Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning | Page 8

however vanquished by the Powers of Darkness.
(7) And descended into Hell or the Underworld.
(8) They rose again from the dead, and became the pioneers of mankind
to the Heavenly world.
(9) They founded Communions of Saints, and Churches into which
disciples were received by Baptism.
(10) And they were commemorated by Eucharistic meals.
Let me give a few brief examples.
Mithra was born in a cave, and on the 25th December.[1] He was born
of a Virgin.[2] He traveled far and wide as a teacher and illuminator of
men. He slew the Bull (symbol of the gross Earth which the sunlight
fructifies). His great festivals were the winter solstice and the Spring
equinox (Christmas and Easter). He had twelve companions or
disciples (the twelve months). He was buried in a tomb, from which
however he rose again; and his resurrection was celebrated yearly with
great rejoicings. He was called Savior and Mediator, and sometimes
figured as a Lamb; and sacramental feasts in remembrance of him were
held by his followers. This legend is apparently partly astronomical and
partly vegetational; and the same may be said of the following about
Osiris.
[1] The birthfeast of Mithra was held in Rome on the 8th day before the
Kalends of January, being also the day of the Circassian games, which
were sacred to the Sun. (See F. Nork, Der Mystagog, Leipzig.)

[2] This at any rate was reported by his later disciples (see Robertson's
Pagan Christs, p. 338).
Osiris was born (Plutarch tells us) on the 361st day of the year, say the
27th December. He too, like Mithra and Dionysus, was a great traveler.
As King of Egypt he taught men civil arts, and "tamed them by music
and gentleness, not by force of arms";[1] he was the discoverer of corn
and wine. But he was betrayed by Typhon, the power of darkness, and
slain and dismembered. "This happened," says Plutarch, "on the 17th of
the month Athyr, when the sun enters into the Scorpion" (the sign of
the Zodiac which indicates the oncoming of Winter). His body was
placed in a box, but afterwards, on the 19th, came again to life, and, as
in the cults of Mithra, Dionysus, Adonis and others, so in the cult of
Osiris, an image placed in a coffin was brought out before the
worshipers and saluted with glad cries of "Osiris is risen."[1] "His
sufferings, his death and his resurrection were enacted year by year in a
great mystery-play at Abydos."[2]
[1] See Plutarch on Isis and Osiris.
[2] Ancient Art and Ritual, by Jane E. Harrison, chap. i.
The two following legends have more distinctly the character of
Vegetation myths.
Adonis or Tammuz, the Syrian god of vegetation, was a very beautiful
youth, born of a Virgin (Nature), and so beautiful that Venus and
Proserpine (the goddesses of the Upper and Underworlds) both fell in
love with him. To reconcile their claims it was agreed that he should
spend half the year (summer) in the upper world, and the winter half
with Proserpine below. He was killed by a boar (Typhon) in the autumn.
And every year the maidens "wept for Adonis" (see Ezekiel viii. 14). In
the spring a festival of his resurrection was held--the women set out to
seek him, and having found the supposed corpse placed it (a wooden
image) in a coffin or hollow tree, and performed wild rites and
lamentations, followed by even wilder rejoicings over his supposed
resurrection. At Aphaca in the North of Syria, and halfway between
Byblus and Baalbec, there was a famous grove and temple of Astarte,
near which was a wild romantic gorge full of trees, the birthplace of a
certain river Adonis--the water rushing from a Cavern, under lofty
cliffs. Here (it was said) every year the youth Adonis was again
wounded to death, and the river ran red with his blood,[1] while the

scarlet anemone bloomed among the cedars and walnuts.
[1] A discoloration caused by red earth washed by rain from the
mountains, and which has been observed by modern travelers. For the
whole story of Adonis and of Attis see Frazer's Golden Bough, part iv.
The story of Attis is very similar. He was a fair young shepherd or
herdsman of Phrygia, beloved by Cybele (or Demeter), the Mother of
the gods. He was born of a Virgin --Nana--who conceived by putting a
ripe almond or pomegranate in her bosom. He died, either killed by a
boar, the symbol of winter, like Adonis, or self-castrated (like his own
priests); and he bled to death at the foot of a pine tree (the pine and
pine-cone being symbols of fertility). The sacrifice of his blood
renewed the fertility of the earth, and in the ritual celebration of his
death and resurrection