Answer:
Step-by-step explanation:
Being that man, in past times was so technologically backward, and with so much ignorance of the laws that govern the stellar and terrestrial cycles, he thought he saw signs and premotions of evil in various phenomena; and comets were no exception. Most of the townspeople, when they saw them, appear to be very frightened and were sure that it was an announcement of bad news, calamities, and suffering.
In Christianity, the history that the Bible collects in the Gospels is very striking, in the narration of the Wise Kings of the East who went to Bethlehem looking for the little child God. This fact and the path they had to follow were indicated by a "star" that moved indicating the way. Many modern astronomers agree that this star must have been a comet in its march through outer space.
It was impossible for them not to see the comet and its tail, a reflection of the torch that distributed the destructive fire or of a burning sword that from the sky proclaimed war. Humanity has had an active awareness of itself, and contemplated the wonders of Heaven with admiration, as to power, and a natural fear of the unknown.
When it was considered fatal (most of the time), fortune tellers were sought and the sibylline oracles were consulted; and as it was interpreted, sacrifices were offered to ward off danger, or amulets were tied around the neck and aromatic herbs were burned to avoid the bad influence. They believed that the announcement made to them by the comet was not only for as long as it was visible but that it could be prolonged in the following years.
The Greeks, fathers of almost all modern knowledge, discovered that in the first days of August, there was a rain of stars, which they called the Perseids, in honor of the daughters of the mythical victor of the Minotaur Theseus. Today we know that it is due to the trail of celestial dust left by the Swift-Tuttle comet. They had various theories to explain the causes of comets, some quite accurate, but most thinkers agreed that he was the bearer of evils, and the priests of the Olympic religion. Mysteries practiced protective rites and offered animal sacrifices to appease the irritation of the gods. Others, such as Pliny the Elder, claim that when the comet appears there is no way to escape the evil it announces and that they are the cause of strong winds and heat.
There are records that Pharaoh Thutmose III exclaimed when he saw a comet in the sky that. "was a wonder never seen since the foundation of Egypt" and immediately summoned his soothsayers and sages to court to interpret what he meant, and they ordered all Egypt to offer libations on the Nile River to prevent that "immense fireball" from falling on
In Imperial Rome, the comet was a lousy omen, and according to its form, it was the bearer of a different evil: droughts, floods, famines, wars, betrayals, or diseases. Only one of these ways was considered a positive sign in which Apollo warned men that the gods wanted to give humanity a period of great prosperity. It is said that this was the one who committed that announced the death of Caesar in 44 BC and the establishment of the empire, with the consequent Pax Romana, the time of greatest peace and development that the Mediterranean has known. This comet accompanied all the funerals of Julius Caesar, and its description is included in Virgil's Aida.
In Ancient China, these celestial bodies were considered to be dragons that went through the sky in search of a partner or to fulfill some mandate of the Divine Emperor, and although they were not considered negative in themselves as negative, in some regions incense was burned to the ancestors to ask them to protect it from the power of the 'dragon'.
In Islam, the Kaaba is considered sacred, a meteorite that fell in Mecca as the detachment of a comet. To this day, Muslims worship this extraterrestrial stone with great veneration, to the point that every follower of this religion must go, even once in a lifetime, to that city.
In the Central American cultures of the Mayans and Aztecs, comets also had their cultural and religious space. They called the comets, the stars that leave smoke, and they considered them the most important message that the sky could send them to warn them of some evil. According to Hispanic chroniclers, the arrival of the Spaniards was announced to them by a comet in 1505, and whenever they saw one arrive in heaven, they offered hares and liquors to their gods to protect themselves.
In medieval European times, the passage of the comet was considered a call to repentance and the conversion of sinners that God sent. And it was customary to perform fasts, processions with the patron saints, and prayers to achieve