XPost: soc.history.ancient   
   From: italo_2010@operamail.com   
      
   Eric Stevens  schreef:   
      
   > On Mon, 05 Aug 2013 17:15:38 -0230, David Dalton    
   > wrote:   
      
   > >Zeus, Jupiter, the Christian God, and Taranis are all   
   > >often depicted as hurling a thunderbolt.  From the   
   > >Wikipedia page on Taranis, he also has solar   
   > >associations (the solar wheel).   
   >   
   > I find it interesting that the specific association of lightning with   
   > thunderbolt does not seem to be found in the most ancient times.   
      
   Hittite kalmesna "thunderbolt", as seen in the land Arzawa, means   
   literally "(fire-)log".   
   (the Palladium was also supposed to've been of charred wood, btw)   
      
   The lituus carried by the Hittite kings is similarly called kalmus, but   
   that seems to comes from Akk. gamlu, influenced by kalmesna I suppose.   
   (though Akkadian has 'gamlu' also for some missile or throwing-stick).   
      
   > The   
   > suggestion has been made [Clube, Napier, Baillie etc] that the time of   
   > ancient Greece was the tail end of a period of meteoric bombardment   
   > and it was the arrival of these bolides that were regarded as Zeus's   
   > 'bolts'. Centuries later the bombardment had tailed off and the only   
   > 'bolts' that scholars could think of were lightning bolts.   
      
   Perhaps the bolts were fulgurites.   
      
   > Zeus is   
   > depicted in ancient Greek pottery as bearing something which is not   
   > clearly lightning.   
      
   > http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/K1.2.html   
   > http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/K1.1.html   
   compare e.g. http://atil.ovh.org/noosphere/teshup.jpg   
      
   > http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/K1.3.html   
      
   > http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/O24.9.html   
   Even more flowery on an Etruscan mirror:   
   http://www.maravot.com/Mirror2.GIF   
      
      
      
      
      
      
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