A "new sun" and "old sun" are terms from the Mayan calendar and mythology. They were ages ending in fire or flood. According to De Santillana and Von Dechend in the strange, seminal work, Hamlet's Mill, a "sun" in this sense is a Great Year.
What is a "Great Year"?
A Great Year is an equinoctial cycle. The Earth slowly wobbles on its axis. This wobble takes about 25,800 years. Understanding how this affected ancient astronomers, you must understand concepts regarding the night sky that were taken for granted just over a century ago, but have been forgotten as the stars have disappeared behind urban lights:
Elliptic The path of the sun across the sky from East to West. The Zodiac are 12 constellations that are located on the elliptic path.
Nightly Movement of the Sky Each night, the stars in the elliptic move from East to West just as the Sun does. If the night is long enough, a constellation or star that is observed to rise in the East at sunset will set before morning. Just as with the Sun, this is caused by the Earth's rotation.
Movement of the Zodiac The yearly East-to-West movement of the night sky due to the Earth's orbit around the sun. For example, a particular time of the year, the constellation Gemini appears on the eastern horizon at sunset. Throughout the year, at the same time of day, Gemini moves along the path of the sun to the set in the west. So the stars and constellations along the path of the sun rise in the East and set in the West each year as well.
This calendar system was essential to ancient agrarian societies. Determining the exact day that Spring began (that is, the vernal equinox), that the rainy season was likely to begin and end, was crucial for life and death. Consequently, the ancients noted when the constellations and rose and set to determine track the dates rather than by merely counting days.
Precession of the Equinox Due to the Earth's slow wobble, the stars along the elliptic move from West to East over a period of 25,800 years (a Great Year or Sun). This means that over a period of millenia, a star or constellation that was anticipated to rise in the East on a specific date, would eventually fail to do so, remaining below the the horizon. A new star or constellation would have to be selected to designate the beginning of the assocated festivals. The old stars have, in a sense, sunk below the horizon.
What does all this have to do with Hamlet's Mill?
In The Book of the Short Sun, an excerpt from Hamlet's Mill was included by Wolfe in the Chrasmological Writings. The excerpt was from the summation of the book and was the last quote from the Writings in the entire Long Sun and Short Sun cycle. It is reasonable to presume, therefore, that Hamlet's Mill casts a long shadow (so to speak) in Wolfe's concept of cosmology. **
** It is important to understand that cosmology itself is foundational to all Wolfe's major fiction as early as The Fifth Head of Cerberus and A Devil In the Forest. )
Hamlet's Mill asserted that all "true" myth is cosomological. According to De Santillana and Von Dechend, myth was not a storification of rituals or crypto-historical allegories. They argued that it was a description of Time, of the past, present, and future movements of the nightsky. Starting with Aristotle's assertion that, originally, the gods were stars (as opposed to the other way around), they declared that the icons and stories of the gods and heroes were technical relations of observational astronomy. Astoundingly, they claimed that ancient astronomers were well-aware of the all but inperceptible precession of the equinox. The stories of worldwide destruction by flood or fire, from Norway to Persia to Eary America were technical descriptions of the "sinking" of the old stars and gods and creation of the world anew as new gods and festivals.
The Great Hero of the Night Sky
Perhaps you think I am doing this backwards. Perhaps you think I should first prove that Wolfe's characters and stories are indisputably figures of the night sky and only then show that this was inherited from Hamlet's Mill. The problem is that it is impossible for me to make such a case until you have an understanding of the layout of the night sky and how these configurations connect to myth.
Nor is it necessary for me to prove the rightness of De Santillana's and Von Dechend's position. Even they acknowledged that they could not explain the ancient myths point-by-point with specific movements of stars and planets. Their lengthy essay was intended to show through a broad overview of the themes that theirs was the most likely model. So, it is only necessary for me to show how accepting their theory of ancient cosmology provides real rationality to mythology which was perhaps the abiding appeal of their influence on Wolfe's work.
Orion: Hero and Constellation
Take a look at the constellation Orion. It is depicted variously as a man with club and shield, or a sword and shield, or with a bow and holding arrows over his head. Orion is the easiest of all constellations to identify because of his belt and scabbard. What is not apparant anymore unless you are lucky enough to see it while far from artificial lights on a clear night, is his relation to the Milky Way. Very few anymore recognize Taurus the Bull charging Orion or Canis Major and the dog star at his heel.
Theseus
Theseus
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