# Fire/light bringers Jesus, Loki & Prometheus are bound & tortured - Coincidence? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 18, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246 "2013-06-18T04:07:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/1 "2013-06-18T04:07:02Z")
Alan Moore in his epic work[Promethea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promethea) pointed out Jesus, Loki & Prometheus are all knowledge and light bringers in different mythologies yet all meet roughly parallel fates of imprisonment and torture. Simply coincidence or something deeper? ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/2 "2013-06-18T06:58:25Z")
Deeper, but only by a few microns, not some incredible mystical meaning or anything: It’s the primal human concept of the rejection of change… that people will scorn and mock anyone who comes up with a different idea, until it turns out they were right, then the hipster caveman can be all “listen to this story about this guy I know before he was cool” and be all self-righteous and then it turns into this big thing called a religion and people start getting killed left and right about a stupid idea that actually worked for a change. Or, ya know, not. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/3 "2013-06-18T07:27:34Z")
Its barely even a coincidence. The stories are pretty dis-similar. Loki was tortured for killing Baldur, not “bringing light”. Jesus didn’t bring light in any but a very vague metaphorical sense. And Jesus was tortured in order to kill him as a symbolic sacrifice, while Loki and Prometheus were tortured as punishment for specific crimes, and the point wasn’t to kill them (since they were immortal). Basically its just three stories where at some point a character is tied up and tortured. Hardly strange in stories coming from the ancient world, where tying people up and torturing them happened to real people not infrequently. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/4 "2013-06-18T07:54:17Z")
The idea of sacrifice for gain seems pretty deeply ingrained in human religion, probably going back even to prehistoric times. These stories might be a variation on that theme. A character that brings a gain to the many at the very least has to be sacrificed himself. Only here the sacrifice is given after the benefit is received rather than before as in most rituals. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/5 "2013-06-18T07:57:02Z")
Finding common themes in mythology is a pretty standard thing: > **[Comparative mythology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_mythology)** > > Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common origins for myths from different cultures, and to support various psychoanalytical theories. > The comparative study of mythologies reveals the trans-national ... ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/6 "2013-06-18T08:02:44Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > The idea of sacrifice for gain seems pretty deeply ingrained in human religion, probably going back even to prehistoric times. These stories might be a variation on that theme. A character that brings a gain to the many at the very least has to be sacrificed himself. Only here the sacrifice is given after the benefit is received rather than before as in most rituals. Except again, Loki was tortured as punishment for killing Baldur. It didn’t have anything to do with any “gain”. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/7 "2013-06-18T08:08:32Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Except again, Loki was tortured as punishment for killing Baldur. It didn’t have anything to do with any “gain”. I know zilch about Norse mythology. I was just accepting the premise on its face. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/8 "2013-06-18T09:58:14Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Except again, Loki was tortured as punishment for killing Baldur. It didn’t have anything to do with any “gain”. Odin is a better parallel to Jesus. He hung from the World Tree for days to gain wisdom, and was pierced with his own spear during that time. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/9 "2013-06-18T10:12:09Z")
[Loki was an asshole, not a light bringer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki) LOL ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/10 "2013-06-18T10:18:24Z")
Prometheus is interesting. He’s been seen throughout history as both analogous to Christ (sacrificing himself to save humanity) and Satan (rebelled against heaven and suffered the consequences), depending on the commentator. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/11 "2013-06-18T18:41:34Z")
Wasn’t Lucifer the light-bringer, who ended up cast out and punished? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/12 "2013-06-18T18:56:36Z")
You can’t start with “Alan Moore… pointed out” and expect anything credible to follow. The man worships a snake god, who was likely fictional (not in the sense that he was a god, but that he only appears in one source). Alan’s interesting, though. You could make lots of parallels between religious figures. E.g. both Loki and Zeus/Jupiter were male gods who gave birth, in one way or another. It doesn’t mean that Sleipnir and Athena/Minerva are the same. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/13 "2013-06-18T19:44:10Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > [Loki was an asshole, not a light bringer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki) LOL I’d argue that he was both. OTTOMH He saved Freya from having to marry the giant who built the wall around Asgard. He gave birth to Slepnir. He got the other gods- Mjolnir, Gulinbrusti, and Gungir (Thor’s hammer, Frey’s golden boar and Odin’s spear). He did all kinds of benevolent things. Then the other gods treated him like crap and he turned evil. Oh, and I agree with **The Lurking Horror** about Alan Moore. He’s a great writer and a fascinating man, but I don’t accept him as an authority on much. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/14 "2013-06-19T15:11:23Z")
Well Jesus Christ was tortured, before sacrificing his life to save all of mankind. While with Prometheus, I sacrificed my time and was tortured for hours, in the cinema. So the parallels are there. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-light-bringers-jesus-loki-prometheus-are-bound-tortured-coincidence/661246/15 "2013-06-19T16:00:51Z")
> [@blindboyard](#): > > Wasn’t Lucifer the light-bringer, who ended up cast out and punished? “Lucifer” meant “Morning Star”. In scripture, it’s assumed by scholars to refer to King Nebuchadnezzar based on the surrounding passages. Attributing the title to Satan was a revisionist post-New Testament thing.