One by one the muscles of the back gather in tight, knotty, cramps. There is no escaping them, no pulling out of them, no gentle massaginghands to ease them away. They move across the shoulders and the thorax. They move down into the abdomen. After two hours on a cross, every muscle in the body is locked in solid knots and the agony is beyond endurance.
Men shriek themselves into insanity.
The pain and symptoms are identical to tetanus, or a state of a muscle when undergoing continued contraction. Death by crucifixion makes the agony last as long as possible. Each hour is an eternity. At times the cramps make the neck rigid and the head is held flush with the vertical beam. A man longs for death.