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.
Pindar (c. 518-438 BC),
probably refers to the solar eclipse of 30 April 463 B.C.E.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse,
Without all hope of day !
John Milton (1608-1674), _Samson Agonistes_, 1, 80 (1671)
Here lie the bodies of Ho and Hi,
Whose fate, though sad, is risible;
Being slain because they could not spy
Th' eclipse which was invisible.
Author unknown
(said to refer to the Chinese eclipse of 2136 B.C.E. or 2159.)
Zeus, the father of the
Olympic Gods, turned
midday into night, hiding the light
of the dazzling Sun;
and sore fear came upon men.
Archilochus (680-640 BC),
on the total solar eclipse of 6 April 648.
...In the sixth year an engagement took place, in which, after the
battle had been joined, the day suddenly turned to night. This
change in the day had been foretold to the Ionians by Thales of
Miletus, who had fixed as its term the very year in which it
actually occurred.
Herodotus (484-425 B.C.), _Histories_, I, 74.2
Herodotus reports that Thales of Miletus (625-545)
predicted the eclipse of the sun on May 28, 585 BC
And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the
earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of
the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud
voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having
said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Christian Testament (AV/KJV),
The Gospel According to Luke, 23, 44-6.
Beam of the Sun! O thou that seest from afar, what wilt thou be
devising? O mother of mine eyes! O star supreme, reft from us in the
daytime! Why has thou perplexed the power of man and the way of wisdom
by rushing forth on a darksome track? Art thou bringing a sign of some
war, or wasting of produce, or an unspeakably violent snow-storm, or
fatal faction, or again, some overflowing of the sea on the plain, or
frost to bind the earth, or heat of the south wind streaming with raging
rain? Or wilt thou, by deluging the land, cause the race of men to
begin anew? I in no wise lament whate'er I shall suffer with the rest!
Pindar (c. 518-438 BC), Ninth Paean, addressed to the Thebans.
probably refers to the solar eclipse of 30 April 463 B.C.E.
All her original brightness, nor appear'd
Less archangel ruin'd, and th' excess
Of Glory obscur'd.
As when the Sun, new risen,
Looks through the horizontal misty air,
Shorn of his Beams, or from behind the Moon
In dim Eclipse disastrous twilight sheds
On half the Nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes Monarchs.
John Milton (1608-1674)
(1667) _Paradise Lost_, Book I, lines 592-99.
To witness a total eclipse of the Sun is a privilege that comes to but
few people. Once seen, however, it is a phenomenon never to be
forgotten. The black body of the Moon standing out . . . in sinister
relief between Sun and Earth, the sudden outflashing glory and radiance
of the pearly corona which can be seen at no other time, the scarlet
prominences rising from the surface of the hidden Sun to heights of
many thousand miles, the unaccustomed presence of the brighter stars
and planets in the daytime, the darkness of twilight and the unusual
chill in the air. There is something in it all that affects even the
strongest nerves and it is almost with a sigh of relief that we hail
the return of the friendly Sun.
Isabel M. Lewis, A HANDBOOK OF SOLAR ECLIPSES, 1924.
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