Dragons, prophecies and science: the story of our fascination with eclipses
The spell of eclipses has accompanied us for millennia, from references in Neolithic petroglyphs to Tintin, via the ‘Odyssey’. This curiosity has been accompanied by a deep-seated fear: the day turning into night has been associated with dire events. Recently, we have come to view them as natural events that never fail to inspire one of the most…
A thin line connects two of the great phenomena of summer (leaving aside the World Cup and the fires): the solar eclipse and the Odyssey. A passage from Homer's poem —which became a mass phenomenon thanks to Nolan's film— seems to refer to an episode of occultation of the king star like the one that awaits us on August 12th. In Canto XX of Odysseus' adventures, in the prolegomena to the slaughter of the wily suitors of his wife by the protagonist returned to his kingdom of Ithaca, a seer, Theoclymenus, “of divine appearance”, takes the floor in the midst of the general commotion to warn them of what awaits them (version by Carlos García Gual, Odyssey, Alianza, 2013).
“I see the walls and the beautiful intercolumns dripping with blood, and the courtyard full and the patio overflowing with ghosts, which rush in their march to the dark Hades”. And here comes what interests us especially: “And the Sun has gone out in the sky, and a malignant darkness invades us”.
Translated by urgent.news. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
