DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0578
Lightning as a weapon 505
is the soul projected to a distance1, it follows that the glance will be
bad or good according to the nature of the soul's intention. Apply-
ing now Wundt's illuminating hypothesis to the Greek2 conception
of lightning as a glance from the eye of Zeus, we reach again by a
different route the conclusion that, lightning was part and parcel of
the bright sky-god, a flash of his own fiery self darted forth from his
eye in heaven.
(c) Lightning as a weapon.
Sir John Evans3 and, more recently, C. Blinkenberg4 have show n
that throughout the confines of Europe, indeed far beyond them,
stone celts or axes are regarded as thunderbolts. The}* are supposed
to have fallen with a flash of lightning in the thick of a thunder-
storm, and are consequently venerated as being of celestial origin.
The modern Greeks form no exception to this almost universal
belief—witness the following tale from Zakynthos. The Giants (it is
said), fancying themselves mightier than God, once laid claim to be
lords of heaven and earth. They climbed a high mountain and flung
rocks at God. But He grasped his thunderbolts and hurled them at
the Giants, who were all dashed headlong from the mountain. Many
of them were killed: the rest fled. One of them, however, did not
lose heart. He cut a great many reeds, bound them together, and so
made an enormously long pole, with which he tried to reach heaven5.
He had nearly succeeded, when suddenly a flash of lightning from
God reduced him to ashes15. After this his companions made a last
6<pda\fibv olkuv). See also the modus operandi of love as conceived by Plout. symp. 7. 2,
Heliod. 3. 7 f., Eumath. 3. 7.
1 The philosophers here too built upon popular belief. Emped. _/)"rto. 84 Diels (302 ft'.
Karsten) compared the eye to a lantern, the light of which leaps forth through its sur-
rounding framework. Plat. Tim. 45 B ff. holds that, in the act of sight, a pure fire within
us issues through the eye as a visual current (o^ecos pev/j.a): it is akin to the fire of daylight
in the air, and unites with it to make a uniform substance, which meets the vibrations
from the visible object and transmits them to the eye and so to the soul. Cp. Aristot.
de sensu 2. 437 b 10 ff.
2 The same conception is to be found in Latin literature. YV. Schwartz op. cit.
p. 176 f. calls attention to Sil. 12. 719 ff. where Iuno says to Hannibal : hue vultus flecte
atque aude spectare Tonantem : | quas hiemes, quantos concusso vertice cernis | sub nuta
tonitrus ! oculis quifulgurat ignis! Id. ib. p. 177 cites Ov. met. 2. 787 ff. where Invidia,
the personified evil eye, blasts the landscape like a thunder-storm.
3 Sir J. Evans The Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain*1 London 1897 p. 56 ff.
4 C. Blinkenberg The T/nniderzceapon in Religion and Folklore Cambridge 1911
pp. 1 ff., 68 ff. (a valuable, though somewhat miscellaneous, collection of facts).
5 Cp. the tale of the Thracian Kosingas {supra p. 130). L C. Lawson Modem Greek
Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion Cambridge 1910 p. 74 regards the incident of the
reeds as ' probably an imperfect reminiscence of the legend of Prometheus.'
6 At Arachova, a village near Delphoi, when a big tree is struck, people exclaim k6.ttoi.ov
diafioXov ^Ka^/e (sc. 6 6e6s rather than 77 aaTpam)), ' He's blasted a devil ! '—it being thought
is the soul projected to a distance1, it follows that the glance will be
bad or good according to the nature of the soul's intention. Apply-
ing now Wundt's illuminating hypothesis to the Greek2 conception
of lightning as a glance from the eye of Zeus, we reach again by a
different route the conclusion that, lightning was part and parcel of
the bright sky-god, a flash of his own fiery self darted forth from his
eye in heaven.
(c) Lightning as a weapon.
Sir John Evans3 and, more recently, C. Blinkenberg4 have show n
that throughout the confines of Europe, indeed far beyond them,
stone celts or axes are regarded as thunderbolts. The}* are supposed
to have fallen with a flash of lightning in the thick of a thunder-
storm, and are consequently venerated as being of celestial origin.
The modern Greeks form no exception to this almost universal
belief—witness the following tale from Zakynthos. The Giants (it is
said), fancying themselves mightier than God, once laid claim to be
lords of heaven and earth. They climbed a high mountain and flung
rocks at God. But He grasped his thunderbolts and hurled them at
the Giants, who were all dashed headlong from the mountain. Many
of them were killed: the rest fled. One of them, however, did not
lose heart. He cut a great many reeds, bound them together, and so
made an enormously long pole, with which he tried to reach heaven5.
He had nearly succeeded, when suddenly a flash of lightning from
God reduced him to ashes15. After this his companions made a last
6<pda\fibv olkuv). See also the modus operandi of love as conceived by Plout. symp. 7. 2,
Heliod. 3. 7 f., Eumath. 3. 7.
1 The philosophers here too built upon popular belief. Emped. _/)"rto. 84 Diels (302 ft'.
Karsten) compared the eye to a lantern, the light of which leaps forth through its sur-
rounding framework. Plat. Tim. 45 B ff. holds that, in the act of sight, a pure fire within
us issues through the eye as a visual current (o^ecos pev/j.a): it is akin to the fire of daylight
in the air, and unites with it to make a uniform substance, which meets the vibrations
from the visible object and transmits them to the eye and so to the soul. Cp. Aristot.
de sensu 2. 437 b 10 ff.
2 The same conception is to be found in Latin literature. YV. Schwartz op. cit.
p. 176 f. calls attention to Sil. 12. 719 ff. where Iuno says to Hannibal : hue vultus flecte
atque aude spectare Tonantem : | quas hiemes, quantos concusso vertice cernis | sub nuta
tonitrus ! oculis quifulgurat ignis! Id. ib. p. 177 cites Ov. met. 2. 787 ff. where Invidia,
the personified evil eye, blasts the landscape like a thunder-storm.
3 Sir J. Evans The Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain*1 London 1897 p. 56 ff.
4 C. Blinkenberg The T/nniderzceapon in Religion and Folklore Cambridge 1911
pp. 1 ff., 68 ff. (a valuable, though somewhat miscellaneous, collection of facts).
5 Cp. the tale of the Thracian Kosingas {supra p. 130). L C. Lawson Modem Greek
Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion Cambridge 1910 p. 74 regards the incident of the
reeds as ' probably an imperfect reminiscence of the legend of Prometheus.'
6 At Arachova, a village near Delphoi, when a big tree is struck, people exclaim k6.ttoi.ov
diafioXov ^Ka^/e (sc. 6 6e6s rather than 77 aaTpam)), ' He's blasted a devil ! '—it being thought