Volcanic lightning is one of those incredibly rare phenomena that when viewed for the first time can quite literally put the fear of the Greek gods in you.
Believe us then when we say this video posted by BBC Earth is one of those moments:
Volcanic lightning only occurs during a particularly violent eruption when huge quantities of positively charged ash debris is thrown into the air.
Seen for only the briefest of moments, the lightning will then fork down through the ash into the volcano itself. The resulting effect goes a long way to explaining why Zeus was a) angry ALL of the time and b) had a certain fondness for lobbing bolts of lightning everywhere.
Still not convinced, then how about these images taken from the very same eruption in Calbuco, Chile:
