3. He was of royal blood, his mother being of kingly descent.
4. He was "put to death by wicked hands"—i. e., crucified.
5. At his mortal exit the whole earth is said to have been enveloped in darkness, as in the case of Christ, Chrishna, and Prometheus.
6. And finally he is resurrected, and ascends back to heaven.
IX.—(ÆSCHYLUS) PROMETHEUS CRUCIFIED, 547 B. C.
In the account of the crucifixion of Prometheus of Caucasus, as furnished by Seneca, Hesiod, and other writers, it is stated that he was nailed to an upright beam of timber, to which were affixed extended arms of wood, and that this cross was situated near the Caspian Straits. The modern story of this crucified God, which represents him as having been bound to a rock for thirty years, while vultures preyed upon his vitals, Mr. Higgins pronounces an impious Christian fraud. "For," says this learned historical writer, "I have seen the account which declares he was nailed to a cross with hammer and nails." (Anac. vol. i. 327.) Confirmatory of this statement is the declaration of Mr. Southwell, that "he exposed himself to the wrath of God in his zeal to save mankind."
The poet, in portraying his propitiatory offering, says
"Lo! streaming from the fatal tree
His all atoning blood,
Is this the Infinite?—
Yes, 'tis he,
Prometheus, and a God!
"Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And veil his glories in,
When God, the great Prometheus, died
For man the creature's sin."
The "New American Cyclopedia" (vol. i. p. 157) contains the following significant declaration relative to this sin-atoning oriental Savior: "It is doubtful whether there is to be found in the whole range of Greek letters deeper pathos than that of the divine woe of the beneficent demigod Prometheus, crucified on his Scythian crags for his love to mortals." Here we have first-class authority for the crucifixion of this oriental God.
In Lempriere's "Classical Dictionary," Higgins' "Anacalypsis," and other works, may be found the following particulars relative to the final exit of the God above named, viz.:—