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thunderbolt

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thunderbolt

In mythology, a destructive bolt or dart (lightning) used as a weapon during a battle between the gods (a thunderstorm), or aimed at humans. The Greek god Zeus wielded thunderbolts, and the concept recurs in many other mythologies.

The Sioux believe that lightning enters the ground and scatters thunderbolt stones (flints, and so on) in all directions. In the traditions of the Finns concerning purification by fire, the healing virtues of the thunderbolt were embodied in the Keraunia or thunderstones. The ‘holystones’ of the Anglo-Saxons, or ‘holed stones’, arrow heads, flint knives, and so on worked by prehistoric humans, were popularly believed to be stones which, falling from heaven, possessed heavenly virtues, which were of great use in all sorts of diseases.



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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
That very night, the startling news so impatiently awaited, burst like a thunderbolt over the United States of the Union, and thence, darting across the ocean, ran through all the telegraphic wires of the globe.
From The Earth To The Moon by Verne, Jules View in context
And they remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder and the glowing thunderbolt and lightening: for before that, huge Earth had hidden these.
Collection Of Hesiod, Homer and Homerica by Homer View in context
She had even taken a bitter pleasure and found a momentary relief in loosing the thunderbolt which had smitten him down.
Uneasy Money by Wodehouse, Pelham Grenville View in context
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