(This is continued from Eclipses in Ancient Cultures Part I) In civilizations such as the Incas and the Mayans, the sun was worshiped. They believed that the sun was their life giver. During a solar eclipse, they felt that the sun god had abandoned them and they would live in fear. They lived in a fear of a dragon attacking them. For leaders, the eclipses were something that they worked to predict so that instead of losing power during an eclipse, they could gain power. Since the religions revolved around this worship of the sun god, any event having anything remotely to do with the sun was an event that inspired awe and fear among every person in the society.
The Chinese believed that eclipses foretold the future of the emperor. In fact, Chinese astronomers were some of the earliest peoples to predict solar eclipses. Predicting eclipses was there most important job that the Chinese astronomers were expected to do. It was believed in their mythology that a dragon was eating the moon during lunar eclipses and eating the sun during solar eclipses. During an eclipse, even to this day, Chinese people will bang on pots and pans and try to make as much noise as possible to scare the dragon away.
This is continued in Eclipses in Ancient Cultures Part III
