Pre Christian Examples of a Crucified God

[cardw]

Here is an interesting link to some Greek examples of a sun god being crucified of his own accord. This god Ixion predates Christianity by 400-500 years. You can read more on the link below...

Other Gods on Crosses

[John317]

Wikipedia:

Quote:

In Greek mythology, Ixion, who was king of the Lapiths, the most ancient tribe of Thessaly, and a son of Ares or Antion or the notorious evildoer Phlegyas, whose name connotes "fiery". Peirithoös[1] was his son (or stepson, if Zeus were his father, as the sky-god claims to Hera in Iliad 14).[2] Ixion married Dia,[3] a daughter of Deioneus (or Eioneus) and promised his father-in-law a valuable present. However, he did not pay the bride price, so Deioneus stole some of Ixion's horses in retaliation. Ixion concealed his resentment and invited his father-in-law to a feast at Larissa. When Deioneus arrived, Ixion pushed him into a bed of burning coals and wood. These circumstances are secondary to the fact of Ixion's primordial act of murder; it could be accounted for quite differently: in the Greek Anthology (iii.12), among a collection of inscriptions from a temple in Cyzicus is an epigrammatic description of Ixion slaying Phorbas and Polymelos, who had slain his mother, Megara, the "great one".[4]

Ixion went mad, defiled by his act; the neighboring princes were so offended by this act of treachery and violation of xenia that they refused to perform the rituals that would cleanse Ixion of his guilt (see catharsis). Thereafter, Ixion lived as an outlaw and shunned. By killing his father-in-law, Ixion was reckoned the first man guilty of kin-slaying in Greek mythology. That alone would warrant him a terrible punishment.

Ixion by Jules-Elie DelaunayHowever, Zeus had pity on Ixion and brought him to Olympus and introduced him at the table of the gods. Instead of being grateful, Ixion grew lustful for Hera,[5] Zeus's wife, a further violation of guest-host relations. Zeus found out about his intentions and made a cloud in the shape of Hera, which became known as Nephele (nephos "cloud") and tricked Ixion into coupling with it. From the union of Ixion and the false-Hera cloud came Centauros, who covered the Magnesian mares on Mount Pelion, Pindar told,[6] engendering the race of Centaurs, who are called the Ixionidae from their descent.

Ixion was expelled from Olympus and blasted with a thunderbolt. Zeus ordered Hermes to bind Ixion to a winged fiery wheel that was always spinning; only when Orpheus played his lyre did it stop for a while. Therefore, Ixion is bound to a burning solar wheel for all eternity, at first spinning across the heavens,[7] but in later myth transferred to Tartarus [8]. "The details are very odd, the narrative motivation creaks at every juncture," observes Robert L. Fowler;[9] "the myth smacks of aetiology." He notes that Martin Nilsson suggested[10] an origin in rain-making magic, with which he concurs: "In Ixion's case the necessary warning about the conduct of magic has taken the form of blasphemous and dangerous conduct on the part of the first officiant.".

In the fifth century, Pindar's Second Pythian Ode (ca. 476-68 BCE) expands on the example of Ixion, applicable to Hiero I of Syracuse, the tyrant of whom the poet sings; and Aeschylus, Euripides and Timasitheos each wrote a tragedy of Ixion: none have survived.

José Ribera's grittily realistic Ixion, 1632 (Museo del Prado).Ixion was a figure also known to the Etruscans, for he is depicted bound to the spoked wheel, engraved on the back of a bronze mirror, ca 460-450 BCE, in the British Museum.[11] Whether the Etruscans shared the Ixion figure with Hellenes from early times or whether Ixion figured among those Greek myths that were adapted at later dates to fit the Etruscan world-view, the figure on the mirror-back is shown as winged, a characteristic shared with Etruscan daimones and Underworld figures rather than human heroes. Etruscan mythology selected for emphasis many Greek myths that, like Ixion's fate, could be read as admonitory warnings.

Can you show the first reference to Ixion as one who was "crucified"?

According to the above account, Ixion wasn't crucified but was bound to a burning solar wheel. Nor was he bound to the wheel of his own accord or because he was a good man but because he was evil. There's quite a difference here. No one on earth believes this actually happened.

I took college classes in mythology and enjoyed them so I do appreciate it and understand it, but compared to the NT, this is so much tomfoolery.

[cardw]

Can you show the first reference to Ixion as one who was "crucified"?

According to the above account, Ixion wasn't crucified but was bound to a burning solar wheel. Nor was he bound to the wheel of his own accord or because he was a good man but because he was evil. There's quite a difference here. No one on earth believes this actually happened.

I took college classes in mythology and enjoyed them so I do appreciate it and understand it, but compared to the NT, this is so much tomfoolery.

This gets a little tedious. I keep explaining that direct parallels are not the process by which religion is developed. It is syncretic.

The point is that if one wanted to gain credibility for their god they had to incorporate as many aspects of previous myths as possible. This was because pagan religions didn't have to disprove other mythologies because they believed that they were all true. These "gods" were astrotheological stories. The scientific method did not exist and rationalism wasn't a distinct concept so truth was seen as the story that most moved a person.

The Jesus myth would be a very powerful philosophical story. It is great theatre which would appeal to the Greek mind. It is also very moving and incorporates advanced ethical concepts in a very graphic way. There would be a lot of motivation to refine this myth. The problem is when rationalism began to take hold there was an proto-orthodox Christianity that needed to make things literal. This would be particularly needed if one was to begin to legislate a religion across an empire. When you begin to piece together the history you begin to realize that Roman Christian theologians under the influence of Plato began to make the myth more concrete so that an official version would unite the many different mythologies across the empire. And typical of Roman administrative methods, force was its primary method.

The sun god is the primary god in many ancient religions and the myths surrounding this source of life are incorporated into many aspects of Christianity.

Jesus incorporates many symbols and aspects of sun gods and astrology. He has 12 disciples, visited by three wise men, the sun was blotted out at his death, and he is even referred to as The Sun god by early church fathers. He is born on Dec 25th the winter solstice where the old sun dies and the new son is reborn.

This is the point of these types of sources.