Five days to the light

[resolute]

It was the Roman emperor Aurelius who fell in love with Mithra, Sol Invictus, a sun god originally from Syria who had morphed into the sprawling Roman pantheon. Aurelius declared the Mithra would have a place of great prominence. This lasted for a while, a hundred-ish years, I think? (I'm not pausing to wiki this, sorry.)

Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, was celebrated around the winter solstice. I get it, I do.

I imagine the legions, the ones on the Germanic border, the ones in Gaul or, for pity's sake, in Britannia, in the winter. Soldiers from Tunisia, Egypt, and Persia. Laborers from Iberia and Greece. In their forts and houses, tramping the snow-covered paths between buildings, collecting yet more wood for the fire, savoring the garum when they could get it, all of them, all of them, peering at the sky and waiting for the days to lengthen.

Hail, the Unconquered Sun.

Comments

[likeadeuce]

I don't know if I fully appreciated the solstice until I went to Europe last year and realized how far north it is. I was in Paris in the spring and the days were LONG, which made me realize how short they have to be in winter, and Paris isn't even that far North.

That's a lot of dark. . .

[resolute]

I am at 44 N, which contains such locales at Hokkaido, Japan, and parts of Mongolia. 'Tis certainly dark right now, indeed.

And not only is it dark

[jesse_the_k]

but the sun just plummets straight down at sunset: nautical twilight is less than 70 minutes after sunset.

https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/

[pameladean]

Hadrian's Wall is at latitude 55 N. They must have been so confounded. I do think of that when the days here are shortest. I remember finding out that Minnesota's growing season is effectually lengthened by the very long summer days, and I suppose it may be the same there, where the days are even longer. But it is very odd to think of that right now.

P.

[resolute]

Yep!