The total solar eclipse on April 8, which for a few minutes will appear to many North Americans to have extinguished the sun, has already begun to cast its wide shadows.
advertisementA quarter of US citizens are expected to travel to various locations where the eclipse can be viewed to its fullest, not to mention the legions of skywatchers planning to travel from abroad.
But why is this event, which will happen again in 2044, getting so much attention, with live coverage already confirmed across popular news and live streaming platforms for those who can't make the trip?
Well, aside from taking place in a part of the world known for its ability to promote almost any event as long as it can generate money, a quick look at how eclipses appear in art and literature might give some clues as to why a particular event sparks the public's imagination.
Artistic images through the ages
From ancient Egypt onwards, eclipses have always been seen as a bad omen. For this early civilization, if the sun was suddenly stolen from the sky, it meant that some evil deed was taking place among the gods.
Day and night, sun and moon – these things must be kept separate. Otherwise, trouble is brewing.
Not for nothing did I do Renaissance Painters like Robbins Include the eclipse in the depiction of Christ's crucifixion, a symbol of hope erased by darkness.
The Austrian Expressionist painter Egon Schiele referenced this metaphor in his 1907 painting The Crucifixion with the Dark Sun, in which the only light in the scene emanates from a ghostly second sun: Christ's halo.
By the early modern era, the idea of eclipses bearing bad news began to be embodied as a political rather than a religious omen.
The cycles of day and night, light and dark became linked to the cycles of politics.
in ShakespeareIn the 1605 tragedy “King Lear,” Gloucester observed: “These late eclipses of the sun and moon do not bode well for us.”
Half a century later, John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost that the sun:
It's not hard to see why, in a year in which nearly half the world's population heads to the polls, many of them threatening to elect alarmist “change” candidates, this coming eclipse may speak more than ever to our troubled society. world.
Nor is it difficult to imagine that this time we might see a repeat of scenes like those described by the diarist John Evelyn, in 1652, of a solar eclipse which “so exceedingly alarmed the whole nation, that hardly any man could imagine it.” “No one comes out of their homes, they are ridiculously abused by ignorant and cunning stargazers.”
But as strong as the potential for doom and gloom is right now, it doesn't have to be this way.
Eclipses have been depicted in many different ways by artists in the past few hundred years, and not all of them are ominous.
Emily Dickinson, for example, has a beautiful untitled poem, the first stanza of which says:
Recently, the phenomenon of eclipses has appeared heavily across popular culture, from Stephen King to Stephenie Meyer, Avatar: The Last Airbender to Avatar: Water Road.
Statistics may confirm that these destructive phenomena are still considered a bad omen for the most part. But in the best art there is always light creeping in from behind the darkness.
advertisementVirginia Woolf, who witnessed a solar eclipse in 1927, describes in her memoir her initial plunge into darkness: “Suddenly the light went out. We fell. We were extinct. The earth died.”
But then, just as the terror of the moment grips the assembled skygazers, the color returns: “At first with a supernatural, ethereal brilliance, later almost almost, but with a great sense of relief. It was like a recovery.”
Because what is important to remember with all these eclipses, whether real or imagined, is that the darkness they bring is fleeting: it will pass.
