It was a fearsome sight ... striking terror to the hearts of city dwellers and country-folk alike. Mysterious, unexplainable, frightening. Surely the wrath of the gods had come upon them, and perhaps the end of the world was at hand. Few events in history have penetrated human lives with such universal mystery and fear. As the Greek writer Archilochus described it, "sore fear came upon men," and Theoclymenus notes that "an evil mist has spread over all." People would hide, tribes would dance feverishly, and the eclipse of May 28, 585 B.C. so frightened the Medes and Lydians that they stopped short in the heat of battle, ending a five-year war. People didn’t know ... people didn’t understand ... but surely the gods were troubled. One Greek writer cried out, "Why hast thou perplexed the powe…