vádhar,vádhatram), which has a similar meaning, ‘smasher, killer’. It is also
denoted by various words meaning ‘stone’ (as ́áni-, ás ́man-, ádri-, párvata-).
The poet of RV 7. 104. 4 f. speaks of burning stone darts, forged from
mountains.
The weapon is embellished with much imaginative detail. It was made for
Indra by the divine artificer Tvas
̇
t
̇r
̇(1. 32. 1, 85. 9). It is of metal, a ̄yasá- (1. 52.
8, 80. 12, al.; a ̄yasá- ... ás ́man-, 1. 121. 9). It is bright (árjun
̇
a-, 3. 44. 5;
dyumánt-, 5. 31. 4); hot (3. 30. 16); eager (2. 11. 6; 4. 22. 3; 6. 17. 10; 10. 96. 3);
sharp (1. 54. 4; 2. 30. 3; 7. 18. 18; AV 12. 5. 66); Indra sharpens it like a
carving-knife (RV 1. 130. 4, cf. 55. 1; 7. 104. 19 f.; 8. 76. 9). It is pronged
(bhr
̇
s
̇t
̇imánt-, 1. 52. 15); tripartite (trís
̇am
̇dhi-, AV 11. 10. 3); a four-edged
rain-producer (RV 4. 22. 2); hard, six-cornered, made from seer’s bones
(MBh. 3. 98. 10, cf. RV 1. 84. 13); it has a hundred knots or joints (s ́atáparvan
̇
- ,
RV 1. 80. 6; 8. 6. 6, 76. 2, 89. 3; AV 8. 5. 15; 12. 5. 66); a hundred edges (RV 6.
- 10); a thousand spikes (1. 80. 12; 5. 34. 2; 6. 17. 10).
Thevazra- appears with similar features in the Avesta, here as the weapon
of Mithra, who swings it at the heads of Dae ̄vas (Nya ̄yisˇn 1. 15 = Yt. 6. 5). It
has a hundred bosses and a hundred ‘mouths’ (= blades), and is made of
strong, yellow, gold-like iron (Yt. 10. 96 = 132).
The effect of the vajra- on Vr
̇
tra is devastating. It breaks his head (RV 1. 52.
10, 15; 8. 6. 6, 76. 2; 10. 67. 12); burns or scorches him up (2. 11. 10, cf. 30. 5; 7.
- 4); chops him down (2. 11. 18, 19. 2; 3. 33. 7; 4. 17. 7, 19. 3); blows him
down from the air (8. 3. 20); lays him low (10. 111. 6); dismembers him (1. 32.
7; 8. 6. 13, 7. 23); hides him in darkness (1. 32. 10; 8. 6. 17).
The Greek poets’keraunos is made for Zeus by the Cyclopes, Brontes,
Steropes, and Arges, as Indra’svajra- is made by Tvas
̇
t
̇r
̇. It is ‘bright’,qργ
(cf. Zeus qργικραυνο); the adjective is a derivative of the same root as
theárjun
̇
a- applied to Indra’s weapon. It is fiery (Hes. Th. 692–700, 844–6,
859–67, Pind. Pyth. 3. 58, etc.), but also sooty (α!θαλο ́ ει, ψολει) and
sulphurous (Od. 12. 417 = 14. 307). It is not said to be of metal or stone,
though the phrase χα ́ λκεο Eκμων, ‘a bronze anvil’, which Hesiod
imagines descending from heaven to earth and from earth to Tartarus (Th.
722–5), may once have referred to the divine missile, like the Vedic a ̄yasá-...
ás ́man- cited above.^53 When represented in art, the thunderbolt is shown held
in Zeus’fist, typically with three spiky flames shooting out at each end.
(^53) ás ́man- and Eκμων are the same word, as is Lithuanian akmuo:Perku ̄no akmuo is used of
belemnites or other stones supposed to have been hurled down in thunderstorms. In [Aesch.] fr.
- 3 the Aethiopian λμνη in which Helios bathes is called χαλκοκραυνο; this presumably
means ‘flashing dazzlingly with coppery light’, and has no bearing on the material that thunder-
bolts are made of.
252 6. Storm and Stream