Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Lightning as a weapon 505
is the soul projected to a distance^ 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 Greek- 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 frorn his
eye in heaven.
{c) Lightning as a weapon.
Sir John Evans' and, more recently, C. Blinkenberg* have shown
that throughout the confines of Europe, indeed far beyond them,
stone celts or axes are regarded as thunderbolts. They 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 heaven
He had nearly succeeded, when suddenly a flash of lightning from
God reduced him to ashes*'. After this his companions made a last
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