Homer's Odyssey depicts eclipse

From the National Geographic News by Richard A. Lovett

"The sun has perished out of heaven, and an evil mist has overspread the world."

With those words from The Odyssey, Homer laid down not a prophecy of doom but a description of a real-world total solar eclipse, scientific sleuths announced. It has been known for decades that there was only one such eclipse during the time period Homer wrote about in the ancient Greek poem--on April 16, 1178 B.C. The blackout even occured at noon, as described in the epic poem.

Go to http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080623-homer-eclipse.html to read the full story.