In the sixth year of a war between the Lydians and the Medes, Thales of Miletus was said to have forewarned the Ionians of the very year in which day would suddenly turn to night. When it happened, in the middle of a pitched battle, both armies broke off fighting; frightened by the sight, the two sides made peace on the spot, fixed the river Halys as the border between their kingdoms, and sealed the treaty with an intermarriage.
Facts
Sources
Primary SourceHerodotus, Histories 1.74, the earliest and only substantially detailed ancient account. 1 Disputed
Documented ResponseModern scholarship disputes that Thales could have genuinely predicted this eclipse to the precision the story implies. D.R. Dicks's foundational study argues that no method available anywhere in the sixth century BCE, including the Babylonian Saros cycle later writers credit Thales with using, could determine the LOCAL VISIBILITY of a specific solar eclipse from a specific place on a specific day, only the general chance of an eclipse occurring somewhere within a period; a correct forecast of this exactness would have required luck, or the story acquired its precision only in the telling, centuries after Thales's own lifetime, the same caution Thales's own page already states about nearly everything credited to him. 2 Fulfillment
Claimed FulfillmentThat a solar eclipse would occur in a specific year Thales named in advance, before the fact. 1 Documented ResponseHerodotus records that day did turn to night during the battle, in the year Thales had named, and that the sight so frightened both the Lydian and Median armies that they broke off fighting immediately and made peace, with the river Halys fixed as the border and the peace sealed by a marriage between the royal houses. 1 Origins
Attributed Author / CompilerThales of Miletus, one of the Seven Sages of Greek antiquity and traditionally named the first Greek natural philosopher. 1 Dating
Predicted DateNo single calendar day survives in the ancient account; Herodotus states only that Thales named the year in advance. Modern astronomical calculation independently places a total solar eclipse visible from Asia Minor on 28 May 585 BCE, the eclipse historians identify with the one Herodotus describes. 1 Date AttributedBefore the battle, in the course of a war Herodotus dates to its sixth year; no more precise date for the forewarning itself survives. 1 Attributions
TraditionEarly Ionian natural philosophy, the Milesian school's attempt to explain events such as eclipses through the workings of nature rather than the will of the gods alone, though the armies that witnessed it still read the sudden darkness as an omen grave enough to stop a war. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Thales founded the Milesian school this entry records; the eclipse story is the one reasonably firm anchor for dating his life, already noted on his own page.
Attributed To
Belongs to Tradition
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.