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Eclipses in mythology and culture

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Astronomers Studying an Eclipse, Antoine Caron, 1571

Eclipses of the Sun and of the Moon have been described by nearly every culture. In cultures without an astronomical explanation, eclipses were often attributed to supernatural causes or regarded as bad omens.

Religious and cultural practices

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While solar and lunar eclipses are today understood astronomically as one celestial body shadowing another, their appearance from Earth does not intuitively belie a similar cause for each.[1] Mark Littmann, Fred Espenak, and Ken Willcox classified solar eclipse mythologies into four distinct genres:[2]

  • A celestial being (usually a monster) attempts to destroy the Sun.
  • The Sun fights with its lover the Moon.
  • The Sun and Moon make love and discreetly hide themselves in darkness.
  • The Sun god grows angry, sad, sick, or neglectful.

Abrahamic religions

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Judaism

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In the Talmud, solar eclipses are described as ill omens[3] and several events in the Hebrew Bible are said to have occurred during eclipses.[4] Judaism at large has been accepting of the modern astronomical explanation of eclipses and today many rabbis consider eclipses to be reminders of divinity and a time for prayer and introspection.[5]

Christianity

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French Jesuits observing an eclipse with King Narai and his court in April 1688, shortly before the Siamese revolution

The periodicity of lunar eclipses been deduced by Neo-Babylonian astronomers in the sixth century BCE[6] and the periodicity of solar eclipses was deduced in first century BCE by Greek astronomers, who developed the Antikythera mechanism[7] and had understood the Sun, Moon, and Earth to be spherical celestial bodies[8] since Aristotle.[9] The astronomical understanding of eclipses was thus well understood in the Ancient Near East in which Christianity developed. The New Testament describes the sky as darkening for hours during the crucifixion of Jesus.[10] As the event's lengthy duration and occurrence on the day of a full moon made it clear to contemporary believers that it could not be an eclipse, early Christians interpreted this as an omen and sign of Jesus's divinity.[11] In 12th-century Christian Europe, eclipses were thus connected to earthly rule, where the deaths of Charlemagne and Henry I were preceded by solar and lunar eclipses.[12] Saints were often also connected with eclipses, with a solar eclipse at their death a sign of their holiness.[13] Christian eschatology makes mention of eclipse-like phenomena, where Revelation 6:12 describes how "the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood."[14] A minority of modern Christians believe eclipses to portend the Second Coming.[15]

Islam

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An illustration from al-Biruni's astronomical works that explains the different phases of the moon, with respect to the position of the Sun.

Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world was well-developed, and contributions included Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn Maṭar's translation of Ptolemy's Almagest, in which he corrected Ptolemy's method for predicting eclipses.[16] Theologically, the Quran explicitly rejects notions of the sun and moon's divinity:

Do not prostrate to the sun or the moon, but prostrate to Allah, Who created them ˹all˺

— Surah Fussilat 41:37

In one hadith, Muhammad objects to followers' treatment of an eclipse as an omen and states that eclipses have no bearing on earthly life and death:

We were with Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) when the sun eclipsed. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) stood up dragging his cloak till he entered the Mosque. He led us in a two-rak`at prayer till the sun (eclipse) had cleared. Then the Prophet (p.b.u.h) said, "The sun and the moon do not eclipse because of someone's death. So whenever you see these eclipses pray and invoke (Allah) till the eclipse is over."

— Sahih al-Bukhari 1040

Because Muhammad instructed his followers to pray during eclipses as reminders of God's power, many Muslims today consider it sunnah to conduct a special prayer during solar eclipses, known as salat al-kusuf.[17] With modern eclipse prediction techniques, Muslim congregations today announce solar eclipse prayers in advance[18][19] as Islam places a great theological weight on communal prayer.[20]

Classical Greco-Roman mythology

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Plutarch associated the birth of Romulus, his foundation of Rome, and his death with three solar eclipses.[21][22] Scholars have attempted to substantiate these mythological claims by through modern astronomical computation, and have not been able to find eclipses on the dates traditionally given for these events.[23]

Hindu mythology

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Main article: Grahana
Rahu swallows the Sun, referred to as Rahukalam

According to Hindu mythology, solar and lunar eclipses, known in Sanskrit as grahana (Sanskrit: ग्रहणं, romanized: Grahaṇam, lit. 'Eclipse'), occur when the celestial gods Rahu and Ketu swallow the Sun and Moon respectively.[24][25]

Hindus generally believe that a grahana is a bad omen, and is considered the best time to chanting mantras that ward against evil.[26] Fasting is practiced for up to six hours before an eclipse. Food is often prepared only after the passing of the eclipse, and conventions regarding consuming meals at given hours in the context of the event are prescribed in the Kurma Purana.[27] During an eclipse, Hindus are considered unclean. They bathe and offer prayers to ancestors. Pilgrimage sites situated adjacent to a river throng with devotees during the onset of a grahana in some regions.[28] Pregnant women are considered to be especially at risk to the effects of an eclipse and are expected to adhere more strictly to rituals to prevent birth deformities in their children.[29] It is regarded to be a bad omen to be born during an eclipse, and Brahmins are often called upon to ritually bless such babies.

Native American traditions

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Drawing of Columbus' prediction of the March 1504 lunar eclipse to the native Jamaicans

The Indigenous peoples of the Americas have very diverse cultural practices and beliefs about eclipses.

Maya

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Since the sixteenth century, Western scholars have been interested in "eclipse glyphs" recorded by the Maya civilization in the Dresden Codex, thought by historians to be predictions of solar and lunar eclipses.[30] As there is no evidence for Maya understanding of heliocentrism or celestial orbits, it is likely that such eclipse predictions were made entirely from observed periodicity.[31] However, some scholars argue that the glyphs in the Mayan codices refer to skies darkened from heavy rainfall, and not to eclipses.[32]

Aztec

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In Aztec mythology, solar eclipses occurred when the jaguar god Tepēyōllōtl consumed the sun and threatened to swallow it completely, according to Eduard Seler's analysis of the Codex Vaticanus B.[33] A 16th century passage from the Florentine Codex gives an account of a solar eclipse:

Then there were a tumult and disorder. All were disquieted, unnerved, frightened. There was weeping. The common folk raised a cry, lifting their voices, making a great din, calling out, shrieking. There was shouting everywhere. People of light complexion were slain [as sacrifices]; captives were killed. All offered their blood; they drew straws through the lobes of their ears, which had been pierced. And in all the temples there was the singing of fitting chants; there was an uproar; there were war cries. It was thus said: "If the eclipse of the sun is complete, it will be dark forever! The demons of darkness will come down; they will eat men!"

— de Sahagún 1950, p. 2

There is no record of lunar eclipses in Aztec mythology or recordkeeping, as noted by an observer who wrote in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis about a lunar eclipse in 1510.[34] The Aztec records of solar eclipses, when present, are tied directly to historic events; it is likely that they chose to record such events only when they coincided with social or political events.[35]

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Navajo people consider the time during an eclipse to be a sacred moment of renewal, and refrain from all activities including eating and drinking.[36] During an eclipse, the Sun or Moon is believed to be dying and reborn. Members of the nation should be silent in prayer and it is considered forbidden to look anywhere except down on the ground. Before modern eclipse prediction methods, Navajo people believed they could predict oncoming eclipses through their traditional songs.[37] During the solar eclipse of October 14, 2023, the offices of the Navajo Nation, including its parks, were closed out of reverence for the eclipse.[38]

Hopi

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The Hopi people, whose reservation is an enclave of the Navajo Nation, consider eclipses to be a time of ceremony.[39][40]

New religious movements

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An original card from the tarot deck of Jean Dodal of Lyon, a classic "Tarot of Marseilles" deck, 1701–1715

Some New Age and Wicca practitioners view solar and lunar eclipses as important spiritual events.[41] As decentralized religious practices, there are no set prescribed rituals and adherents are free to explore their own exercises, which can include crystal charging,[42] imbuing water with energy,[43] and tarot card reading.[44] For some Wicca practitioners, the spiritual nature of the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 was an opportunity for political activism, casting spells against the administration of Donald Trump.[45]

Norse mythology

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The replicas of the Golden Horns of Gallehus exhibited at the National Museum of Denmark

According to Norse mythology, a wolf named Fenrir lives in constant pursuit of the Sun. When Fenrir consumes the Sun, the end times events of Ragnarök will ensue.[46] Historians consider it likely that the Golden Horns of Gallehus artifacts, which contain eschatological iconography, were made in response a lunar eclipse of November 4, 412 and a solar eclipse of April 16, 413.[47]

Other Norse tribes believe that there are two wolves named Sköll and Hati that are in pursuit of the Sun and the Moon, known by the names of Sol and Mani, and that an eclipse occurs when one of the wolves successfully eats either the Sun or the Moon.[48][better source needed]

West African mythology

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The Fon people believe that the creator god Mawu-Lisa divided into a Sun god Lisa and Moon god Mawu. Eclipses are seen as the two gods engaging in intercourse.[49] The Jukun people explained eclipses as the Sun catching the Moon, and would beat drums to make the Sun release its hold on the Moon.[49]

Modern secular practices

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Eclipse chasing

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Main article: Eclipse chasing

A dedicated group of eclipse chasers have pursued the observation of solar eclipses when they occur around Earth.[50] A person who chases eclipses is known as an umbraphile, meaning shadow lover.[51] Umbraphiles travel for eclipses and use various tools to help view the Sun including solar viewing glasses, also known as eclipse glasses, as well as telescopes.[52]

Educational outreach

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Solar and lunar eclipses are often used by educational institutions as events for public outreach about astronomy. Lunar eclipses, which are visible by about half the planet at once, are relatively small-scale events for individual organizations and simple to plan for. In areas with extreme levels of light pollution, stargazing may be impossible and so educational stargazing is necessarily restricted to lunar eclipses.[53] By studying lunar phases and eclipses, students can learn about the sizes and relative distances between the Sun, Earth, and Moon.[54]

Solar eclipses happen at midday in narrow visibility bands, which allows educational organizations to plan daytime outreach events that will naturally reach large crowds. Astronomy educators often feel an obligation to ensure eclipse viewers use solar viewing glasses, and utilize outreach events to distribute glasses and encourage compliance.[55][56] Where both a total and annular solar eclipse can be seen in relatively quick succession, outreach events can discuss the effect of the elliptical shapes of the Earth and Moon's orbits on the magnitude of eclipse.[57] As solar eclipses trace indiscriminately across swaths of continents, rural and impoverished areas in their path can benefit from greater attention paid to educating on astronomy and science in the area.[58][59]

Eclipses have also been opportunities for citizen science. As brief but geographically diverse events, it is difficult to organize traditional experiments across the entire viewing area. Crowd-sourced experiments have included a test of radio wave propagation,[60] plant and animal reactions,[61] and air temperature measurements.[62]

Civic events

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Solar eclipses are best visible in a narrow band across the planet, which places a significant logistical burden on organizations and towns in the path of totality. Southern Illinois University Carbondale found themselves at the center of the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, for which the university had to spend three years planning for the anticipated 30,000 additional visitors on what was originally scheduled as new-student move-in day.[63] Traffic congestion before and after a solar eclipse can be severe, with crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands filling highways and spilling off into secondary roadways.[64]

Eclipses are opportunities for large civic gatherings outside the educational sphere. For the solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, a rural portion of Texas had planned to hold a multi-day music and arts festival.[65] During the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump made an appearance outside the White House visible to onlookers from across the South Lawn to view the eclipse.[66]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Khalisi 2020, p. 12: "Taking the view of an uninformed person, the phenomenon of a lunar and solar eclipse presents itself very different in nature: different in frequency, different in daytime, different in length, different in the visual conditions. It is not obvious at all to comprehend that an eclipse is nothing more than an interplay of shadows caused by the bodies of earth or moon."
  2. ^ Littmann & Espenak 2023, p. 39.
  3. ^ Talmud, b. Sukkah 29a:8
  4. ^ Rogovoy 2017: "For those interested in deeper study, events in the books of Joshua, Amos, and Jonah are often explained as having been accompanied by solar eclipses, and rabbinical scholars have even drawn upon science to date these eclipses with some specificity to the times when these events are thought to have taken place"
  5. ^ Bharath, Crary & Fam 2024: "Judaism has longstanding interconnections with astronomy"
  6. ^ Nothaft 2024, p. 57: "Babylonian use of this eclipse period, which is known as the 'saros' to modern historians and astronomers, may go back to the earliest systematically recorded eclipse observations, which commence in the mid-eighth century BC. It was certainly in use by the sixth century BC, as seen from a cuneiform list of lunar eclipses"
  7. ^ Nothaft 2024, p. 58: "To each of these months was assigned a separate cell, which in the case of an eclipse month carried an inscription composed of small glyphs and an index letter. The glyphs were there to differentiate between a lunar and a solar eclipse "
  8. ^ Nothaft 2024, p. 59: "An aspect of the mechanism that seems distinctly non-Babylonian is the idea of factoring parallax into eclipse predictions, which rests on an understanding of eclipses as involving the interplay of three spherical bodies (Sun, Earth, Moon)"
  9. ^ Aristotle 1939, p. 253: "if the eclipses are due to the interposition of the earth, the shape must be caused by its circumference, and the earth must be spherical"
  10. ^ Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44
  11. ^ Tertullian 1885, p. 35: "Those who were not aware that this had been predicted about Christ, no doubt thought it an eclipse"
  12. ^ Gasper 2024, p. 113: "The miraculous solar eclipse associated with the death of Christ in the medieval period offered a framework for Christian writers for a similar association of the cosmic phenomenon with earthly rulership"
  13. ^ Gasper 2024, p. 121: "The saints are presented as martyrs, a solar eclipse marking their moment of death or its prefigurement, completing the imitation of Christ and drawing on the same understanding of the darkness at the crucifixion in Luke's gospel"
  14. ^ Revelation 6:12
  15. ^ Eykel 2024: "The upcoming solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, which will be visible over parts of North America, has brought with it a slew of predictions that Jesus might be returning sooner rather than later."
  16. ^ Saliba 2007, p. 80: "Remembering that al-Ḥajjāj was apparently conscious of the environment of competition that we just spoke about, he could not afford to have what looked like a mistake in the translation, and took it upon himself to correct the Greek text"
  17. ^ Burge 2022, p. 218: "The hadith above stating that eclipses are one of the signs of God (ayat Allah) makes the salat al-kusuf a kind of communal remembrance of divine power and sovereignty. The prayer is not supplicatory, in the sense of a prayer being made to achieve a specific end; but, rather, it becomes used as a vehicle for the community to remember their place in the universe, the sovereignty of God, and God’s authority over all created things"
  18. ^ Ashford 2024: "More than a thousand people gathered at the East Plano Islamic Center Monday to watch the total solar eclipse and pray Salatul Kusoof, a special prayer observed by some Muslims during eclipses"
  19. ^ Warikoo 2024: "Imam Imran Salha of the Islamic Center of Detroit said that prayers for the eclipse will be held at 2 p.m. Monday"
  20. ^ Burge 2022, p. 218: "The role of 'coming together' serves as a theological reminder that all Muslims are part of the umma and should respond as one in certain situations"
  21. ^ Close 2019, p. 96: "Classical literature has associated Romulus's birth, his foundation of Rome, and his death, with eclipses."
  22. ^ Yarrow 2018, p. 155: "We know from the de Re Publica (51 BC) that Ennius discussed the apotheosis of Romulus, dating it by an eclipse."
  23. ^ Close 2019, p. 100: "If you accept the dates of Romulus's life and foundation of Rome recorded in the classical histories, the eclipse record shows the association with eclipses is mere myth."
  24. ^ Sastri 1903, p. 31: "With the generality of the Hindus the eclipse is the swallowing of the sun and the moon for a time by a demon called Rahu"
  25. ^ Chandrasekharam 2007, p. 30: "In Hindu mythology Rahu and Ketu are regarded as celestial bodies that swallow the Moon and the Sun thus causing lunar and solar eclipses respectively"
  26. ^ Sastri 1903, p. 33: "The eclipse time is considered a most auspicious time for mastering the incantations for exorcising the evil effects of serpent bite, or scorpion-sting, and of devils, and many specialists in these directions would be seen standing in water and muttering these incantations"
  27. ^ Kurma Purana, II.19.15: "One should not take food immediately before the Solar eclipse. If there is a lunar eclipse, he should not take food in that evening. In the course of the duration of the eclipse also, one should not take food. After the liberation (i.e. close of the eclipse), he should (first) take bath and take food."
  28. ^ Lall 2004, p. 104: "It is held that everyone is unclean during an eclipse, and should bathe and wash away that uncleanliness"
  29. ^ Simoons 1998, p. 171: "Pregnant women are in special danger from eclipses, because eclipses may bring on deformities in the children they bear"
  30. ^ Knowlton 2003, p. 293: "Westerners have been interested in Mesoamerican interpretations of eclipses since the sixteenth century A.D."
  31. ^ Aveni 1984, p. 26: "Interestingly enough, the Maya mapped out the entire eclipse program for the future with neither knowledge of nor interest in the concept of the nodes of the lunar orbit or the 19-year nodal regression period that has been given so much attention in megalithic astronomy of the Old World"
  32. ^ Love 2017.
  33. ^ Seler 1902–1903, p. 144: "For the Mexicans the jaguar was the animal that devours the sun, at the time when the sun was devoured, that is, when a solar eclipse; occurred. Hence for the Mexicans he denoted darkness, and his image, the god Tepeyollotli, is a god of caves, of the dark interior of the mountains"
  34. ^ le Tellier 1899, p. 42: "nunca hazian cuenta de los eclipes de la luna sino de los del sol por q dezian q el sol se comia a la luna quando acaecia aver eclise de luna"
  35. ^ Aveni & Calnek 1999, p. 96: "Aztec chronologists selectively recorded visible eclipses that served as 'punctuation marks' bracketing real historical events spaced at intervals determined by the xiuhmolpilli cyclic framework"
  36. ^ Johannesen 2024.
  37. ^ Zotigh 2024.
  38. ^ Joe 2023.
  39. ^ Johannesen 2024: "The Hopi in Arizona believe an eclipse is a time to pray and for ceremony, such as presenting traditional sacred names"
  40. ^ Zotigh 2024: "During the last eclipse, our nieces and nephews were given their sacred Hopi names"
  41. ^ Yellin 2024: "To adherents of nontraditional spiritual movements like Wicca — which has grown in popularity as more Americans leave organized religion — it's an opportunity to tap into energies that flow throughout the natural and spiritual world"
  42. ^ Jackson 2024: "There is no need for protective stones during the solar eclipse, but that it’s a good time to charge your crystals as well"
  43. ^ Silva 2017: "My mom says there a chance an eclipse can grant powers, wisdom, and positive energy. The purpose of eclipse water is to bottle up all that energy and be able to use it for months after the event has passed."
  44. ^ Stephens 2024: "For Gonzalez, tarot is a way to navigate the individual experience of this cosmic event."
  45. ^ Burton 2017: "Activists like the members of the #MagicResistance, who use carefully structured, symbolically loaded rituals to 'bind' Donald Trump (often represented by whimsical items like a Cheeto or a carrot), see in the solar eclipse an opportunity to direct their spiritual energy toward an administration they see as the embodiment of evil"
  46. ^ Lindow 2002.
  47. ^ Hartner 1969.
  48. ^ Morrison & Goldsworthy 2017.
  49. ^ a b Lynch & Roberts 2010, p. 39.
  50. ^ Russo 2012.
  51. ^ Kelly 2017.
  52. ^ Wright 2017.
  53. ^ Razali et al. 2020, p. 45: "The second outreach program conducted by the STEM ambassadors was a public stargazing activity at the National Planetarium, Kuala Lumpur. Since this location suffers from extremely high light pollution, the stargazing activity was restricted to bright objects which were planetary and lunar eclipse observations"
  54. ^ Marcos & Sanmartín 2015: "by observing lunar phases and eclipses from the ground, students could also determine, following Aristarchus of Samos in the 3rd century BC, 4 length ratios involving moon and sun distances to earth, and radii of all three, moon, sun, and earth"
  55. ^ Dcruz 2024, section 2: "I felt it would be worthwhile to organize free public viewing of both eclipses so that as many people as possible could enjoy viewing them safely"
  56. ^ Keesee, Williamson & Robertson-Honecker 2019, p. 78: "Through these mechanisms, we were able to collaborate with K-12 teachers and informal educators to distribute over 30,000 eclipse glasses and reach over 50,000 West Virginians, with a primary focus on middle-school-aged youth."
  57. ^ Dcruz 2024, section 2: "Besides the enjoyment and pleasure associated with viewing a solar eclipse, there are a variety of astronomical concepts that can be discussed. For example, the angular size of an object versus its physical size, and the fact that an object's angular size decreases with increasing distance from the observer."
  58. ^ Raharja & Pramudya 2016, p. 4: "The enthusiasm was shown by the students and teachers. Some of them have low awareness about the solar eclipse in Sorong Regency. The public outreach did not only increase the knowledge of the students and teacher but also gave the opportunity for the physics education student to start practicing his knowledge in teaching"
  59. ^ Keesee, Williamson & Robertson-Honecker 2019, p. 77: "in recent years there has been a significant effort to enhance STEM education to combat this statistic and bring prosperity to the state. For rural Appalachian students in particular, the impact of STEM experiences can be enhanced when they are integrated into their community, as rural students often place a high value on community and family relationships"
  60. ^ Fallacara et al. 2016.
  61. ^ Young et al. 2019.
  62. ^ Weaver et al. 2019.
  63. ^ Baer 2019, p. 23: "August 21, 2017 was set to be the first day of classes for Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale. This date had been on the academic calendar for several years prior to any discussions to modify the class and move in schedule to accommodate not just the thousands of returning students, faculty, and staff, but an estimated additional 30,000 campus visitors traveling to campus to see the great American eclipse"
  64. ^ Parvinashtiani, Hopps & Radow 2019, p. 275: "Kentucky DOT expected traffic only on primary roads, but congestion was observed on many of the secondary roads as people tried to avoid the traffic on the primary roads. Traffic counts showed an immediate jump as people headed home from their eclipse adventure, with the most significant single jump of a 222% increase in traffic"
  65. ^ Garofalo 2024: "What organizers are calling a 'celestial creation,' the Texas Eclipse Festival at Reveille Peak Ranch in Burnet will be an entire experience where you will not just watch the total solar eclipse in the path of totality but also have access to a series of events featuring live music, impactful speakers, and exhibits unlike anything you've seen before."
  66. ^ Colvin 2017: "The president was joined by wife Melania, son Barron and top aides Monday afternoon to view the spectacle from the portico overlooking the South Lawn"

References

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Historic primary sources

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  • Aristotle (1939). On the Heavens. Translated by Guthrie, W. K. C. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-99372-3. OCLC 685157. OL 14998225W.
  • de Sahagún, Bernardino (1950). General History of the Things of New Spain. Vol. 7, The sun, moon, and stars, and the binding of the years. Translated by Anderson, Arthur J. O.; Dibble, Charles E.
  • Seler, Eduard (1902–1903). Codex Vaticanus no. 3773: An Old Mexican Pictorial Manuscript in the Vatican Library. Vol. 1. Translated by Keane, Augustus Henry. OCLC 10291895.
  • le Tellier, Charles Maurice (1899). Hamy, Ernest T. (ed.). Codex Telleriano-Remensis: manuscrit mexicain (in French). OCLC 3115736. OL 28166311W.
  • Tertullian (1885). Apologeticus. Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325. Vol. 3. Translated by Roberts, Alexander; Donaldson, James. London: Christian Literature Publishing Company. OCLC 848496695. OL 16315858W.

Books and academic journals

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Newspapers and magazines

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Web sources

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