Ancient people believed that thunderbolts were a sign of

by the activity of sky gods. These sky gods were associated with planets; they reigned supreme, and thunderbolts were their emblem of power over heaven and Earth. In Scandinavia, it was the great god Thor swinging his mighty hammer.

Zeus for ancient Greece?

"In Hindu legends the great warrior Indra, the most revered god of the Vedas, employed lightning in his combat with the monstrous Vritra or Ahi—a giant serpent who had swallowed both the cosmic "waters" and the sun, leaving the world in darkness and despair.

"Indra, whose hand wielded thunder, rent piecemeal Ahi who barred up the waters…"

In ancient Egypt, the serpent Apep was the archenemy of the creator Ra, and his plotting against Ra produced a tempest in the heavens. Harking back to these events, numerous Egyptian rites commemorated the victory of Ra over Apep. At the temple of Ra in Heliopolis the priests ritually trod underfoot images of Apep to represent his defeat at the hands of the supreme god. At the temple of Edfu, a series of reliefs depict the warrior Horus and his followers vanquishing Apep or his counterpart Set, cutting to pieces the monster’s companions, the "fiends of darkness."

According to W. M. Muller, the spear or harpoon of Horus was a metaphor for the thunderbolt.

"…Lightning is the spear of Horus, and thunder the voice of his wounded antagonist, roaring in his pain."

It is worth noting as well that the Greeks translated Set as Typhon.

The Hebrews, too, preserved an enduring memory of Yahweh’s battle against a dragon of the deep, marked by lightning on a cosmic scale.

"The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.""

- the heat nearly killed them that first summer.

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