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Posted: 02 Jul 2020

Taken: 02 Jul 2020

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'Solstice’ (the ‘stand-still' of the sun)

'Solstice’ (the ‘stand-still' of the sun)
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 Dinesh
Dinesh club
The Summer and Winter solstices were crucial points of reference for ancient civilizations. . . . In the course of a year, because of the tilt of the earth’s tilt on the earth’s axis, the sun rises and sets in different parts of the sky. Around 21 June, it rises on the north-eastern horizon at what appears to be the same point for several days in a row -- hence the term ‘solstice’ (the ‘stand-still' of the sun). The summer solstice itself occurs on the longest day of the year. From then on, the sun rises progressively further south, until the winter solstice, which occurs on the shortest day of the hear. Halfway between the two solstices, the sun rises due east and sets due west. These two days are the equinoxes, when the night (‘nox’) is roughly equal (aequus’) in length to the day.

According to popular wisdom, the solstice was the object of an absurd superstition. Ancient people are supposed to have seen the sun rising and setting ever further to the north or south and to have concluded that without a good deal of prayer, procession and blood sacrifice, it would either get stuck in the same place -- with disastrous consequences for agriculture -- or, worse, continue in the same direction until it disappeared for ever. This would mean that there was once a civilization that was capable of building enormous, astronomically aligned stone temples and yet was otherwise to impervious to experience that it had to renew its knowledge to the universe every six months. The solstice may have been a time of ritual celebration or mourning, and it was also an obvious and useful reality. More accurate bearings can be taken during the solstice than at other times of the year, and since the sun rises and sets at almost exactly the same point for ever a week (within a range of 0.04, a day of cloud and mist is less likely to spoil the operation.

The purpose of these measurements was both scientific and religious. The paths of heavenly bodies revealed the workings of the universe and designs of the gods. The Celts’ trading partners, the Etruscans, used solstice measurements to align their towns on the cardinal points. In this way, the whole town became a template of the upper world. ‘Superstition’ lay in the fact that the town’s skyscape, too, was divided into quadrants for the interpretation of celestial signs (stars, bolts and lightning and flocks of birds): north-east -- the approximate trajectory of the Heraklean Way and the Summer solstice drawn -- was the most auspicious quadrant; south-east was less auspicious, south-east was unlucky, and north-west extremely ominous. Since north lay to the ‘sinister’ left, and since the sun’s light does in the west, the system had a certain psychological logic. ~Page 12/13
4 years ago. Edited 4 years ago.
 Dinesh
Dinesh club
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4 years ago.

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