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Ceraunia, Thunder-bolt

Ceraunia, Thunder-bolt Page of 453 Chalcedonius, Calcedony Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
156
CERAUNIA.
beautiful play of colours internally, resembling sheets of flame. The Iris can be artificially produced by flawing a Crystal with a sharp blow of a mallet, or by throwing it into boiling water.
Besides the Ceraunia, Pliny (65) enumerates other stones that fall from heaven amidst thunderstorms and rain, such as the Ombria, called by some the Notia (Rain, or Scirocco-stone), and the Brontia (thunder-stone), all supposed to possess the same virtues. It was also pretended that if the latter were laid upon an altar, the offerings could not be consumed as long as it re­mained there. Another version, "if we have faith sufficient," says Pliny, was that the Brontia got into the heads of tortoises after thunderstorms, and was to be found in their brain. This possessed the virtue of extinguishing all fires caused by lightning.
The fossil Belemnite, popularly called Thunderbolt in Eng­land, was a few years ago (in my recollection) universally believed to fall from the sky under the same circumstances as the Ceraunia; perhaps, indeed, the Bsetyli of Sotacus, "black and round," may have signified this fossil, and not the artificially-made Celts.
Ceraunia, Thunder-bolt Page of 453 Chalcedonius, Calcedony
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