The Aurora Borealis
What Is the Classical Origin of the Aurora Borealis?
Who Named the
Northern Lights after Greek and Roman Gods?
The Aurora Borealis, or
Northern Lights, takes its name from two classical deities, even though it was
neither an ancient Greek nor Roman who gave us that name.
Galileo's Classical Notion
In
1619, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei coined the term “Aurora
Borealis” for an astronomical phenomenon observed mostly at very high
latitudes: shimmering bands of color arcing across the night sky.
Aurora was the name for
the goddess of the dawn according to the Romans (known as Eos and usually
described as "rosy-fingered" by the Greeks), while Boreas was the god
of the north wind.
Although the name reflects
Galileo’s Italian worldview, the lights are part of the oral history of most of
the cultures in the latitudes in which the Northern Lights are seen.
The indigenous peoples of
America and Canada have traditions related to the auroras.
According to regional
mythology, in Scandinavia, the Norse god of winter Ullr was said to have
produced the Aurora Borealis to illuminate the longest nights of the year.
One myth among the caribou
hunter Dene people is that reindeer originated in the Aurora Borealis.
Early Astronomical Reports
A
Late Babylonian cuneiform tablet dated to the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II
[ruled 605-562 BCE] is the earliest known reference to the Northern Lights.
The tablet contains a report
from a royal astronomer of an unusual red glow in the sky at night, on a
Babylonian date corresponding to the March 12/13 567 BCE.
Early Chinese reports include
several, the earliest dated to 567 CE and 1137 CE.
Five
examples of multiple simultaneous auroral observations from East Asia (Korea,
Japan, China) have been identified in the last 2,000 years, occurring on the
nights of January 31, 1101; October 6, 1138; July 30, 1363; March 8, 1582; and
March 2, 1653.
An important classical Roman
report comes from Pliny the Elder, who wrote of the aurora in 77 CE, calling
the lights a "chasma" and describing it as a "yawning" of
the night sky, accompanied by something that looked like blood and fire falling
to earth.
Southern
European records of the Northern Lights begin as early as the 5th century BCE.
The earliest recorded
possible viewing of the Northern Lights may be "impressionistic” cave
drawings which could depict auroras flaming in the night sky.
Scientific Explanation
These
poetic descriptions of the phenomenon belie the astrophysical origin of the
aurora borealis (and its southern twin, the aurora australis.
They are the closest and most
dramatic example of space phenomena.
Particles from the sun, which
may emerge in a steady stream called the solar wind or in giant eruptions known
as coronal mass ejections, interact with magnetic fields in the upper
atmosphere of Earth.
These interactions cause
oxygen and nitrogen molecules to release photons of light.
N.S. Gill is a Latinist and freelance writer with a
longtime focus on the classical world.
Experience
In addition to writing articles on ancient
history and classics for About.com, N.S. has been interviewed by Public Radio
and National Geographic on Valentine's Day and the Roman calendar. She has TA'd
classes in the Age of Pericles, technical terms, Classical culture and
mythology. She has also taught Latin.
Education
N.S. Gill has a B.A. in Latin and an M.A. in
linguistics from the University of Minnesota. She has also done graduate level
coursework on classics at the University of Minnesota, writing two master's
level papers, one on the misdating of an Oxyrhynchus papyrus and the other on
Ovid as part of the program.
N.S. Gill
I hope to help spread the updated classical seed
far abroad.
Like the inside of a seed, there is now a
full-grown plant waiting to bloom -- in you. Most of the information I am
providing is basic (never really "all there is to know about X, Y, or
Z"), and often simplified. Especially in citations, you will find many
ideas for further reading in the articles I submit, but if you want more, and
don't want to go looking all over the place (starting with figuring out what to
hunt for in JSTOR and L'Année philologique) for yourself, here is one simple
tip: Look at the bibliographies for
general topics in the Cambridge Ancient History.
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