ABSTRACT
IT seems that we should not omit here what Seneca relates about the thunderbolt in Bk VI of his Investigations of Nature: that by its subtle power it will fuse silver inside small chests, which themselves remain whole and undamaged, and can melt a sword while the sheath remains unharmed; that although the wooden shaft of javelins is unhurt, all the iron liquefies; that when a great wine jar is broken the wine continues to stand upright, but its rigidity does not last for more than three days. This should equally be noted, that, of all men and animals that are struck, the head faces towards the source of the thunderbolt, and all trees that are struck stand up like spear shafts. In snakes and other animals which contain a lethal venom, all the poison is destroyed after they have been hit by a thunderbolt. In poisoned bodies maggots do not breed, but those struck by a thunderbolt grow maggot-ridden within a few days. 1 2 These effects of the thunderbolt upon what it touches are more to be marvelled at than examined for their causes; for who has discovered the reason why silver is sometimes fused inside small chests, which themselves are whole and undamaged, or why a sword melts while its sheath remains unharmed, why iron liquefies round hewn wood, why a thunderbolt makes wine stand firm in a broken jar, and the reasons for many other occurrences? 2 None the less Seneca again demonstrates the causes of such effects in that same book when he affirms that the thunderbolt penetrates matter in different ways: objects that are stouter and more resistant it shatters with greater violence, but substances that are yielding it sometimes passes through without harming. With stone, iron, and all the hardest materials it comes into collision, as it must seek a way through them; but it spares softer and more rarified matter because that furnishes less opposition. 3
Effects of thunderbolt
Wine stands upright in a broken jar
Venom is destroyed
Things to be marvelled at rather than examined
Things resistant are shattered
