Although lightning was often seen as the weapons of Zeus or Jupiter, there were still those who suspected scientific causes and did not believe in religious explanations.
Is it any wonder that the ancients thought lightning came from the gods? Even today, lightning striking nearby looks like a terrifying encounter with the supernatural.
Some ancient thinkers, however, suspected that gods had nothing to do with it.
They wondered, centuries ahead of their time, whether lightning was somehow related to the movement of air and clouds.
A reminder of power and wrath
In the mythology of ancient Greece and Rome, thunder and lightning were the main weapon of Zeus (the king of the gods, known to the Romans as Jupiter). Memories of his power and wrath through lightning were everywhere.
The ancient Greek poet Hesiod (who wrote around 700 BC, about the same time as Homer) described Zeus as launch lightning and thunder against their divine enemies. Zeus also targeted humans, such as the mythical King Salmoneus, as punishment for demanding that his subjects worship him as a god.
The Greek and Roman statues that survived depict Zeus throwing lightning as your main weapon of power.
For the Romans, Jupiter and the gods in general intervened dramatically in human affairs through lightning. They were often a clear indication of divine displeasure.
Pompey’s father, one of Rome’s most powerful republican generals, was killed in 87 BC by lightning (according to one version of the story). He was conducting a military campaign in the midst of a civil war. According to the Roman writer Plutarch, Pompey’s father was one of Rome’s most hated generals. For many at the time, the gods had administered justice.
Around 125 AD, the well-traveled Emperor Hadrian climbed Mount Cassius in Syria to watch the sunrise. When offered a sacrifice to Zeus/Jupiterfor whom the mountain was sacred, lightning killed both the assistant and the sacrificial victim. Adriano himself was spared.
In 283 AD, the Roman Emperor Carus was not so lucky. He was struck and killed by lightning during a campaign against the Persians. An ancient account states that Caro died because he advanced beyond what was permitted by the gods.
In the fourth century AD, the Greek writer Libanius was struck by lightning while reading a play by Aristophanes. He would suffer debilitating headaches and other health problems for the rest of his life.
Complex rituals and a gift from the gods
Occasionally, lightning was sent by the gods to aid an emperor in battle. When Marcus Aurelius campaigned against a tribal group in the 160s AD, the lightning scattered the enemy.
According to the Church historian Eusebius, the legion that accompanied him came to be known as the Thundering Legion (Electcuted).
Roman religious practice provided for complex rituals around the location struck by lightning. In what became known as the Bidental Ritual, the priests purified the affected area. The area was then isolated and prohibited from being stepped on or even observed.
Even Emperor Constantine, a supporter of Christianity from the beginning of his reign, ordered the performance of traditional pagan rites when public buildings were struck by lightning in 320 AD.
“That up there is not Zeus”
Although many fervently believed that lightning was an instrument of angry gods, not everyone was convinced.
In The Clouds, an Ancient Greek play written by Aristophanes (who lived around 448 to 380 BC), the philosopher Socrates exclaimed in the middle of a storm: “That’s not Zeus up there – It’s an air vortex.”
The Roman philosopher Seneca, from the 1st century AD, believed: “clouds that meet with little force cause lightning; if driven by greater violence, lightning.”
I didn’t see any role for the gods in the production of any of the phenomena.
One in a million
Of course, many other ancient cultures believed that lightning (and thunder) had religious significance.
In Zoroastrianism, a fundamental religion of ancient Persia, lightning produced the fastest fire among the 16 different types of fire.
Fire was central to the cult of Ahura Mazda, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism.
For the Kunwinjku people of Arnhem Land in northern Australia, o ser ancestral Namarrkon personified lightning and thunder. He used stone axes to cut through the clouds and lightning as weapons.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 40 million lightning strikes hit the ground in the USA per year. But the chances of being struck by lightning in any given year are incredibly rare, less than one in a million.
Very few of us would still see lightning as a weapon of the gods. But when lightning strikes today, it can still evoke a sense of supernatural power and foreboding.
