In ancient Chinese mythology, solar eclipses occurred when a dragon tried to devour the sun. In response to a solar eclipse in 647 B.C., the poet Archilochus wrote: "There is nothing beyond hope, nothing that can be sworn impossible, nothing wonderful, since Zeus, father of the Olympians, made night from mid-day, hiding the light of the shining Sun. And in many ways, our reactions today may not be so different.