Osiris, Horus and Isis were three Egyptian gods that became increasingly popular in Greece and Rome; they formed a 'holy family' of sorts; Osiris was the father of Horus and the brother/Husband of Isis. Osiris was Egyptian god of the dead, but also a vegetation and resurrection god. Although the story of Osiris is already told in the Pyramid texts of ancient Egypt (2400BC), his popularity exploded when his cult (or rather, the cult of Isis, ...
Orpheus and Jesus Similarities: Music and Mysteries
Orpheus was regarded in antiquity as the founder of mystery-religions; the first to reveal to men the meaning of rites of initiation (W.K.C. Guthrie). His father was Apollo (or Oeagrus, a Thracian river god) and his mother Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry. His magic power was his perfection of music - with his song and lyre, he "allured the trees, the savage animals, and even the insensate rocks, to follow him" (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 11). ...
Gods of Healing: Jesus and Ascelpius Similarities
“The correspondence between Christianity and the other mystery religions of antiquity are perhaps more startling than the differences. Orpheus and Christ share attributes in the early centuries of our era; and of all the major ancient deities, Dionysus has most in common with the figure of Christ. It was the son of Apollo, however, Asclepius, the kindly healer and miracle worker, who posed the greatest threat to early Christianity.” (Classical Mythology, 8th Edition, 385) "All the ...
Nature Sex: Jesus and Adonis / Tammuz Similarities
Tammuz (Sumerian Dumuzi) was the consort of Ishtar. He is mentioned, already in the Epic of Gilgamesh, as a suffering lover of the goddess, a shepherd beloved and scapegoat of the netherworld. When Ishtar tries to become Gilgamesh’s lover, he points out that her past lovers have not fared well. “Dumuzi, the lover of your youth, year upon year, to lamenting you doomed him.” (Gilgamesh 137) When Gilgamesh is mourning the death of Enkidu, he ...
Cleansed with Blood: Jesus and Attis Similarities
The Story of Attis: Cybele, (a Phrygian mother goddess whose cult was introduced into Greece by the 5th century BCE) rejected Zeus as a lover; but he spilled his seed on her while she was sleeping and she gave birth to Agdistis - a wild demon. The gods feared him so they cut off his testicles. From the blood, grew an almond tree. A woman, Nana, took an almond to her breast (or at the fruit) ...
The True Vine: Jesus and Dionysus Similarities
Despite obvious similarities between Dionysus and Jesus Christ, like wedding wine miracles and Jesus' statements about being "The one true vine", these two figures may seem completely opposite: Jesus the meek and humble savior, and Dionysus the ecstatic, sexually active founder of wild, drunken parties. However on closer examination, there are themes that run between the literary traditions of both figures that are closely tied. This article will not, of course, argue that Jesus is ...
Mithras and Jesus Similarities
"The question will arise, By whom is to be interpreted the sense of the passages which make for heresies? By the devil, of course, to whom pertain those wiles which pervert the truth, and who, by the mystic rites of his idols, vies even with the essential portions of the sacraments of God. He, too, baptizes somethat is, his own believers and faithful followers; he promises the putting away of sins by a layer (of ...
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