Thunderbolt - in Mythology

In Mythology

Lightning plays a role in many mythologies, often as the weapon of a sky god and weather god. As such, it is an unsurpassed method of dramatic instantaneous retributive destruction: thunderbolts as divine weapons can be found in many mythologies.

  • Indo-European traditions
    • In Hittite (and Hurrian) mythology, a triple thunderbolt was one symbol of Teshub (Tarhunt).
    • Vedic religion (and later Hindu mythology) the god Indra is the god of lightning. His main weapon is the thunderbolt (Vajra).
    • In Greek mythology, the thunderbolt is a weapon given to Zeus by the Cyclops. Based on this, in Roman mythology, the thunderbolt is a weapon given to Jupiter by the Cyclops.
    • In Celtic mythology, Taranis is the god of thunder, in Irish, Tuireann.
    • In Germanic mythology, Thor is specifically the god of thunder and lightning, wielding Mjolnir.
  • In Turkish mythology, Bayülgen creates the thuderbolts.
  • In Maya mythology, Huracan is sometimes represented as three thunderbolts.
  • In Cherokee mythology, the Ani Hyuntikwalaski ("thunder beings") cause lightning fire in a hollow sycamore tree.
  • In Ojibway mythology, thunder is created by the Thunderbirds (Nimkiig or Binesiiwag), which can be both benevolent and malevolent to human beings.
  • In Igbo mythology, the thunderbolt is the weapon of Amadioha/Amadiora.
  • In Yoruba mythology, the thunderbolt is the weapon of Shango.

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Famous quotes containing the word mythology:

    “The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past.... Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
    —George Steiner (b. 1929)