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Eclipse Tales

The earliest record of a solar eclipse comes from ancient China, though there is mention of Egyptian and Mayan recognition of the event. The date is set, among others, as October 22, 2134 BC and October 16, 1876 BC.

According to the ancient Chinese document Shu Ching, 'the Sun and Moon did not meet harmoniously.' Apparently the royal astronomers, Hsi and Ho, hadn't been able to predict the event, reputed to be caused by a dragon swallowing the sun. If they had, drummers raising a din and archers firing at the invisible dragon, could have got to work to get the sun out of danger.

The emperor -- allegedly King Zhong Kong, the 4th King of the Zia Dynasty of the North -- was apparently so angry at this lapse that he lost his head -- and demanded that those of the astronomers be removed.

Like the Chinese, the Lapps and Persians too banged drums and kettles to scare off the dragon.

On what is believed to be May 28, 585 BC, a solar eclipse brought peace upon the warring Lydians and Medes. They were busy in battle when the 'day turned into night.'

Taking that as a sign that they had gone too far, they made peace, assuring it with a double marriage. Thales of Miletus had predicted that eclipse -- if it was indeed the one in 585 BC -- but since he hadn't informed the Lydians and the Medes, peace resulted.

A bit from a lost poem by Archilochus goes thus:

'Nothing there is beyond hope, nothing that can be sworn impossible, nothing wonderful, since Zeus, father of the Olympians, made night from midday, hiding the light of the shining sun, and sore fear came upon men.' That's believed to be a reference to the total solar eclipse of April 6, 648 BC.

The Bible too refers to a solar eclipse, allegedly that of June 15, 763 BC. That date apparently has backing from an Assyrian historical record, the Eponym Canon, which records the event. There are other references too.

An eclipse certainly had its hand in forming the defining elements of modern Europe. Charlemagne's son, Emperor Louis was so bewildered by the five minutes of totality on May 5, 840, that he soon died, allegedly of shock. The battle for his throne ended with the Treaty of Verdun, which divided Europe into France, Germany, and Italy.

Romans thought eclipses boded ill and so public assemblies were banned during them. The Greeks too didn't think much of them. The word 'eclipse' comes from a Greek word for "abandonment".

Those in Thailand feel it is actually a good omen and think it promises well if the sun moves over the top of the moon as the eclipse ends. The Mexicans thought the sun and moon were settling differences the hard way, while the Tahitians decided that they were seeing the sun and moon inflagrante delicto.

There is also the tale of Christopher Columbus. On his fourth voyage to America in 1504, he allegedly faced big trouble -- he had to halt at Jamaica because his ships had been badly weakened by shipworms. His crew was allegedly mutinous and things weren't helped by the fact that their supplies had been stolen. And to cap it all, the locals weren't willing to help.

Columbus then allegedly hit upon the plan to get the gods to remove the moon the next night -- of course, he knew an eclipse was due on September 14,15, 1494 -- if the locals didn't help. When the eclipse happened, the Jamaicans begged his pardon and promised supplies. Columbus gave the moon the all-clear, or so the story goes.

Even Mark Twain used the same trick in his book, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Herge in his comic, Prisoners of the Sun, starring Tintin.