Editor's Note: Jason Colavito (@JasonColavito) is a writer and cultural critic based in upstate New York. His writings have appeared in Esquire, The New Republic, Slate and elsewhere. He is the author of several books, including "Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean," which will be published this fall. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. read more opinion on CNN.
In ancient Mesopotamia, a solar eclipse was a cause for great concern. The ancient peoples of the Near East feared that eclipses, especially of the sun and moon, but also of the planets, were an 'evil omen' that posed a great danger to the health and life of the king. To save the ruler from a terrible fate, they would appoint a temporary king for a short period and kill him, thus fulfilling the omen of the king's death and allowing the usual heir to the throne to return to office unscathed.
Now a rare solar eclipse is sweeping across the United States, ahead of a U.S. election battle that pits both the current president and his predecessor in a rematch that many voters say they don't want. While an election loss is only a figurative political death, it's hard not to feel at least a little bit of that ancient Mesopotamian unease, mixed with the excitement and joy of watching one of nature's most spectacular light shows.
Even in this age of science, superstition persists, and even the most rational among us sometimes believe in omens. Today, eclipses retain a small part of their historical role as harbingers of doom.
On social media, far-right fearmongers are offering nonsensical conspiracy theories about the solar eclipse heralding an attack on American cities by undocumented migrants. But the fact that most of us now understand that a sign in the sky as dramatic as a solar eclipse does not dictate events on Earth is an important reminder of immutable scientific truths in an age of conspiracy theories.
In the ancient world, solar eclipses caused fear because they seemed to happen randomly, and their cause was not fully understood, leading to anxiety about whether the sun would appear again.
Where knowledge failed, myth filled the gaps. Many cultures believed that a solar eclipse occurred when a mythological creature ate the sun. In Vietnam it was a frog. In the Andes, a puma. Among the indigenous peoples of North America, animals from squirrels to bears did the work. In ancient China, a dragon was responsible. In other cultures, eclipse myths revolved around a meeting or marriage between the sun and the moon.
Over time, ancient people began to attempt to scientifically record and understand eclipses, although these efforts were still mixed with magical thinking. More than 2,500 years ago, Chinese astronomers collected data on solar eclipses, but they saw them as dark omens for the emperor, who had to avoid meat and perform rituals to "save" the sun.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Thales of Miletus was the first to predict a solar eclipse, and when the prediction came true, the Medes and Lydians, who were at war at the time, took it as an omen, stopped their fighting and sought peace.
Some modern scholars dispute that Thales ever made such a prediction, but by c. Between 100 and 300 AD. Scientists from the Mediterranean to China had begun calculating the timing of solar eclipses, even though they could not predict where on Earth they would be visible. It took until 1715 to master that skill.
As science discovered the mechanisms of eclipses, some of the traditional terror waned, at least among the educated. In the early modern period (c. 1400-1600 CE), European writers instead sought to recapture that sense of divine fear by recording how the natural world shrunk before eclipses.
There were countless stories of horses and other pack animals refusing to move during a solar eclipse. Some said birds fell from the sky, 'struck with fear'. Nocturnal creatures walked riotously outside of appointed hours. (Today, science tells us that many animals think nighttime is approaching and act accordingly.)
Even among some people, especially those with little scientific training, eclipses remained terrifying for centuries, even into the 19th century. When a total solar eclipse approached France in 1654, an anonymous pamphlet attributed to the astronomer Pierre Gassendi attempted to reassure the people of Paris that the eclipse would cause no damage. Yet the message did not get through; the French literacy rate was around 30% and many Parisians locked themselves in their cellars to weather an expected disaster that never came.
It is said that Christopher Columbus was impressed by the Arawak people he tried to violently colonize by correctly predicting a solar eclipse - but that story is not true. Columbus actually predicted a moon. Many people confuse the story of Columbus with a story from a much later novel. In 1889, Mark Twain had told a similar story, with a more dramatic solar eclipse, to save the hero of his novel "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" from execution. In both cases, the stories were intended to contrast modern scientists with people ignorant of superstition.
With the expansion of public education and increased literacy, eclipses became less of a source of fear than of excitement and amusement. By the 19th century, large crowds gathered for parties to watch the eclipse, gazing through smoked glass to shield their eyes from the sun.
During the solar eclipse of 1842, 20,000 people of all social classes gathered in Perpignan, France, and cheered the sun's achievements. But even at that late hour, some poor, illiterate farmers reported fearing the eclipse. 'The sky was serene, and yet the daylight diminished, and every object became shadowy, and then suddenly we were in darkness. We thought we had gone blind," one person told astronomer François Arago.
Eclipses have always involved a heady mix of science and superstition, but today, thanks to education and the media, almost everyone knows what an eclipse is and how to watch it safely. This triumph of science education gives us a glimmer of hope that even in an age of fake news, disinformation and alternative facts, scientific knowledge will ultimately win. It could easily take a few thousand years.
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