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]