"Standing Sun"

This is one of the "Planets and Stars" articles by the late Prof. Charles H. Smiley. From about 1970 to his death in 1977, Smiley's  articles appeared monthly in The Hartford Courant. I collected several and still have them. I'm revisiting this one as it seems relevant at this time of year (actually a bit earlier).
Smiley's newspaper column was for laymen and therefore he could not use technical jargon. Note the article doesn't mention the reason for the apparent slow motion of the sun against the stellar background. At this time of year, or more precisely around July 4, Earth is at aphelion, the point of its orbit farthest from the sun. Like all planets, Earth moves most slowly when at aphelion. Since the sun's movement against the stellar background is a direct reflection of Earth's orbital speed, in July the sun also moves relatively slowly. It covers less distance along the ecliptic, amidst zodiac constellations such as Gemini, than at other times of the year.
 Of course, the stellar background can't be observed when the sun is above the horizon. But soon after it set, the ancients inferred the sun had slowed, or even stopped, since it took longer for certain stars to be overtaken and become invisible (until reemerging in the morning sky, as the sun, still moving eastward, left them behind). Around 2,000 years ago, when the point of the sun's highest ascent in the sky was in Cancer (precession has since moved the point to Gemini) ancient astronomers presumably  observed that in June Regulus (or Denebola) was not "sinking into the rays of the setting sun" (as one recent writer put it). Leo remained visible (at least in part) after nightfall for a surprisingly long period in June. Because the constellation persisted for many evenings that month, the sun didn't seem to be getting closer and overtaking it. That was near the time of aphelion (July 4). Since the sun was at its slowest, the impression of stopping, while illusory, is understandable. Naturally the ancients came to equate the highest ascent of the sun in the sky with "standing" or apparent near-cessation of movement along the ecliptic.
I assume the ancients noted the opposite effect in January. Earth is at perihelion on January 4, just two weeks after the winter solstice. But whereas the term solstice (Latin for "sun standing") seems appropriate in July, at the start of the year the sun moves relatively rapidly along the ecliptic. The result, of course, is rapid overtaking of planets and stars just to its east at the time. I saw this once when Jupiter was in the evening sky late in December. Over the course of several days the planet's angular distance above the horizon (at nightfall) quickly shrank until it set too soon after sundown to be visible. That's quite a contrast with evening sky celestial objects early in July.