Ixion, a mythical king of Thessaly, was crucified on a wheel, the rim representing the world, and the spokes constituting the cross. Ancient kings were often the god of the tribe, because unsophisticated people saw themselves as ruled by the god, not by the man who acted for him on earth. He is said to have carried the burden of the world on his back while suspended on the cross. He was therefore called the crucified spirit of the world. Ixion was another sun god, a Thessalian sun god.

He was married to Dia, meaning the sky, but had intercourse with a cloud, but the cloud was the wife of the sky god, Zeus, who therefore punished the headstrong sun god. This signifies a victory of the Greeks (God = Zeus) over the Thessalians (God = Ixion). The sky God Zeus condemned him to be crucified on the solar wheel as it traversed the sky forever. A man tied to a wheel is crucified because his body forms a cross. This myth seems to be a Hellenic version of a non-Hellenic sun god where the god is considered ignoble for ravaging the wife of Zeus, and so is punished.

Like most ancient myths, there are competing versions. In one version the punishment was an eternal crucifixion in Tartarus but in another the eternal crucifixion was in the sky. The latter was probably the original one, but the Greeks would not allow such a glorious crucifixion and placed it in the pits of hell. The cause of the punishment might have been historic—an ambush of Ionians (Eioneus) who were trapped and burnt in a fiery pit—but even this might have been part of a solar myth, the victims being sacrificed to the sun.

It is curious that Christian writers will recount a long list of miracles and remarkable incidents in the life of Apollonius of Tyana, the Cappadocian saviour, forming a parallel to those of the Christian saviour, yet say not a word about his crucifixion, even though they can—and do when forced to consider it—attribute it to syncretism to Christianity.

Christian writers find it necessary to omit the crucifixion of these saviours fearing the telling would lessen the spiritual force of the crucifixion of Christ, which has to be unique. They thus exalted the tradition of the crucifixion into the most important dogma of the Christian faith. Hence, their efforts to conceal from the public the fact that it is of pagan origin. They had full control and power over publishing for a millennium, a much longer time than was needed to expunge all references to the crucifixion of earlier gods. Even icons were destroyed and the few that remain can and are always questioned by Christians, either as not authentic or misinterpreted.

Justin Martyr admits that the cross was already a well known and used symbol to the Romans. Addressing the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, he wrote:

And the power of this form (the cross) is shown by your own symbols on what are called “vexilla” (standards) and trophies, with which all your state possessions are made, using these as the insignia of your power and government, even though you do so unwittingly. And with this form you consecrate the images of your emperors when they die, and you name them gods by inscriptions.

Justin was pleading for his life but was so inept that he repeatedly insulted the emperor and the Romans. That is why he is now called “Martyr”.

Minucius Felix, one of the most popular Christian writers of the second century, confirms this not long afterwards, charging Pagan Romans with displaying “gilded and adorned crosses” sometimes hung with the image of a man, but denied that crosses were significant to Christians. Addressing the people of Rome, he says:

Crosses, moreover, we neither worship nor wish for. You, indeed, who consecrate gods of wood, adore wooden crosses perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well as your banners and flags of your camp, what else are they but crosses gilded and adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but also that of a man affixed to it.

And this man Christians denoted a god. Mackey’s Lexicon of Freemasonry says that Freemasons secretly taught that the doctrine of the crucifixion, atonement and resurrection preceded the Christian era, and that similar doctrines were taught in all the ancient mysteries. These coincidences are evidence that the tradition of the crucifixion of gods has been long prevalent among Pagans.

To those who say the ancient crucifixions of gods were mere myths or fables, having no foundation in fact, but added to their histories as mere romance, the reply is that there is the same ground for suspecting it as being true of Jesus Christ. Many of the early Christians and contemporary Jews and gentiles doubted it, and some openly disputed its ever having taken place. Others bestowed upon it a mere spiritual significance, and not a few considered it symbolical of a holy life.