I'm reminded of a popular-science style book I once came across titled "The Death of Gods in Ancient Egypt" (I forget the author's name, a woman). The theory is that stories in Egyptian mythology which tell of dying gods and god-battles (Osiris, Horus and so on) reflect astronomical events, namely the disappearance of certain stars from the night sky in certain seasons, because of the wobble in the Earth's orbit called I think precession. Oh, and solar eclipses are supposed to have engendered some of the stories too, although that was a bit shakier as I remember it. Interesting, if you like this kind of stuff.