behalf. He retired to his cabin for one hour and fifty minutes, then returned to the caciques. God, he informed them, was prepared to withdraw the threat of punishment so long as they behaved themselves and resumed supplies of food and other necessities to the Christians, and to pardon them, in token of which he would withdraw the shadow of the moon. They all agreed.
As the eclipse cleared the Indians marvelled. ‘From that time forward, they always took care to provide what [the Spaniards] had need of.'”
David A Thomas, Christopher Columbus: Master of the Atlantic, André Deutsch Limited, London (1991), page 194. Reprinted with permission of the author.
Refers to a lunar eclipse of 29 February 1504.
For a further quotation about this incident see A World Too Vast by Alexander McKee (Souvenir Press, London, 1990).
“Look, as the fair and fiery-pointed sun,
Rushing from forth a cloud, bereaves our sight;
Even so, the curtain drawn, his eyes begun
To wink, being blinded with a greater light:
Whether it is that she reflects so bright,
That dazzleth them, or else some shame supposed;
But blind they are, and keep themselves enclosed.”
William Shakespeare The Rape of Lucrece, Stanza 54 (1594)
“. . . the country people tilling, loosed their ploughs. The birds dropped to the ground.“
Unattributed account, referring to the total solar eclipse of 8 April 1652.
(Quoted in UK Solar Eclipses from Year 1 by Williams.)
“High on her speculative tower
Stood Science waiting for the hour
When Sol was destined to endure
That darkening of his radiant face
Which Superstition strove to chase,
Erewhile, with rites impure.“
William Wordsworth The Eclipse of the Sun, 1820
“The Star of Night [the Moon], by its comparative proximity and the rapidly recurring spectacle of its various phases, was with the Sun one of the first to attract the attention of the dwellers on Earth. But the Sun is tiring to the eyes, and the brightness of its light forced the observers to turn aside their prying glances.
Fair Pheobe [the Moon], more humane in this respect, allows herself to be observed in her modest gracefulness: she is gentle to the eye and unambitious, and yet she sometimes permits herself to eclipse her brother, the radiant Apollo [the Sun], without ever being eclipsed by him.“
Jules Verne (1828-1905) From Earth to Moon
“May the shadow of the moon fall on a world at peace.”
ABC anchor Frank Reynolds, during the 1979 solar eclipse, referring to the solar eclipse that would occur 38 years later: today.
