Eclipses have captivated human imagination for centuries, inspiring both fear and wonder as ancient cultures sought to explain the mysterious celestial event. Mark Littman, a journalism professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and coauthor of 'Totality: The Great North American Eclipse of 2024,' finds the mythology and folklore surrounding eclipses to be truly intriguing.
Ancient records of eclipses date back to as early as 772 BC, with the Chinese marking them on animal bones, and 750 BC, when Babylonians recorded eclipses in cuneiform writing on clay tablets. These early civilizations recognized a pattern in eclipses, allowing them to predict future occurrences.
Despite their ability to predict eclipses, the actual cause of these phenomena remained a mystery, leading to the creation of various myths and folklore to explain them. Different cultures around the world developed unique stories to make sense of eclipses.
For example, Chinese mythology often depicted a dragon or a dog attempting to devour the sun during an eclipse, while Scandinavians believed a wolf was responsible for swallowing the sun. In northern South America, it was believed that the sun and moon engaged in a celestial battle to extinguish each other's light.
Transylvanian folklore took a different approach, suggesting that the sun turned away from Earth in disgust upon witnessing human corruption. Meanwhile, the Fon people of western Africa believed in a cosmic love story between the male sun and the female moon, who rarely met but would briefly extinguish their light when they did.
These diverse myths and folklore surrounding eclipses reflect humanity's enduring fascination with the natural world and our constant quest to understand the mysteries of the universe.
