I went to the totality zone of the solar eclipse and people were giving their little kids the lunar eclipse explanation, saying the earth's shadow was going to cover the moon. People who deliberately came to the event where what was going on was explained countless times got it that wrong. People back then were just as smart as us; not very. The only reason there weren't freak-outs of historical importance is that the whole thing is over before you can organize a cult around it.