Solar eclipse
event · 4 works · 4 mentions · 4 anchored passages
the sun was eclipsed · darkness · eclipse of the sun · the eclipse of the sun
in the texts
Pelopidas
An eclipse darkening Thebes on the day the expedition against Alexander was to set out, taken as an ominous sign that leads most citizens and seers to hold back.
The Thebans readily decreed what they desired, and soon everything was in readiness and the commander about to set out, when the sun was eclipsed and the city was covered with darkness in the day-time.
Pericles
An eclipse of the sun that occurred as the fleet was about to depart, frightening the sailors as a portent.
But when the ships were already manned, and Pericles had gone aboard his own trireme, it chanced that the sun was eclipsed and darkness came on, and all were thoroughly frightened, looking upon it as a great portent.
Accordingly, seeing that his steersman was timorous and utterly perplexed, Pericles held up his cloak before the man’s eyes, and, thus covering them, asked him if he thought it anything dreadful, or portentous of anything dreadful.
On Benefits
A natural astronomical event in which the moon passes between the sun and the earth, misunderstood by King Archelaus as an omen.
Socrates is reported to have said that he was unwilling to come to one from whom he would receive benefits, when he could not return him equal ones.
History of the Peloponnesian War
A solar eclipse observed at the beginning of a lunar month during the first summer of the war, described in careful astronomical detail.
The same summer, at the beginning of a new lunar month, (the only time at which it appears possible,) the sun was eclipsed after mid-day, and became full again after it had assumed a crescent form, and after some of the stars had shone out.