Xihe (deity)

Xī and Hé, (Chinese羲 和, W.-G. Hsi and Ho) were two potentially legendary court astronomer in China during the Xia Dynasty.

As the Chronicle Shujing narrated in chapter Xia Shu, she worked as civil servant in charge of astronomy and meteorology. As an eclipse occurred, they had not predicted, but instead were found fully drunk, Emperor Zhong Kang kill ( Jian,歼).

In ancient China, eclipses were particularly important in that they were interpreted as religious- mythical: the Schmälerwerden of the solar crescent was attributed to an evil dragon who would devour the sun and had to drive through loud drums, music and shouting. The supposedly based on laziness error could thus have the sun almost cost the life.

The date of the relevant darkness October 13, 2128 BC, or 22 October 2137 has been calculated BC.

One other interpretation by Xihe is the name of a Chinese solar deity, the Helios in Greek mythology directs similar to the vehicle sun across the sky.