Wilson's Almanac on gods and men with similarities to Jesus

Related terms: Jesus god cognate pagan Greek Attis Zoroaster Zarathustra
Roman mythology myth Buddha Krishna Mithras Dionysus Bacchus
Horus Tammuz Lao Zi Heracles Hercules Alexander the Great

If page or images fail to load fully, please click Refresh on your browser menu.
It's fully loaded when you see the purple menu bar at the foot of the page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gods and saviours, Page 1
Exploring their similarities to Jesus Christ

By Pip Wilson

Maya and Buddha; Isis and Horus; Mary and Jesus; Devaki and Krishna
Maya and Buddha; Isis and Horus; Mary and Jesus; Devaki and Krishna

 

There are some remarkable similarities* to be found in the lives of various ancient great ones.

These pages, frequently updated, look at Jesus and some congruencies associated with him.

I'm always happy to receive comments, so if you have anything to contribute, please email me.

 

... the Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same adoration which was originally paid to the Sun ...
Thomas Paine, 'Origin of Free-Masonry'

 

Zeitgeist, the movie

See also Link 1 and Link 2, sites which refute the claims of Zeitgeist

 

 

On to Page 2 and more gods

  Jesus Dionysus/Bacchus Osiris and Horus Tammuz
      Image: Isis and Horus  
Place Jesus was from Nazareth, Israel, then the Christian faith spread throughout world. The Dionysus (aka Dionysos) religion is generally considered to have begun in Thrace and spread throughout the known world, to Greece, Egypt, and Rome, where he was called Bacchus. 
 
However, it might be that the deity's origin was in the Mediterranean, in Minoan Crete, as Dionysus was one of the names of gods discovered on the Linear B tablets of Mycenae.
Osiris and his son Horus (Har, Haroeris, Har-pa-khered, Harpokrates, etc) were worshipped in Egypt. There was a major Osirian sanctuary at Philae, Greece.
  
Tammuz is the Hebrew name for Dumuzu, a god who was worshipped in Syria and Babylon. The chief seat of the cult in Syria was Gebal (modern Gebail, Greek Bublos) in Phoenicia.
Time Jesus lived approximately 2,000 years ago, probably c. 4 BCE - c. 30. I examined some suggested dates of his birth at my weblog on September 15, 2003. The worship of Dioynsus dates back several centuries BCE in Greece. The historian Livy mentions the faith in Rome as early as 186 BCE. [Livy, Roman History, 39, 3,6], with the mysteries formally recognized under Julius Cesar in the mid first century BCE [Servillus, Bucolics, 5,29].
C. 3000 BCE until c. 400CE.

Eye of Horus
Horus

C. 2000 BCE.
Birth Of royal descent, Jesus was born of a virgin, Mary in a stable or cave (the Apocryphal Gospel Protevangelion says in a cave, and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is still located in a cave). 
  The Virgin Mary was told by an angel, "Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women ... Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest."
( Luke 1:28-33)
  The cave was illuminated so brightly Joseph and Mary's midwife could not tolerate the light. (Source: the Apocryphal Gospel Protevangelion)
  He was born or placed in a manger, a container of animal feed.
The shepherds adored his birth. Angels sang hymns at the birth. The baby Jesus began speaking to the Virgin Mary shortly after his birth, saying, "Mary, I am Jesus, the Son of God, that WORD which thou didst bring forth according to the declaration of the Angel Gabriel to thee, and my Father hath sent me for the salvation of the world." 
(Source: the Apocryphal Gospel, The First Gospel of the Infancy)
 
The aged widow Anna blessed the infant Jesus.

  His earthly father was Joseph the carpenter. Since the Church was fairly young, December 25 has been his traditional date of birth.
  Angels issued a warning that the local dictator, King Herod, planned to kill the baby and had issued a decree for his assassination (Matthew 2:16). The parents fled. Mary and Joseph stayed in Muturea.
King Herod ordered the massacre of all male children born during the same night.

* Ř * Ř * Ř *

"About A.D. 153 St. Justin (Apol., I, xxi) told his pagan readers that the virgin birth of Jesus Christ ought not to seem incredible to them, since many of the most esteemed pagan writers spoke of a number of sons of Zeus:
  "He was born of a virgin, accept this in common with what you believe of Perseus."
Justin Martyr (c. 100 /114 CE - c. 162/168 CE), an early Christian apologist; First Apology, 22
  Why did these virgin-born Gods precede Jesus? "The devils ... craftily feigned that Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter not by sexual union."
Justin Martyr, First Apology, 64  
Source
  About A.D. 178 the Platonic philosopher Celsus ridiculed the virgin birth of Christ, comparing it with the Greek myths of Danae, Melanippe, and Antiope; Origen (c. Cels. I, xxxvii) answered that Celsus wrote more like a buffoon than a philosopher."
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia

Dionysus was born of the virgin Semele; his father was the supreme god Zeus. Some sources say he was placed in a manger and reared in a cave ( Zeus was also reared in a cave). Horus was born to a virgin (who remains eternally virginal), Isis-Meri, on December 25 in a cave or a manger.
  Isis, the goddess of motherhood and fertility, was called 'Mother of Heaven',  'Regina Coeli' (Queen of Heaven) and 'Stella Maris', as is Mary, the mother of Jesus, even today in the Roman Catholic Church: "Graeco-Roman culture was particularly enamoured of [Isis] and called her the Stella Maris (star of the sea), represented in the heavens by the north star ... [Mary's] portraits with the Christ often bear a striking similarity to those of Isis with Horus." 
Jordan, Michael, The Encyclopedia of Gods: Over 2,500 deities of the world, Kyle Cathie Ltd, London, 1992

  Isis bore Horus having impregnated herself with the semen of Osiris after his death (see Legend of Osiris and Isis). In a story reminiscent of the Biblical Moses story, she hid Horus in the papyrus marshes of the Nile Delta, so Horus is sometimes depicted as a falcon upon a column of papyrus.
  Isis said: "I am she that is the natural mother of all things, the Mistress and Governess of all the Elements, the initial Progenitrix of all things, the Chief of powers divine, Queen of Heaven, the First of the Gods celestial, the light of the Goddesses. At my will, the planets of the air, the wholesome winds of the Seas, and the silences of hell are disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout all the world in various manners, in various customs and in many names, for the Phrygians call me the Mother of the Gods ..."
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, 1st Century CE
  His earthly father was named Seb ('Joseph?) and was of royal descent.
  "Isis seems to have been originally a virgin (or, perhaps, sexless) goddess, and in the later period of Egyptian religion she was again considered a virgin goddess, demanding very strict abstinence from her devotees. It is at this period, apparently, that the birthday of Horus was annually celebrated, about December 25th, in the temples. As both Macrobius and the Christian writer [of the "Paschal Chronicle"] say, a figure of Horus as a baby was laid in a manger, in a scenic reconstruction of a stable, and a statue of Isis was placed beside it. Horus was, in a sense, the Savior of mankind. He was their avenger against the powers of darkness; he was the light of the world."
(McCabe, Joseph, The Story of Religious Controversy; cited here)

  In the catacombs at Rome today can be found pictures of the baby Horus being held by the Virgin Isis-Meri in what scholars have claimed is the original 'Madonna and Child'.
Like Jesus, Horus' birth was announced by a star in the east and he was allegedly attended by three wise men.
  "Osiris’s coming was announced by Three Wise Men: the three stars Mintaka, Anilam, and Alnitak in the belt of Orion, which point directly to Osiris’s star in the east, Sirius (Sothis), significator of his birth."   Source

"Furthermore, inscribed about 3,500 years ago [1500 years before Jesus’ alleged advent] on the walls of the Temple at Luxor were images of the Annunciation, Immaculate Conception, Birth and Adoration of Horus, with Thoth announcing to the Virgin Isis that she will conceive Horus; with Kneph the 'Holy Ghost,' impregnating the virgin; and with the infant being attended by three kings, or magi, bearing gifts. In addition, in the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the virgin mother Isis—the original 'Madonna and Child'.”   Source
  "The Virgin is consecrated to Isis, just as Leo is consecrated to her husband Osiris ... The sphinx, composed of a Lion and a Virgin, was used as a symbol to designate the overflowing Nile ... they put a wheat-ear in the hand of a virgin, to express the idea of the months, perhaps because the sign of Virgin was called by the Orientals, Sounbouleh or Schibbolet, that is to say, epi or wheat ear."
Brother Joseph Jerome de Lalande, founder of Lodge Des Neuf Soers (Nine Sisters), Paris; Astronomie par M. de la Lande, 1731   Source

 

Tammuz was born to a virgin, named Mylitta, on December 25.
Life Jesus warned of 'stumbling blocks' along the way (1 Cor. 1: 23 ; Rev. 2: 14).  Dionysus is a life-death-rebirth deity.

 

 

 

Horus the sky god and his once-and-future Father, Osiris, are frequently interchangeable just as Jesus, God and his Father are interchangeable.
  Like Jesus, Horus is claimed to have said: 'I and my Father are one'; his personal epithet was 'Iusa', the 'ever-becoming son' of 'P'tah' or 'the Father'.
 
At 12, Horus taught in the temple and was baptised in the Eridanus or Iarutana (Jordan?) by 'Anup the Baptiser', who was decapitated. This occurred when he was 30 years old, having disappeared for 18 years.
  As an adult, Horus performed numerous miracles including, like Jesus and even Buddha, the feat of walking on water.
  He had 12 disciples, two of who were his 'witnesses” and were named “Anup' and 'Aan (the two Johns?).
  Just as Jesus allegedly raised Lazarus from the dead, Horus was supposed to have raised El-Azar-us from the dead.
  Before his death, Horus had 12 disciples and at one stage appeared before them, 'transfigured on the Mount'.
 Horud performed miracles, exorcised demons and raised El-Azarus ('El-Osiris'), from the dead.
 Horus walked on water. He delivered a 'Sermon on the Mount' and his followers recounted the 'Sayings of Iusa'. He was transfigured on the Mount.
  He came to fulfil the Law.
Horus was supposed to reign one thousand years.
Tammuz is a life-death-rebirth deity who is referred to in the Bible (Ezekiel 8:14). He was a sun god who, in his daily cycle, rose from his cave in the morning, travelled across the sky by day, before returning to his cave at night.
  He was known to the Greeks as Adonis, which is the Phoenician 'Adhon'  (the same in Hebrew).
  The Babylonian myth represents Dumuzu, or Tammuz, as a beautiful shepherd slain by a wild boar, the symbol of winter.
  Tammuz performed miracles and healed the sick.

 

 

 

Names Jesus is called the Christ; King of Kings; Beginning and the end (Alpha and Omega)  Revelation 1: 8 ); Only Begotten Son; Saviour; Redeemer; Sin Bearer; Anointed One; the Way, the Truth and the Life; Light of the World; Messiah; Son of Man; the Word; the Word made Flesh; Lamb of God; Resurrected One; Good Shepherd; King of Kings; associated with fish ('Ichthys'); the Word; Master; Lord; Rabbi (teacher); the Most High God; Prince of Peace; Son of Righteousness; Lion of the Tribe of Judah; identified as 'the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head'.
  Jesus is the second person of the Christian Trinity: (1) God, the Father, (2) Jesus the Son, (3) the Holy Ghost.
Dionysus was sometimes identified with the lamb; King of Kings; Only Begotten Son; Saviour (Sôtęrios); Redeemer; Sin Bearer; Anointed One; Alpha and Omega.
  "At this mountain [Mt Pontinos in Argolis] begins the grove, which consists chiefly of plane trees... [within which] ... is a seated wooden image of Dionysus Saotes (Saviour)." Pausanias, Guide to Greece, 2.37.2
 
"Dionysos was identified by Greek writers with the Egyptian god Osiris, the Roman Liber, the Thracian Sabazios, the Arabian Orotatl and various other non-Greek gods." Source

 

Horus was called: Resurrected One; 'Iusa', the 'ever-becoming son' of 'P'tah' or 'the Father'; 'the Way, the Truth and the Light';  'Messiah'; 'Son of Man'; 'Son of God'; 'the Word'; 'the Word made Flesh';  'Holy Child'; 'God’s Anointed Son'; 'Word of Truth'.
  Horus was called the 'KRST', or the 'Anointed One', long before the title was given to Jesus.
  Horus also was called the Fisher; Good Shepherd; Lamb of God, and was associated with the lion, the lamb and the fish ('Ichthys'). 
  Osiris was called Lord of Lords, King of Kings, God of Gods; the Good Shepherd; the Resurrection and the Life; Eternity and Everlastingness; the god who “made men and women to be born again".
 
 

 

Tammuz
Tammuz

Death Jesus died painfully, pierced by a spear, crucified on a cross, often known as 'the tree', or 'Calvary's tree' ("The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." Act 5:30;  "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree." Galatians 3:13).
  The scriptural reference to crucifixion in Deuteronomy 21:22, 23 – often taken as prophetic of Jesus – is to hanging on a tree, rather than being nailed or tied to a cross, and Peter and the apostles (Acts 5:30; 10:39) refer to Jesus as hanging on a tree.

Jesus Christ
Jesus


Jesus was dead for three days during which time he descended into Hell. 
  At his death there was an earthquake. Between the sixth and ninth hours, the skies and earth turned dark on Jesus' death. Jesus was resurrected and later ascended into Heaven.
  His grave clothes were all that were found in the empty tomb after his resurrection.
  He brought back from Hell two boys, the sons of the high priest. (Source: the Apocryphal Acta Pilati, or Gospel of Nicodemus)
 
"When we say that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter." 
Justin Martyr, First Apology, 21
 

"Of the Roman God Liber (aka Dionysus, or Bacchus) Christian father Firmicus Maternus writes that his followers believe 'he was intercepted and killed,' and his murderers, 'chopped his members up into pieces and ... devoured them.' An event which his worshipers celebrate in 'recurring sacred rights [sic] celebrated every two years,' in which, 'They tear a live bull with their teeth, representing the cruel banquet [at which the God was eaten.]' [Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions, Ch 6.2]"   Source

 

 

Dissenting view

Horus was crucified on 'an accursed tree' in sin-atonement, between two thieves.
  After suffering death, Horus, like Jesus, was buried in a tomb where he was resurrected and ascended into Heaven, or 'Amen-ti'.

 

 

Tammuz suffered a painful death in order to become mankind's saviour.
  On the third day, some accounts claimed, Tammuz was resurrected into a new life of eternal blessedness.
  "His death is supposed to typify the long, dry summer of Syria and Palestine, when vegetation perishes, and his return to life the rainy season when the parched earth is revivified and is covered with luxuriant vegetation, or his death symbolizes the cold, rough winter, the boar of the myth, and his return the verdant spring." Source

 

Beliefs Baptism: Christians from at least the time of St Paul understood immersion in water as a death-like experience, and emergence from the water they took as the beginning of a new life.
Eucharist: Sacred meal of Blood and Body of the God.
  Jesus Christ
was 'without sin'. Considered both human and divine; omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
  Christ
claimed: "I am the Resurrection".
  He referred to himself as having existed before his birth on earth.
  Jesus will return on the last day to judge the living and the dead.
   Some features: A future reward in heaven or punishment in Hell; a day of judgment; a general resurrection; the need for repentance for sin; salvation requires faith in the Saviour; belief in angels and of evil spirits; belief that disease and sickness is caused by evil spirits; a past war in heaven between good and bad angels; free will; God is considered the 'Word'
  Scriptures speak of "the blind leading the blind, "a new heaven and a new earth", "living water", "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", "all scripture is profitable for doctrine", "to die is great gain". 
  Fasting forms a part of the religion. 
The act of being born again is present. 
The Mysteries of Dionysus included: a sacred meal; a myth about the death of the god; salvation.
  Dionysus was worshipped, along with other deities, at Eleusis, site of the Eleusinian Mysteries. There was a strong soteriological element of the Mysteries: "It was the common belief in Athens that whoever had been taught the Mysteries [at Eleusis] would, when he died, be deemed worthy of divine glory. Hence all were eager for initiation."
Scholiast (ancient commentator) on The Frogs, by Aristophanes (c. 446 BCE - 385 BCE), 158
 
"It looks as if those also who established rites of initiation [into the mysteries] for us were no fools, but that there is a hidden meaning in their teaching when it says that whoever arrives uninitiated in Hades will lie in mud, but the purified and initiated when he arrives there will dwell with gods."
Plato
(c. 427 BCE - c. 347 BCE), Phaedo, 69 c
 
"In Italy, in the third or fourth century BC, texts written on gold plates and buried with the dead, describe the souls of Dionysus followers in the afterlife, drinking not from one particular spring in Hades, but from another cool pool – and that will give them divinity and eternal life."  
Source: Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth
  "There was usually the meal of mystic foods – grains of all sorts at Eleusis, bread and water in the cult of Mithra, wine (Dionysus), milk and honey (Attis), raw bull's flesh in the Orphic Dionysus-Zagreus cult." 
'Paganism', in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XI
  Baptism:
"at all events, at the Apollinarian and Eleusinian games they are baptized; and they presume that the effect of their doing that is their regeneration and the remission of the penalties due to their perjuries. Among the ancients, again, whoever had defiled himself with murder, was wont to go in quest of purifying waters."
Tertullian (born c. 150 or 160 - died between 220 and 240 CE), On Baptism, Ch. 5

 

Just as Christians end their prayers with amen, the Horus-worshippers ended their prayers with amen-ti – Egyptian for 'Heaven' or the 'After World'.
  At least 2,500 years before John baptised believers in the Jordan, the ancient Egyptians washed believers in the Nile, or in burial chambers.
  In both cases, the purpose of baptism was to cleanse and revivify individuals – whether alive or dead – into a new state of 'eternal blessedness'.
  Furthermore, just as Christians today are assimilated with Jesus through baptism, the ancient Egyptians were assimilated through baptism with their god, Horus.
  In addition, just as Jesus himself was baptised by John, Horus was baptised by lesser gods.
 
Early Christian author Tertullian wrote: "For washing is the channel through which they are initiated into the sacred rites of some notorious Isis".   Source
  Osiris's flesh was eaten in the form of communion cakes of wheat, the “plant of Truth”.
  "The 23rd Psalm copied an Egyptian text appealing to Osiris the Good Shepherd to lead the deceased to the 'green pastures' and 'still waters' of the nefer-nefer land, to restore the soul to the body, and to give protection in the valley of the shadow of death (the Tuat)."   Source
 
In Duat (Tuat), the underworld, Osiris weighed the dead souls
.
  Orisis "once possessed human form and lived upon earth, and that by means of some unusual power or powers he was able to bestow upon himself after the death a new life which he lived in a region over which he ruled as king, and into which he was believed to be willing to admit all such as had lived a good and correct life upon earth".
Egyptian Ministry of Tourism website
 
"Ptah, creator god of the Memphite region brought things into being by the mere utterance of their names. The opening words of the Old Testament state that God also said the names of things to create them."   Source
  "In the resurrection of Osiris the Egyptians saw the pledge of a life everlasting for themselves beyond the grave. They believed that every man would live eternally in the other world if only his surviving friends did for his body what the gods had done for the body of Osiris. "  Source (Frazer)

 

 

Trust, ye saints, your Lord restored,
Trust ye in your risen Lord;
For the pains which Tammuz endured
Our salvation have procured.

Ctesias (c. 400 BCE), author of Persika (Source: Crucified Saviours)

The resurrection of Tammuz was celebrated in an annual lamentation that involved washing with water and anointing with oil.
  'When those who lament, men and women, come up with him to me,' said one Akkadian text, 'may the dead arise and smell the incense.'
  The annual lamentation of Tammuz is described by the ancient Hebrews in the Old Testament:
  'Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz' (Ezekiel 8:14).

With the return of Tammuz, the lands of the Akkadians became fertile again and the seasonal and daily cycles continued.

 

    

 

Krishna

Zarathustra

Mithras   Alexander the Great
  Image

Please note: A reader has sent a critique of this section and I have posted it here.

     
Place

India.

Zarathustra as he is correctly named (Zoroaster was a Greek impression of his name), lived in Asia Minor, perhaps in modern-day Iran.

Mithras was originally Persian.


Mithras

 

Alexander was born in Macedon. He conquered much of the world as then known to European cultures, as far as the Indus River in India. Even today there are sometimes Alexandrine characteristics in faiths in Western India.
Time

C. 1400 BCE. Estimates of his birth date vary. Some are 1477, 3112, 3600, 5150, and 5771 BCE.

Uncertain; perhaps as early as 1700 BCE or as late as 1000 BCE.

The Mithras cult arose c. 600 BCE, before the rise of Rome. 
  When the Christ myth was new Mithras and Mithraism were already ancient. Worshiped for centuries as God's Messenger of Truth, Mithras was long revered by the Persians (Zoroastrianism) and the Indians (see the Vedic literature). 
  Christian apologist Justin Martyr
(1 Apologia, 66, 4) denounces the devil for having sent a God so similar to Jesus  yet preceding him.
Alexander lived 356 BCE - June 11, 323 BCE.

 

Alexander the Great
Alexander

Birth

His advent was heralded by a pious old man (Asita), who could die happy knowing of his arrival, a story paralleled in the Bible by that of Simeon (Luke 2: 25).
 
Krishna was born in a cave, which at the time of his birth was miraculously illuminated. 
  Devaki, the radiant Virgin of the Hindu mythology, bore Krishna to the god Vishnu (second god of the Trimurthi (also called the Hindu Trinity).
  "The divine Vishnu himself descended into the womb of Devaki and was born as her son Krishna." Boslooper, Thomas, The Virgin Birth, SCM Press, 1962, Pp 148 & 149; cited in: The Virgin Birth of Christ.
  Of royal descent, Krishna was born while his carpenter
"while his foster-father Nanda was in the city to pay his tax to the king" (Pagan origins of the Christ myth: Pagan Christs: Krishna). 
 
The story about the birth of Elizabeth's son John (the Baptist), cousin of Jesus, corresponds with the story in the Krishna myth about the birth of the child of Nanda and his wife Yasoda.
(Source: The Virgin Birth Doctrine: Details of the two Gospel stories, 1922)
  His birth was heralded by a star. The cowherds adored his birth. Celestial beings sang hymns at the birth. The baby Krishna began speaking to his mother shortly after birth.
  Devaki was told by an angel, "In thy delivery, O favoured among women, all nations shall have cause to rejoice".
  Angels issued a warning that the local dictator,
King Kansa, planned to kill the baby and had issued a decree for his assassination. Krishna's parents fled and stayed in Mathura. King Kansa ordered the massacre of all male children born during the same night.
 
Krishna's birth was attended by angels and shepherds.
  The infant Krishna also was presented with gold, frankincense and myrrh by wise men.
 

* Ř * Ř * Ř *

Extract from the Vedangas:

"It is in the bosom of a woman that the ray of the divine Splendor will receive human form, and she shall bring forth, being a virgin, for no impure contact shall have defiled her."

Extract from the Pourourava:

"The lamb is born of an ewe and a ram, the kid of a goat and a buck goat, the child of a woman and a man; but the divine Paramatma (soul of the universe) shall be born of a virgin, who shall be fecundated by the thought of Vischnou."…

Extract of Vedanta:

"In the early part of the Cali-Youga (the actual age of the world, which, according to the Hindoos, began three thousand years before the Christian era) shall be born the son of the Virgin."…

The Vedanta announces the incarnation of Christna [Krishna] should occur in the early times of the Cali-Youga, that is, of the actual age of the world.   Source

Sources differ: Some say Zarathustra was born to a 15-year-old virgin, Dughdhava the milk maid, in a cave. He received his prophetic calling at about 30 years of age.
  "According to Zoroastrianism, the glory of Ahura Mazda (the supreme deity) united itself with Zoroaster's future mother at her birth and rendered her fit thereby to bear the prophet."   Source
  The whole of Nature rejoiced at his birth.
 
"His mother glowed with the divine Glory usually reserved for kings; the soul of the prophet was placed by God in the sacred Haoma plant (which Z. condemned in the Gathas) and the prophet was conceived through the essence of Haoma in milk (though the birth is not a virgin birth, but the natural product of two special, but earthly parents.). The child laughed at his birth instead of crying, and he glowed so brightly that the villagers around him were frightened and tried to destroy him. All attempts to destroy young Zarathustra failed; fire would not burn him nor would animals crush him in stampedes; he was cared for by a mother wolf in the wilderness."   Source
 
"His name Zoroaster means 'seed of the woman' and his constant emblem was a branch. Therefore his birth was celebrated with great festivity. He is constantly pictured on the ancient monuments as a child in his mother's arm, both wearing a circle around their heads, just as is common today in pictures of Mary and her child. This circle was the hieroglyphic representation of the sun and also the 'Seed of the woman'. We find this child and sometimes mother represented in the idolatrous imagery as the destroyer of the serpent."   Source

Every year in Rome, in the middle of winter, the Son of God was born once more, putting an end to darkness. Every year at first minute of December 25th the temple of Mithras was lit with candles, priests in in white garments celebrated the birth of the Son of God and boys burned incense. Mithras was born in a cave, on December 25th, of a virgin mother. God, in the form of light, entered a virgin, Anahita.
  "In Armenian tradition, Mithras was believed to shut himself up in a cave from which he emerged once a year, born anew. The Persians introduced initiates to the mysteries in natural caves, according to Porphyry, the third century neoplatonic philosopher. These cave temples were created in the image of the World Cave that Mithras had created, according to the Persian creation myth."  
Source

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alexander the Great was a real historical figure, a general and emperor, whose life was imbued with overtones of deification from Europe to parts of Western India. Alexander "was the son of King Philip II of Macedon and the infamous Epirote princess Olympias. According to several legends, Olympias was impregnated not by Philip, who was afraid of her and her affinity for sleeping in the company of snakes, but by the supreme god  Zeus. Aware of these legends and of their political usefulness, Alexander was wont to refer to his father as Zeus, rather than as Philip."   Source

Visions and omens were associated with his birth.

 

Life

Krishna's mission was to give directions to 'the kingdom of God' (Bhagavad Gita  2: 72). 
 
Krishna travelled widely, performing miracles – raising the dead, healing lepers, the deaf and the blind. He cast out indwelling demons. One of the first miracles he performed was to make a leper whole. He lived in poverty and loved the poor.
 
Krishna warned of 'stumbling blocks' along the way (BG 3: 34).
 
He was baptised in the Ganges River. Krishna performed miracles in Mathura.
  Krishna used parables to teach the people about charity and love.
 
Krishna withdrew to the wilderness to fast.
  Eyewitnesses claimed Krishna was transfigured in front of his disciples; hence his disciples bestowed upon him the title jezeus, meaning "pure essence".
  He proclaimed he was the "Way to the Father".
  Krishna was anointed on the head with oil by a woman whom he healed.
  He selected disciples to spread his teachings. He was meek, and merciful. He was criticized for associating with sinners. He humbled himself by washing the feet of others. He encountered a woman at a well.
  His path was “strewn with branches".
  He was depicted on a cross with nail-holes in his feet, as well as having a heart emblem on his clothing. He may also be depicted as having his foot on the head of a serpent.
  He forgave his enemies. He celebrated a last supper. He descended into Hell, and was resurrected. Many people witnessed his ascension into heaven.
 
Krishna said that "by human calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahma's one day" (BG 8: 17); cf 2 Peter 3: 8.
 

(Zarathustra was fully human and not divine.) He was baptized in a river.
  In his youth he astounded wise men with his wisdom.  He began his ministry at age 30 and wandered around with followers.
  He went into the wilderness where he was tempted by the evil one.
  He cast out demons.
  He restored the sight of a blind man.
  He revealed the mysteries of heaven, hell, resurrection, judgment, salvation and the apocalypse.

Zarathustra
Zarathustra

 "He spent years in the wilderness communing with God before his first vision, in which Vohu Manah came to him in the form of an Angel. All the heavenly entities, the Amesha Spentas, instructed Zarathustra in heaven, and he received perfect knowledge of past, present, and future. Zarathustra's preaching to King Vishtaspa was enhanced by miracles ..."   Source

With twelve disciples, Mithras travelled far and wide as a teacher and illuminator of men.
 
At about age 30 he began his ministry, offering salvation based on faith, compassion, knowledge and valour.
  He had 12 companions or disciples and was considered a great travelling teacher and master.
  Mithras performed miracles.  
  "The god remained celibate throughout his life, and valued self-control, renunciation and resistance to sensuality among his worshippers. Mithras represented a system of ethics in which brotherhood was encouraged in order to unify against the forces of evil."   Source

 

 

Alexander in the Talmud
Names

Krishna's names: Shepherd God; Sin Bearer; Liberator; Firstborn; Universal Word; Beginning and the End (Alpha and Omega) ("I am the beginning, the middle, and the end" (Bhagavad Gita 10: 20; cf Revelation 1: 8 ); Lion of the Tribe of Saki; identified as 'the seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head'.
  Krishna is the second person of the Hindu Trinity: (1) Brahma, (2) Vishnu, (3) Siva. Krishna is the incarnation of Vishnu.
 

Names of Zarathustra include: the Word made Flesh; Logos.

Mithras was known as: Saviour; Son of God; Redeemer; Lamb of God; the Way, the Truth and the Light; Messiah; Light of the World.
 
He also was called the Good Shepherd and was identified with both the lion and the lamb.
  "Mithras was known as the God of Truth, and Lord of Heavenly Light, and said to have stated 'I am a star which goes with thee and shines out of the depths'."  
Source
 
Death

At about age 30, Krishna was "suspended to the branches of a tree by his murderer, that it might become the prey of the vultures ... [Later] the mortal frame of the Redeemer had disappeared no doubt it had regained the celestial abodes ..." 
Jacolliot, Louis, The Bible in India, Sun Publ. Co., 1992; cited in Specific Similarities in the Lives of Jesus and Krishna

  The crucified (this is open to dispute; read more) Krishna is pictured on the cross with arms extended. Pierced by an arrow while hanging on the cross, Krishna died, but descended into Hell from which he rose again on the third day and ascended into Heaven. (The Gospel of Nicodemus tell of Jesus' descent into Hell.) However, the Mahabharata refers only to Krishna's death by being shot by an arrow in the heel
– suffering the same fate as the Greek god Achilles.   Source
  The skies and earth turned dark at noon on Krishna's death.
  He brought back two boys from Hell.

 

 

Mithras was buried in a tomb from which he rose again from the dead – an event celebrated yearly (spring equinox) with much rejoicing.
  "After the earthly mission of this god had been accomplished, he took part in a Last Supper with his companions before ascending to heaven, to forever protect the faithful from above."  
Source
 
"Mithras of Persia atoned for mankind, and prepared for the salvation of mankind through slaying the primaeval bull—the first sacrifice ... his celebrations at the spring and autumn equinoxes were associated with crucifixion on a tree. These were the Persian New Year festivities described in the scriptural book of Esther, and involved the crucifixion of the old years, considered wicked, so that a new and uncorrupted year could take its place. This was seen as an annual rehearsal of the eschaton when the wicked world is finally replaced by the purity of the original creation of Ahuramazda. Christian writers speak of Mithras being slain, and yet do not say how. It has been suppressed ..."   Source (link may be expired)

Alexander was aged 33 when he died on June 11, 323 BCE.
  There were  several bad omens preceding his death.
    The skies and earth turned dark on Alexander's death.

 

Beliefs

Krishna is the second person of the Hindu trinity.
 
He is said to return to 'do battle' with the 'Prince of Evil' who will 'desolate the earth'.
  Krishna was 'without sin'. Considered both human and divine; omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.
  Hindu and Catholic priesthoods have much in common, according to Australian author Peter Bowler in True Believers.
  Both have nunneries and monasteries; both believe celibacy is a virtue; both impose penances; both offer indulgences; and both use beads.
 
Krishna
will return on the last day on a white horse to judge the living and the dead.
  Krishna claimed: "I am the Resurrection". 
  He referred to himself as having existed before his birth on earth.
  "Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, and Christos is the Greek version of the word Krsna. When an Indian person calls on Krsna, he often says 'Krsta'."
Srila Prabhupada

Krishna
Krishna

   Some features: A future reward in heaven or punishment in Hell; a day of judgment; a general resurrection; the need for repentance for sin; salvation requires faith in the Saviour; belief in angels and of evil spirits; belief that disease and sickness is caused by evil spirits; a past war in heaven between good and bad angels; free will; God is considered the 'Word'
  Scriptures speak of "the blind leading the blind, "a new heaven and a new earth", "living water", "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", "all scripture is profitable for doctrine", "to die is great gain". 
  Fasting forms a part of the religion. 
  The act of being born again is present. 
  Immersion in water by Hindus is an important ritual. "Water in Hinduism has a special place because it is believed to have spiritually cleansing powers...In the sacred water distinctions of caste are supposed to count for nothing, as all sins fall away ... Every temple has a pond near it and devotees are supposed to take a bath before entering the temple.
" (Source: 'Water in Religion', The Water Page)

 

Zarathustra's followers celebrated a sacred eucharistic meal.
  Following his marriage to his wife Havovi, the prophet Zarathushtra had sex with her three times. The seed from these unions was miraculously preserved in the holy waters of Lake Kans (in modern day Iran). At some time in the future three virgins will (during three different millennia before the end time) bathe in or drink these waters , and miraculously conceive the sons of Zarathushtra.
  "Zoroaster’s followers expected a “second coming” in the virgin-born Saoshynt or Savior, who is to come in 2341 CE and begin his ministry at age 30, ushering in a golden age."   Source
  "The Holy Zarathushtra will be followed by three great Messengers, in the thousands of years to come. These are actually the sons of Zarathushtra himself, who will be born miraculously to virgin mothers ..."   Source
   "The Zarathushtri religion was the first to proclaim that Ahura Mazda will send the Saoshyant [Saviour], born of a virgin, and many other religions took on this belief."
Source: Traditional Zoroastrianism: Tenets of the Religion

 
In the final millennium, "Hunger and thirst will decrease – the world will indeed move nearer to its goal, of a perfect world that neither hungers nor thirsts."   Source
 
The Righteous go to heaven.
  "... when the Saoshyant comes, the final spiritual battle between the forces of good and evil will commence, resulting in the utter destruction of evil. Ristakhiz, the resurrection of the dead will take place – the dead will rise, by the Will of Ahura Mazda. The world will be purged by molten metal, in which the righteous will wade as if through warm milk, and the evil will be scalded. The Final Judgement of all souls will commence, at the hands of Ahura Mazda the Judge (Davar), and all sinners punished, then forgiven, and humanity made immortal and free from hunger, thirst, poverty, old age, disease and death. The World will be made perfect once again, as it was before the onslaught of the evil one." 
Source: Traditional Zoroastrianism: Tenets of the Religion  

 

Mithras was one part of a holy trinity. 
  "The worshippers of Mithras held strong beliefs in a celestial heaven and an infernal hell. They believed that the benevolent powers of the god would sympathize with their suffering and grant them the final justice of immortality and eternal salvation in the world to come. They looked forward to a final day of Judgment in which the dead would resurrect, and to a final conflict that would destroy the existing order of all things to bring about the triumph of light over darkness."   Source
  The followers of Mithras kept the Sabbath holy, eating sacramental meals in remembrance of Him. The sacred meal of bread and water, or bread and wine, was symbolic of the body and blood of the sacred bull. 
  "He who will not eat of my body and drink of my blood will not be made one with me or I with him, the same shall not know salvation."
Persian Mithraic text
  Baptism in the blood of the bull (taurobolum) – early baptism 'washed in the blood of the Lamb' – late baptism by water. Mithraic baptism was
recorded by the early Christian author Tertullian: "Mithra there brings in the symbol of a resurrection." Also, Tertullian: "The Devil, whose business is to pervert the truth, mimics the exact circumstances of the divine sacraments in the mysteries of idols. He himself baptizes some, that is to say, his believers and followers; he promises forgiveness of sins in the sacred fount, and thus initiates them into the religion of Mithra."   Source
Mithraic rituals brought about the transformation and salvation of his adherents – an ascent of the soul of the adherent into the realm of the divine. From the wall of a Mithraic temple in Rome: 'And thou hast saved us by shedding the eternal blood.'
 
Like today's clergy, Mithrasian priests acknowledged a 'Last Supper' and performed baptisms first with water and then 'with the spirit'.
  According to D Jason Cooper, (Mithras: Mysteries and Initiation Rediscovered, Red Wheel, 1996),  the Mithrasians had a 'Last Supper' which, like the modern Communion or Eucharist, included wine as a symbol of sacrificial blood.
  "Bread in wafers, or small loaves marked with a cross, was used to symbolise flesh," he
writes.
  "As to the future, the initiate into Mithraism was guaranteed a righteous judgment and a happy immortality. He felt secure about the judgment, for Mithra, the guardian of truth, would preside at the great assize which determined his eternal destiny. According to the picture suggested by the Emperor Julian, Mithra was also the guide who assisted the soul on its heavenly journey and, finally, like a fond father, welcomed the soul to its heavenly home."   Source

* Ř * Ř * Ř *


  "... reborn and created for delights," and "you have saved us by the shedding of eternal blood."
 Inscriptions in a Mithraeum (temple of Mithras) in Rome
  

 

Please report broken links

On to Page 2 and more gods



 
The God Who Wasn't There


The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors


The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ


The Christ Conspiracy


Bible Myths and their Parallels in Other Religions


Christianity Before Christ


The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors


Tales from the Time Loop


The Dark Side of Christian History


Jesus and the Lost Goddess


Jesus Christ, Sun of God


101 Myths of the Bible

Author's cautionary note
Most ancient deities are known to us through more than one source; often these varied sources present different myths and legends, some of them contradictory and even mutually exclusive. These inconsistencies might be reflected in these tables, as might my own errors of fact or interpretation. However, I have endeavoured to provide something of an overview of the fascinating 'pagan Christs' subject, and I welcome corrections, additions and any other information. 

I would also like to add that although there are many similarities, there are also many differences. For example, Zarathustra is said to have been mortal rather than divine, had nine children, and died at 77, so in these matters he is quite unlike Jesus Christ. The tables above are not intended to prove complete congruencies between the people and deities mentioned; rather they perhaps tend to indicate influences of religions upon each other. 

Caution is advised. Much of the above is contentious among scholars, and I am not a scholar but a hobbyist. "The category of dying and rising gods, once a major topic of scholarly investigation, must now be understood to have been largely a misnomer based on imaginative reconstructions and exceedingly late or highly ambiguous texts." – Mircea Eliade, 'Dying and Rising Gods' The Encyclopedia of Religion, Macmillian, 1987.
Pip Wilson, October 4, 2003

 

Isis with Horus

 

The list of Pagan virgin mothers includes the following:

Alcmene, mother of Hercules who gave birth on December 25th
Athena, dawn goddess
Chimalman, mother of Kukulcan
Chinese mother of Foe (Buddha)
Coatlicue, mother of Huitzilopochtli
Cybele, "Queen of Heaven and Mother of God"
Devaki, mother of Krishna
Hera, mother of Zeus's children
Hertha, Teutonic goddess
Isis, who gave birth to Horus on December 25th
Juno, mother of Mars/Ares
Maya, mother of Buddha
Mother of Lao-kiun, "Chinese philosopher and teacher, born in 604 B.C."
Nana, mother of Attis
Neith, mother of Osiris, who was "worshipped as the Holy Virgin, the Great Mother, yet an Immaculate Virgin."
Nutria, mother of an Etruscan Son of God
Ostara, the German goddess.
Rohini, mother of Indian "son of God"
Semele, mother of Dionysus/Bacchus, who was born on December 25th
Shin-Moo, Chinese Holy Mother
Siamese mother of Somonocodom (Buddha)
Sochiquetzal, mother of Quetzalcoatl
Source

Note: The Latin poet, Virgil, who lived just before Christ (70-19 BCE), was a real mortal man who by medieval times had attained a reputation of being divine, or semi-divine. One of the many legends that evolved about the Roman poet was that his mother, Maia, or Magia, was a virgin. Read more at my Virgil page in this Scriptorium.  

 

 

Isis with Horus

 


Pagan Sources for the Virgin Birth
"The gentile cultures, religions and mythologies during the time of Christian beginnings around the first century CE were filled with stories of divine incarnation. For example in the Greek myth, Perseus was born of the virgin Danae. Danae was conceived by the God Zeus who took the form of a shower of gold ...

"The popular culture also ascribed to many famous men miraculous, divine and, sometimes, even virgin birth. Thus the emperor Augustus, the reigning sovereign during the time of Jesus, was reputedly miraculously begotten when a snake descended upon his mother in the temple of Apollo. So too, Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, was born of a vestal virgin.

"It was therefore to be expected, in fact inevitable, that Christianity, which vied for converts with these mystery religions, would itself be imbued with such mythological elements. It could happen in many ways.  Source


Isis with Horus

Life-death-rebirth deity 
"In mythology, a life-death-rebirth deity also known as a "dying-and-rising" god is one who dies and is reborn, in either a literal or symbolic sense. Often, the "death" was simply a visit and return to the underworld. Usually, such deities are worshipped primarily for this reason, and are often the subject of a mystery religion. They are associated with immortality, youth and redemption. Some of the most famous include Jesus Christ, Mithras, and Persephone (the object of the famed Eleusinian mysteries).

Dying and rising god scholarship first began in 1890 when James Frazer wrote 'The Golden Bough', which pointed out that ancient near east gods such as Osiris (consort of Isis), Tammuz and the early middle eastern version of Adonis, had all died and been resurrected. Frazer suggested that as early as the third mllenium BCE, ancient middle eastern cultures had a sort of “dying and rising god” template, used especially for “vegetation gods” that died and rejuvenated in accordance with the food growing seasons."   Source: Wikipedia

Isis with Horus

Life-death-rebirth Deities

Aboriginal mythology
Julunggul
Wawalag

Akkadian mythology
Tammuz

Aztec mythology
Xipe Totec

Celtic mythology
Cernunnos

Christianity
Jesus Christ

Egyptian mythology
Isis
Osiris

Etruscan mythology
Atunis

Greek mythology
Adonis
Cybele
Dionysus
Orpheus
Persephone

Hindu mythology
Vishnu

Khoikhoi mythology
Heitsi

Norse mythology
Gullveig

Persian mythology
Mithras

Phrygian mythology
Attis

Roman mythology
Aeneas
Bacchus
Proserpina

Sumerian mythology 
Damuzi
 
Inanna

 

Source: Wikipedia

 

The Mystery religions – dying, resurrecting Godmen who bring salvation
"Although you don't hear about them in Sunday School, mystery religions are an established part of mainstream religious scholarship. The Gods of the Mystery religions had differing names and myths, but the faiths themselves had features in common

"The mystery religions date from at least 1,500 BC ...

"We don't know exactly when these dying-reborn Gods began – they date back thousands of years, basically fading into prehistory. We do know early Christian writers recognized that Jesus came at the end of a long history of Gods who died and were reborn. The list includes, says Christian apologist Origen, "the Odrysian Orpheus, and the Thessalian Protesilaus, and the Taenarian Hercules, and Theseus also." [Origin, Against Celsus, 56]. But, says Origin, the stories of these other dying-reborn Gods need not be believed, "For each ... might, had he wished, have secretly withdrawn himself from the sight of men, and returned again." [Origin, Against Celsus, 56]. These older stories are "myths," but the story of Jesus' death and resurrection should be believed. [Origin, Against Celsus, 58]. "   Source: Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth

 

Isis with Horus

Index of Articles on folklore and other topics

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Folklore, customs, pre-Christian origins of: 

Epiphany  Candlemas/Imbolc  Hall Sunday  Collop Monday  Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day

  Ash Wednesday & Lent  Mid-Lent  Care Sunday  Painful Friday  Lazarus Saturday

  Palm Sunday  Spy Wednesday  Maundy Thursday  Good Friday  Easter Saturday  Easter

Easter Monday  Easter Tuesday  Hocktide  Ascension  Rogation Days  Whitsunday/Whitsuntide

Corpus Christi  May Day/Beltaine  Lammas/Lughnasadh  Michaelmas  Halloween/Samhain

Martinmas  Advent  Christmas Eve  Christmas  More at Articles Index

Hundreds of feast days of saints, gods and goddesses at Wilson's Almanac Book of Days

 

Handy resources

Roman festivals and notable days in the Book of Days

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

Saints, dragons and serpents in the Book of days

Sacred wells, springs and grottoes

Vegan Christmas or Yule

Correspondences: events in Jesus' & Krishna's life

Krishna Crucified?

Krishna Born of a Virgin?

Virgin Birth: Catholic Encyclopedia

Krishna and Jesus parallels

Links between Jesus and Krishna

Various virgin births

Jesus by no means unique

Shaken Creeds: The Virgin Birth Doctrine

Roman Gods and Goddesses in Myth and Art

Pagan Regeneration by Harold R Willoughby

Crucified Sun Gods

The Virgin Mary and the goddess archetype

Virgin of Guadalupe

The Origins of Christianity and Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ

Pagan origins of the Christ myth

Pagan Christs

Jesus and Parallels to Crucified Sun-Gods

Crucified Saviors

Krishna and Jesus similarities/differences

The Christ Conspiracy: Greatest Story Ever Sold

The Pantheon of the Gods

Godchecker

Gods, Heroes and Myth

Internet Sacred Text Archive

Sacred meals in ancient pagan religions

Did The Greek God of Wine Influence Christian Beliefs?

 

Send a free e-card greeting to a loved one

 

Isis with Horus

 

This site is a member of WebRing.
To browse visit Here.

 

 

 

Subscribe free
Almost Prophetic Quotes
"Because our readers are bored 
with the usual quotations"

Subscribe free
Wilson's Almanac
Illustrated free daily ezine
"Think universally. Act terrestrially."