Lightning bolt..why don't they look like one?

[Kopperkid]

If it looks like duck and quacks like duck it must be a duck.

So, why have the ancients idealized something like lightning bolt to look like a double flowering lotus than a bolt of lightning? We call this item that Jupiter/Zeus uses a lightning bolt..but it doesn't look like one?

Any archeological evidence that shows a transformation of a natural looking lighting bolt into the lightning bolt we see on coins and pottery?

There are some pretty whacky theories out in the digital expanse. Everything from the "squaterman" theory to actual plasma theory Paratt instabilitiy.

[Enodia]

I've seen ones that look like, and are described as 'winged lightning bolts'. However the Syracusan coin above puts me more in mind of a fulgurite.
The plasma theory is intriguing too.

- Peter

[Meepzorp]

Hi KK,

The creators of the thunderbolt that appears on Elis, Olympia coins really used a lot of "artistic license".

Here is my example (scroll down, second con):

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/meepzorp/g_elis.htm

Meepzorp

[SC]

Our own modern, Western, zig-zag lightning bolt design doesn't really look like real lightning (a naturally occurring electro-static discharge) either.  We use it by convention.  It is part of our culture.  We drawn it on pictures in primary school because we see examples of that style and we keep on using it.

Maybe ours looks a bit more like the real thing though we now have the advantage of photography that and ancients didn't.

I am not sure the ancient design ever transformed from a more natural design to this one.

It would be interesting to see a pre-Zeus depiction of lightning.....

A as last aside, maybe the Greco-Roman device is meant to convey the look and the sound - though that is nothing but a wild guess.

SC

[Kopperkid]

Here's some very early and Storm gods. I had to break the group up..to big

Teshub: Asia Minor Pre-Hittite

[Kopperkid]

Adad: Mesopotamiam god of thunder

[Kopperkid]

Olmec Civilization (Mesoamerica)

[Retrospectator]

It is said that lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place …

That is, unless it's a coin with a double strike of a thunderbolt.