The Sun Was Eaten: 6 Ways Cultures Have Explained Eclipses

In ancient China it was commonly held that solar eclipses occurred when a celestial dragon attacked and devoured the Sun. Chinese eclipse records are some of the oldest in the world and go back more than 4,000 years; at least one simply states "the Sun has been eaten." To frighten away the dragon and save the Sun, people would bang drums and make loud noises during an eclipse. Since the Sun always returned after this ruckus-making, it is easy to see how the tradition was perpetuated. Interestingly, it seems the ancient Chinese were not particularly bothered by lunar eclipses, and one text from about 90 BCE dismisses them as "a common matter."

Ancient Hindu mythology provides a rather graphic and disturbing explanation for solar eclipses. According to legend, a cunning demon named Rahu sought to drink the nectar of the gods and thus attain immortality. Disguised as a woman, Rahu attempted to attend a banquet of the gods and was discovered by Vishnu. As punishment, the demon was promptly beheaded, and it is his decapitated head flying across the sky that darkens the Sun during an eclipse. Some versions say that Rahu was actually able to steal a sip of the nectar but was beheaded before the elixir reached the rest of his body. His immortal head, in perpetual pursuit of the Sun, sometimes catches and swallows it, but the Sun quickly reappears, as Rahu has no throat.

The Inca of South America worshiped Inti, the all-powerful sun god. Inti was generally believed to be benevolent, but solar eclipses were understood to be a sign of his wrath and displeasure. Following an eclipse, spiritual leaders would attempt to divine the source of his anger and determine which sacrifices should be offered. Although the Inca rarely practiced human sacrifice, it is thought that an eclipse was occasionally deemed serious enough to do so. Fasting was also common, and the emperor would often withdraw from public duties during and following an eclipse.

According to Choctaw legend, a mischievous black squirrel gnawing on the Sun is the cause of eclipses. Like the Chinese dragon, the squirrel must be frightened away by the clamor and yells of the event's human witnesses. Ojibwa and Cree peoples have a story that a boy (or sometimes dwarf) named Tcikabis sought revenge on the Sun for burning him. Despite the protestations of his sister, he caught the Sun in a snare, causing an eclipse. Various animals tried to release the Sun from the trap, but only the lowly mouse could chew through the ropes and set the Sun back on its path. 

The Batammaliba are an ancient people of northern Togo and Benin. According to their legend, human anger and fighting spread to the Sun and the Moon, who began to fight with each other and caused an eclipse. The legendary first mothers, Puka Puka and Kuiyecoke, urged the villagers to demonstrate peace to the Sun and Moon to convince them to stop their brawl. During an eclipse, Batammaliba people make amends for old feuds and peacefully come together to encourage peace between the celestial bodies.   

Surprisingly, ancient Egyptians did not leave any explicit records detailing solar eclipses, though such an event would undoubtedly have been observed by these astronomy-savvy sun worshippers. Some scholars have suggested that perhaps eclipses were highly distressing and were deliberately left unrecorded so as to not "endow the event with a degree of permanence" or tempt the sun god Re (Ra). One Egyptologist has suggested that various references to an apparently metaphorical form of blindness align with historical eclipse dates and may be symbolic records of these events. Or perhaps papyrus records were simply lost to time.