Legends behind Thunder and Lighting

>> Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Hello World
These past few days, rain, thunder & lighting had been bookmarking themselves on a frequent basis on the Mauritius Climate agenda...
So I wondered what was the mystery behind the thunder & lighting?... after crawling the web to unlock the mystery behind, I came up with these explanations....

  • The very serious explanation (the rationale one):
It’s all a matter of atmospheric change and conditions and had found that there are many disciplines devoted to Lighting research:
• Atmospheric Physics and Electrostatics
• Electrical Engineering
• Climatology, including thunderstorm morphology & dynamics
• Meteorology
But man has also tried to explain certain natural events by creating myths....
According to Wikipedia:’ Polytheistic peoples of many cultures have postulated a thunder god, the personification or source of the forces of thunder and lightning. Frequently, the thunder god is known as the chief or king of the gods, for example Indra in Hinduism, Zeus in Greek mythology and Perun in ancient Slavic religion or otherwise a close relation, for example Thor, son of Odin, in Norse mythology.’
Here are some legends have found:
  • The mythical explanation (the fantastical one):
A jump in Greece (Greek Myth)
The Greek God of Thunder is in the personification of Zeus portrayed with his weapon the Thunderbolt.
zeus-greek-mythology-687267_1024_768
The legend behind Zeus’s Thunderbolt started with the birth of the 3 Cyclopes (kyklopes): Brontes (thunder), Steropes (lighting) and Arges (flash), gigantic one eyed monters, sons of Gaia (earth) and Ouranos (the sky).
cyclops
Upon their birth, Ouranos locked up the 3 Cyclopes where was confined their stormy brothers (the Hekatonkheires). Gaia outraged and angry, devised a plan to free all her sons. The Epic then narrates that Ouranos was defeated by the Titans but they too locked again the Cyclopes this time in the Hades (hell). Zeus and his brothers then came to the rescue of the Cyclopes and released them.
As a reward, the Cyclopes gave Zeus the weapon of thunder and lightning in the form of the thunderbolts.
The ancient Greek believed that the thunder noise was the sound made of the Cyclopes forging with their hammer the thunderbolts of Zeus and the lighting was the anger of Zeus over the mortals. So, whenever lighting stroke at a place, a temple was build so at to appease the anger of the Gods.
  • Direction to Sweden (Viking Legend):
The Norse God of Thunder is in the personification of Thor, son of Odin and Jord, the earth goddess. Thor was usually portrayed as a big and powerful man with a red beard, flowing hair and lighting eyes with his weapon, a hammer the Mjollnir.
Thor
The legend narrates that during a thunderstorm, Thor would be seen riding on his Chariot across the sky(explaining the noise of thunder) and would be smashing along his Mjollnir which would be flashing lighting. .
  • Final stop to China (Chinese legend):
The Chinese believed that the sky was ruled by Lei Tsu (the Ancestor of Thunder), Lei Kung (the God of Thunder), Tien Mu (the Mother of Lightning), Feng Po (the God of Wind) and Y Shih (the Master of Rain).
The legend tells that the Spirit of Thunder, an ugly black bat demon with clawed feet, monkey head and eagle beck, hold in one hand a steel chisel and in the other one, a hammer with which he would be beating numerous drums around him producing the terrible noise of thunder.
Lighting is said to be produced by Tien Mu, female divinity holding a mirror (which each one represents the yin and the yang) in each hand which produces two flashes of lighting when rubbing both mirrors.
Whatever the explanation provided for thunder and lightning, thunder and lightning just scary and terrible...
I wish all Pilgrims good luck and wish all of you a Pious Maha Shivaratri...
lord_shiva
If you wanna know more about this festival, check out this post written by a blogger
http://www.islandcrisis.net/2010/02/maha-shivaratri-2010/
Today I won’t end on a quote but on two fan-made video of Twilight 3...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q-t7HE5sAk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XL9C4iB1jA
Cheers
15zzf6

8 comments:

P.T February 10, 2010 at 7:49 AM  

Greek Mythology intrigues me. When I get older and have my own home library I'll sit down for hours to learn more about it and all other mythologies...

And as for lightning and thunder...I think God is angry and yelling at us...lol

no one February 10, 2010 at 8:08 AM  

Oh wow! Twilight, twilight, twilight!!!! XD~
I'm obsessed!

I'm sure it's Zeus who's doing the lightning/thunder. I got proof!
Morinn's pic on the hand in the sky :P

Gaia Eos February 10, 2010 at 10:34 AM  

@P.T welcome to the club...like you am just fascinated with myths esp the Greek ones...there are so many mysteries asking yourself if whether it has really existed....
LOL absolutely right God just angry with us, poor mortals :)

Gaia Eos February 10, 2010 at 10:36 AM  

@Reech, you too...have watched again and over again twilight 1 & 2 (even the twilight2 copy really bad)...am just awaiting for the forthcoming saga in July :)
hey you right, Morinn pic just the perfect proof never thought about it:)

no one February 11, 2010 at 9:52 AM  

I can't wait for it too... XD It's really inspiring, isn't it?

ÅnGe|e February 12, 2010 at 10:23 AM  

Hey I'm into mythology as well =D I remember when I was at school I knew nothing about mythology but then I watched some anime and it was all about Greek gods and legends. This is how I came to love mythology. Hahaha =P

*cheers* Twilight! I can't wait to watch the 3rd one. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the last twilight. Hopefully the 3rd movie will be much better.

Gaia Eos February 13, 2010 at 6:13 AM  

@ Reech yep cant wait for it... am waiting when Twilight 2 will be available in dvd wanna a good copy of it and then gonna watch the whole saga all over again LOL :p

Gaia Eos February 13, 2010 at 6:17 AM  

@Angele,I discover Greek myth when i was a kid there was TV serials such as Xena La Guerriere and Hercules, this is how started this passion of mine for Greek myth, then I came to know about other myths, they just fascinate me so full of mystery ....

For twilight3, gonna be an alliance between the vampires and werewolves that sound interesting and just cant wait to see Edward, Bella and Jacob on screen again :p

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