The Terrifying Ways Ancient Civilizations Used To Interpret Eclipses
A solar eclipse has the power to inspire awe in the whole planet - or at least the areas lying in or near its path of totality. While today we fully understand the celestial mechanics at play during an eclipse, this hasn't been the case for much of human history.
It's easy to see how, devoid of a comprehensive scientific explanation, a solar eclipse could inspire awe and be seen as terrifying - or even a harbinger of the end of the world. Let's take the long view and look at how ancient humans interpreted these incredible events.
It was an omen.
Ancient humans - and modern humans, too - sometimes look at unique events as an omen, or a sign of things to come. One commonality across lots of ancient cultures is that solar eclipses were often see as an omen.
Seeing the usually-round sun turn into a crescent, then become totally eclipsed by the earth, plunging the midday light into a weird twilight, can be disconcerting to say the least - so it's no surprise that eclipses were viewed in this light.
It could end wars.
The aptly-named Battle of the Eclipse, fought in the 6th century BCE between the Medes and Lydians in modern-day Turkey, saw a solar eclipse with "day turning into night." Soldiers were so taken aback that they stopped fighting altogether.
Not only did the eclipse stop fighting in that moment, it ended the larger war - which had been raging for six years at that point. While there's some disagreement on the historical facts, it certainly seems likely that an eclipse ended the war.
Possible regime change.
In antiquity, people in parts of modern-day China believed that the disappearance of the sun during the day indicated that a dragon had come to eat the sun. The wider implication was that the family in power would soon be out of power.
This had the effect of regime supporters making noise to scare off the dragon, ensuring the dynasty's position and eliminating the threat - until the next solar eclipse, of course.
A reason for human sacrifice.
The Inca of South America were no strangers to human sacrifice, and also had advanced knowledge of celestial phenomena. These two traits dovetailed during solar eclipses, which were seen as the sun god - Inti - being displeased.
The answer to this, of course, was human sacrifice. Only by providing Inti with an offering could the Inca appease him. For a culture as invested in agriculture as the Inca, keeping the sun god happy was extremely important.
The gods were fighting.
The ancient Egyptians had a complex system of gods and deities, and solar eclipses were seen as a disruption of the status quo amongst the gods. They believed eclipses were a sign that Apep - an evil and chaotic spirit - had swallowed the benevolent sun god, Ra.
These circumstances, it was believed, led to Ra's allies banding together to fight Apep, eventually cutting him open to release Ra, who was still inside. Only then could the sun shine again.
Of course Loki got involved.
Modern moviegoers are already familiar with Loki, the mischievous Norse god with unclear motives. Norse folklore said that eclipses were Loki's revenge for the other gods locking him up in chains.
Loki took his revenge out on the sun itself, which seems kind of unfair considering the sun had nothing to do with his imprisonment. Regardless, Loki was believed to create giant wolves that swallowed the sun whole, with some of them even going after the moon as well.
The sun and moon are like a married couple.
German mythology had a similar vibe going with a female sun and a male moon. In this telling of the story, the two are literally married, with the female sun working during the day and the male moon handling nights.
But sometimes, this arrangement got lonely for the moon, who wanted to hang out with his wife. When things got desperate for the moon, he would appear during the day to get close to the sun, therefore causing an eclipse.
Bitten by a bear.
The Pomo people of modern-day Northern California had an interesting origin story for eclipses. Their name for a solar eclipse translates to "sun got bit by bear," which is in essence the entire story.
To go into more detail, the bear was walking along the Milky Way, seeing celestial bodies along the way. Eventually, the bear runs into the sun and the two get into an argument with neither willing to cede the path. The ensuing squabble, and bear bite, is the solar eclipse.
The sun needed to be reignited.
Humans have understood the importance of the sun for warmth and agriculture for thousands of years. They've also utilized fire for the same purpose. So it stands to reason that Ojibwe tribes in the modern-day Great Lakes region made this connection with solar eclipses.
The Ojibwe believed that the sun was basically the biggest of all campfires, and an eclipse happened when it smoldered out. They'd shoot flaming arrows high into the sky. When the eclipse ended, it meant one of the arrows had worked.
Ancient writers were horrified.
Some of the ancient buzz surrounding solar eclipses was just people expressing their straight-up terror. Consider this passage from the ancient Greek poet Archilochus after he witnessed an eclipse over the island of Paros in the 7th century BCE:
"Nothing in the world can surprise me now. For Zeus, the father of the Olympian, has turned mid-day into black night by shielding light from the blossoming sun, and now dark terror hangs over mankind. Anything may happen."
The gods were always battling.
Ancient Hindu folklore stated that the sun, also known as Surya, was constantly fending off attacks from the demigod Rahu, who was attempting to become a full-blown god and achieve mortality.
Some storytelling says that Rahu was punished for constantly attempting to mess with the sun. This means that Rahu was beheaded, and his eternal punishment was to be a disembodied head, pursuing the sun forever. Solar eclipses could be seen as the rare result of Rahu catching up with Surya.
A union between sun and moon.
The Aborigines of Australia saw the sun as a woman carrying the torch, while the moon was a man who...wasn't carrying a torch. Interestingly, the masculine moon was seen as a symbol of female fertility because of the correlation between moon phases and menstrual cycle.
Thus, a solar eclipse was seen as the rare time that these two deities - the feminine sun and the masculine moon - caught up with each other (and presumably made celestial babies).
Something to be respected.
We all know that you shouldn't look directly at a solar eclipse, and that's because you shouldn't look directly at the sun in general. The Navajo people of the American Southwest understood this intuitively, and had a procedure in place for solar eclipses.
Rather than going outside, the Navajo instructed everyone to stay in their dwellings whenever there was an eclipse. This not only kept people from looking at the sun, it was also a deeply reverent spiritual practice.
A reason to lay down arms.
The indigenous Batammaliba people, who lived in modern-day Benin and Togo in west Africa, saw eclipses as a good reason to end quarrels and start getting along. According to their folklore, eclipses represented a big fight between the sun and moon.
Rather than getting too freaked out, the Batammaliba essentially used the eclipse as a teachable moment. They believed that the only way to end this sun versus moon fight was by putting aside any earthly interpersonal conflicts.
A rare chance to commune with the spirits.
Ancient Celtic people were interested in astronomy, and knew that the sun and moon aligned. They tended not to dread eclipses and viewed them as more of a rare opportunity to communicate with their various spirits and deities.
This is because the Celts believed that the alignment afforded by a solar eclipse represented an opened gateway to the spiritual world, one that would close relatively quickly until the next eclipse. This brief moment created a chance to communicate with Celtic spirits.
The cosmic ballet goes on.
It stands to reason that ancient cultures viewed celestial bodies - the sun, moon, and visible planets - as part of the same family or canon. Tlingit tribes of the northern Pacific Coast of Alaska and British Columbia viewed eclipses as a kind of celestial renewal.
To the Tlingit, an eclipse signalled that the sun and moon were procreating and having more children. Their children, of course, were the various stars and planets that become visible during an eclipse.
A reflection of life on Earth.
Long before the Transylvania region of Romania was associated with vampires, ancient Transylvanians had a belief system surrounding solar eclipses. Their folklore saw an eclipse not as something bigger than people on Earth, but rather something caused by people on Earth.
Ancient Transylvanian folklore held that the darkness caused by a solar eclipse was the sun turning away from Earth - the reason being that it was so angry or ashamed at the bad behavior of people on Earth that it couldn't bear to face them.
A sickly sun.
The sun, like all stars, follows a life cycle. No one alive today will live to see it, but in several billion years, the sun will lose its source of fuel, grow until it devours the Earth, and eventually burn out.
Ancient people had no way of knowing this, but to the Aymara people of the Andes, a solar eclipse meant that the sun was sick and possibly dying. To remedy this, they'd light fires to try to keep it warm.
Rescued by a mouse.
In some Ojibwe and Cree folklore, there's an elaborate story surrounding solar eclipses. In the story, a troublemaker named Tcikabis is burned by the sun, and seeks revenge by catching it in a snare. This is the eclipse.
To close out the story, all of nature tries its best to save the sun from its vicious trap, but it's only a mouse - perhaps the smallest and most unassuming animal present - is able to chew through the ropes of the snare, freeing the sun.
People are superstitious, even today.
It's hard not to be awed by a solar eclipse, even when we know that there's a rational explanation. Modern humans still feel drawn to solar eclipses, and age-old superstitions persist into the 21st century.
Whether these superstitions are old wives' tales - like pregnant women avoiding eclipses - or religious in nature - like an eclipse signalling the rapture, or end times - it's hard not to understand why humans put so much attention and emphasis on these rare events.