Thunderbolt

Zeus' head and thunderbolt on a coin from Epirus, 234 BC.
The thunderbolt pattern with an eagle on a coin from Olympia, Greece, 432-c.421 BC.
Zeus' head and thunderbolt on a coin from Capua, Campania, 216-211 BC.
Ptolemaic coin showing the Eagle of Zeus, holding a thunderbolt

A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father'; this association is also found in later Hellenic representations of Zeus and Vedic descriptions of the vajra wielded by the god Indra. It may have been a symbol of cosmic order, as expressed in the fragment from Heraclitus describing "the Thunderbolt that steers the course of all things".[1]

In its original usage the word may also have been a description of the consequences of a close approach between two planetary cosmic bodies, as Plato suggested in Timaeus,[2] or, according to Victor Clube, meteors,[3] though this is not currently the case. As a divine manifestation the thunderbolt has been a powerful symbol throughout history, and has appeared in many mythologies. Drawing from this powerful association, the thunderbolt is often found in military symbolism and semiotic representations of electricity.

  1. ^ DK B64.
  2. ^ Plato (2008). Timaeus. 1st World Publishing. p. 15, paragraph 22C-D in original. ISBN 9781421893945. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  3. ^ Clube, Victor; Napier, Bill (1982). The cosmic serpent: a catastrophist view of earth history. Universe Books. p. 173ff. ISBN 9780876633793.

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