Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions by T. W. Doane
8. _He was put to death on the cross._ The Sun has now reached his
2532 words | Chapter 324
extreme Southern limit, his career is ended, and he is at last overcome
by his enemies. The powers of _darkness_, and of _winter_, which had
sought in vain to wound him, have at length won the victory. The bright
Sun of summer is finally slain, _crucified in the heavens_, and pierced
by the arrow, spear or thorn of winter.[483:1] Before he dies, however,
he sees all his disciples--his retinue of light, and the _twelve_ hours
of the day, or the twelve months of the year--disappear in the
sanguinary mêlée of the clouds of the evening.
Throughout the tale, the _Sun-god_ was but fulfilling his doom. These
things must be. The suffering of a violent death was a necessary part of
the mythos; and, when his hour had come, he must meet his doom, as
surely as the Sun, once risen, must go across the sky, and then sink
down into his bed beneath the earth or sea. It was an iron fate from
which there was no escaping.
Crishna, the crucified Saviour of the Hindoos, is a personification of
the Sun crucified in the heavens. One of the names of the Sun in the
Vedic hymns is _Vishnu_,[483:2] and Crishna is Vishnu in human
form.[483:3]
In the hymns of the _Rig-Veda_ the _Sun_ is spoken of as "_stretching
out his arms_," in the heavens, "to bless the world, _and to rescue it
from the terror of darkness_."
Indra, the crucified Saviour worshiped in Nepal and Tibet,[484:1] is
identical with Crishna, the Sun.[484:2]
The principal Phenician deity, El, which, says Parkhurst, in his Hebrew
Lexicon, "was the very name the heathens gave to their god SOL, their
Lord or Ruler of the Hosts of Heaven," was called "_The Preserver_ (or
_Saviour_) of _the World_," for the benefit of which _he offered a
mystical sacrifice_.[484:3]
The crucified _Iao_ ("Divine Love" personified) is the crucified Adonis,
the Sun. The Lord and Saviour Adonis was called _Iao_.[484:4]
_Osiris_, the Egyptian Saviour, was crucified in the heavens. To the
Egyptian the cross was the symbol of immortality, an emblem of the
_Sun_, and the god himself was crucified to the tree, which denoted his
fructifying power.[484:5]
_Horus_ was also crucified in the heavens. He was represented, like
Crishna and Christ Jesus, with _outstretched arms in the vault of
heaven_.[484:6]
The story of the crucifixion of _Prometheus_ was allegorical, for
Prometheus was only a title of the SUN, expressing _providence_ or
_foresight_, wherefore his being _crucified_ in the extremities of the
earth, signified originally no more than the restriction of the power of
the SUN during the winter months.[484:7]
Who was _Ixion_, bound on the wheel? He was none other than the god
_Sol_, crucified in the heavens.[484:8] Whatever be the origin of the
name, _Ixion_ is the "_Sun of noonday_," crucified in the heavens, whose
four-spoked wheel, in the words of Pindar, is seen whirling in the
highest heaven.[484:9]
The _wheel_ upon which Ixion and criminals were said to have been
extended _was a cross_, although the name of the thing was dissembled
among Christians; it was a St. Andrew's cross, of which two spokes
confined the arms, and two the legs. (See Fig. No. 35.)
The allegorical tales of the triumphs and misfortunes of the _Sun_-gods
of the ancient Greeks and Romans, signify the alternate exertion of the
generative and destructive attributes.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 35]
_Hercules_ is torn limb from limb; and in this catastrophe we see the
_blood-red sunset_ which closes the career of Hercules.[485:1] The
Sun-god cannot rise to the life of the blessed gods until he has been
slain. The morning cannot come until the Eôs who closed the previous day
has faded away and died in the black abyss of night.
_Achilleus_ and _Meleagros_ represent alike the _short-lived Sun_, whose
course is one of toil for others, ending in an early death, after a
series of wonderful victories alternating with periods of darkness and
gloom.[485:2]
In the tales of the Trojan war, it is related of Achilleus that he
expires at the Skaian, or _western gates of the evening_. He is slain by
Paris, who here appears as the Pani, or dark power, who blots out the
light of the Sun from the heaven.[485:3]
We have also the story of _Adonis_, born of a virgin, and known in the
countries where he was worshiped as "The Saviour of Mankind," killed by
the wild _boar_, afterwards "rose from the dead, and ascended into
heaven." This Adonis, Adonai--in Hebrew "My Lord"--is simply the _Sun_.
He is crucified in the heavens, put to death by the wild boar, _i. e._,
_Winter_. "Babylon called Typhon or Winter _the boar_; they said he
killed Adonis or the fertile _Sun_."[485:4]
The _Crucified Dove_ worshiped by the ancients, was none other than the
crucified Sun. Adonis was called the _Dove_. At the ceremonies in honor
of his resurrection from the dead, the devotees said, "Hail to the Dove!
the Restorer of Light."[485:5] Fig. No. 35 is the "Crucified Dove" as
described by Pindar, the great lyric poet of Greece, born about 522 B.
C.
"We read in Pindar, (says the author of a learned work
entitled "Nimrod,") of the venerable bird Iynx bound to the
wheel, and of the pretended punishment of Ixion. But this
rotation was really no punishment, being, as Pindar saith,
_voluntary_, and prepared _by himself_ and _for himself_; or
if it was, it was appointed in derision of his false
pretensions, whereby he gave himself out as _the crucified
spirit of the world_." "The four spokes represent St. Andrew's
cross, adapted to the four limbs extended, and furnish perhaps
the oldest _profane_ allusion to the crucifixion. The same
cross of St. Andrew was the _Taw_, which Ezekiel commands them
to mark upon the foreheads of the faithful, as appears from
all Israelitish coins whereon that letter is engraved. The
same idea was familiar to Lucian, who calls T _the letter of
crucifixion_. Certainly, the veneration for the cross is very
ancient. Iynx, the bird of Mautic inspiration, bound to the
four-legged wheel, gives the notion of _Divine Love
crucified_. The wheel denotes the world, of which she is the
spirit, and the cross _the sacrifice made for that
world_."[486:1]
This "_Divine Love_," of whom Nimrod speaks, was "_The First-begotten
Son_" of the Platonists. The crucifixion of "_Divine Love_" is often
found among the Greeks. Iönah or Juno, according to the _Iliad_, was
bound with fetters, and _suspended in space_, between heaven and earth.
Ixion, Prometheus, Apollo of Miletus, (anciently the greatest and most
flourishing city of Ionia, in Asia Minor), were all crucified.[486:2]
Semi-Ramis was both a queen of unrivaled celebrity, and also a goddess,
worshiped under the form of a Dove. Her name signifies the _Supreme
Dove_. She is said to have been slain by the last survivor of her sons,
while others say, she flew away as a bird--a Dove. In both Grecian and
Hindoo histories this mystical queen Semiramis is said to have fought a
battle on the banks of the Indus, with a king called Staurobates, in
which she was defeated, and from which she flew away in the form of a
Dove. Of this Nimrod says:
"The name Staurobates, the king by whom Semiramis was finally
overpowered, _alluded to the cross on which she perished_,"
and that, "_the crucifixion was made into a glorious mystery
by her infatuated adorers_."[486:3]
Here again we have the crucified Dove, the _Sun_, for it is well known
that the ancients personified the Sun _female_ as well as male.
We have also the fable of the Crucified Rose, illustrated in the jewel
of the _Rosicrucians_. The jewel of the Rosicrucians is formed of a
transparent red stone, with a red _cross_ on one side, and a red _rose_
on the other--thus it is a _crucified rose_. "The Rossi, or
Rosy-crucians' idea concerning this emblematic red cross," says Hargrave
Jennings, in his _History of the Rosicrucians_, "probably came from the
fable of _Adonis_--_who was the Sun whom we have so often seen
crucified_--being changed into a red rose by Venus."[487:1]
The emblem of the _Templars_ is a red rose on a cross. "When it can be
done, it is surrounded with a glory, and placed on a calvary (Fig. No.
36). This is the Naurutz, Natsir, or Rose of Isuren, of Tamul, or
Sharon, or the Water Rose, the Lily Padma, Pena, Lotus, _crucified in
the heavens for the salvation of man_."[487:2]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 36.]
Christ Jesus was called the ROSE--the Rose of Sharon--of Isuren. He was
the renewed incarnation of _Divine Wisdom_. He was the son of Maia or
Maria. He was the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley, which
bloweth in the month of his mother Maia. Thus, when the angel Gabriel
gives the salutation to the Virgin, he presents her with the lotus or
lily; as may be seen in hundreds of old pictures in Italy. We see
therefore that Adonis, "the Lord," "the Virgin-born," "the Crucified,"
"the Resurrected Dove," "the Restorer of Light," is one and the same
with the "Rose of Sharon," the crucified Christ Jesus.
Plato (429 B. C.) in his _Pimæus_, philosophizing about the Son of God,
says:
"The _next power_ to the Supreme God was decussated or figured
_in the shape of a cross on the universe_."
This brings to recollection the doctrine of certain so-called Christian
_heretics_, who maintained that Christ Jesus was crucified in the
heavens.
The _Chrèstos_ was the Logos, the _Sun_ was the manifestation of the
Logos or Wisdom to men; or, as it was held by some, it was his peculiar
habitation. The Sun being crucified at the time of the winter solstice
was represented by the young man slaying the _Bull_ (_an emblem of the
Sun_) in the Mithraic ceremonies, and the slain _lamb_ at the foot of
the cross in the Christian ceremonies. The Chrest was the Logos, or
Divine Wisdom, or a portion of divine wisdom incarnate; in this sense
he is really the Sun or the solar power incarnate, and to him everything
applicable to the Sun will apply.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 37]
Fig. No. 37, taken from Mr. Lundy's "Monumental Christianity," is
evidently a representation of the Christian Saviour _crucified in the
heavens_. Mr. Lundy calls it "Crucifixion in Space," and believes that
it was intended for the Hindoo Saviour Crishna, who is also represented
crucified in space (See Fig. No. 8, Ch. XX.). This (Fig. 37) is exactly
in the form of a Romish crucifix, _but not fixed to a piece of wood_,
though the legs and feet are put together in the usual way. There is a
glory over it, _coming from above_, not shining _from the figure_, as is
generally seen in a Roman crucifix. It has a pointed _Parthian coronet_
instead of a crown of thorns. All the avatars, or incarnations of
Vishnu, are painted with Ethiopian or Parthian coronets. For these
reasons the Christian author will not own that it is a representation of
the "True Son of Justice," for he _was not_ crucified in space; but
whether it was intended to represent Crishna, Wittoba, or Jesus,[488:1]
it tells a secret: it shows that some one was represented _crucified in
the heavens_, and undoubtedly has something to do with "The next power
to the Supreme God," who, according to Plato, "was decussated or figured
_in the shape of a cross on the universe_."
Who was the crucified god whom the ancient Romans worshiped, and whom
they, according to Justin Martyr, represented as _a man on a cross_? Can
we doubt, after what we have seen, that he was this same _crucified
Sol_, whose birthday they annually celebrated on the 25th of December?
In the poetical tales of the ancient _Scandinavians_, the same legend is
found. Frey, _the Deity of the Sun_, was fabled to have been killed, at
the time of the winter solstice, by the same boar who put the god Adonis
to death, therefore a boar was annually offered to him at the great
feast of Yule.[489:1] "Baldur the Good," son of the supreme god Odin,
and the virgin-goddess Frigga, was also put to death by the sharp thorn
of winter.
The ancient _Mexican_ crucified Saviour, Quetzalcoatle, another
personification of the Sun, was sometimes represented as crucified in
space, _in the heavens_, in a circle of nineteen figures, the number of
the metonic cycle. A _serpent_ (the emblem of evil, darkness, and
winter) is depriving him of the organs of generation.[489:2]
We have seen in Chapter XXXIII. that Christ Jesus, and many of the
heathen saviours, healers, and preserving gods, were represented in the
form of a Serpent. This is owing to the fact that, _in one of its
attributes_, the Serpent was an emblem of the _Sun_. It may, at first,
appear strange that the Serpent should be an emblem of evil, and yet
also an emblem of the beneficent divinity; but, as Prof. Renouf remarks,
in his _Hibbert Lectures_, "The moment we understand the nature of a
myth, all impossibilities, contradictions, and immoralities disappear."
The serpent is an emblem of evil when represented with his _deadly
sting_; he is the emblem of eternity when represented _casting off his
skin_;[489:3] and an emblem of the Sun when represented _with his tail
in his mouth_, thus forming a circle.[489:4] Thus there came to be, not
only good, but also bad, serpents, both of which are referred to in the
narrative of the Hebrew exodus, but still more clearly in the struggle
between the good and the bad serpents of Persian mythology, which
symbolized Ormuzd, or Mithra, and the evil spirit Ahriman.[489:5]
As the Dove and the Rose, emblems of the Sun, were represented on the
cross, so was the Serpent.[489:6] The famous "Brazen Serpent," said to
have been "set up" by Moses in the wilderness, is called in the Targum
(the general term for the Aramaic versions of the Old Testament) the
SAVIOUR. It was probably a serpentine crucifix, as it is called a
_cross_ by Justin Martyr. The crucified serpent (Fig. No. 38) denoted
the _quiescent Phallos_, or the Sun after it had lost its power. It is
the Sun in winter, crucified on the tree, which denoted its fructifying
power.[490:1] As Mr. Wake remarks, "There can be no doubt that both the
Pillar (Phallus) and the Serpent were associated with many of the
_Sun-gods_ of antiquity."[490:2]
This is seen in Fig. No. 39, taken from an ancient medal, which
represents the serpent with rays of glory surrounding his head.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 38]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 39]
The Ophites, who venerated the serpent as an emblem of Christ Jesus, are
said to have maintained that the serpent of Genesis--who brought
_wisdom_ into the world--was Christ Jesus. The brazen serpent was called
the WORD by the Chaldee paraphrast. The Word, or Logos, was _Divine
Wisdom_, which was crucified; thus we have the cross, or Linga, or
Phallus, with the serpent upon it. Besides considering the serpent as
the emblem of Christ Jesus, or of the Logos, the Ophites are said to
have revered it as the cause of all the arts of civilized life. In
Reading Tips
Use arrow keys to navigate
Press 'N' for next chapter
Press 'P' for previous chapter