Greek Pantheonweapon
Thunderbolt of Zeus
- Lightning Summoning
- Absolute Destruction
- Weather Control
The supreme weapon of the king of the gods, capable of striking down titans and mortals alike. These divine bolts of lightning represent Zeus's absolute authority over the heavens and earth.
About Thunderbolt of Zeus
The Cyclopes' keraunos
Hesiod's Theogony has Zeus free the Cyclopes Brontes, Steropes, and Arges from Tartarus; they repay him with the thunderbolt, the weapon of the Titanomachy. Homer's Zeus uses the keraunos as weather and as the last word in a quarrel: a repeated strike, not a unique named sword in a vault. Pindar and later painters give the bolt wings and a handle. Cult at Olympia and Dodona reads lightning as Zeus's sign. No Greek shrine claimed to keep the original forge-piece; the bolt is the king's function in epic.
Origin
Forged by the Cyclopes during the Titanomachy as a gift to Zeus in exchange for their freedom from Tartarus.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Hesiod, Theogony
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
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