Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning | Page 9

his image was fastened to the trunk of a pine-
tree (compare the Crucifixion). But I shall return to this legend
presently. The worship of Attis became very widespread and much
honored, and was ultimately incorporated with the established religion
at Rome somewhere about the commencement of our Era.
The following two legends (dealing with Hercules and with Krishna)
have rather more of the character of the solar, and less of the
vegetational myth about them. Both heroes were regarded as great
benefactors of humanity; but the former more on the material plane,
and the latter on the spiritual.
Hercules or Heracles was, like other Sun-gods and benefactors of
mankind, a great Traveler. He was known in many lands, and
everywhere he was invoked as Saviour. He was miraculously
conceived from a divine Father; even in the cradle he strangled two
serpents sent to destroy him. His many labors for the good of the world
were ultimately epitomized into twelve, symbolized by the signs of the
Zodiac. He slew the Nemxan Lion and the Hydra (offspring of Typhon)
and the Boar. He overcame the Cretan Bull, and cleaned out the Stables
of Augeas; he conquered Death and, descending into Hades, brought
Cerberus thence and ascended into Heaven. On all sides he was
followed by the gratitude and the prayers of mortals.
As to Krishna, the Indian god, the points of agreement with the general
divine career indicated above are too salient to be overlooked, and too
numerous to be fully recorded. He also was born of a Virgin (Devaki)
and in a Cave,[1] and his birth announced by a Star. It was sought to

destroy him, and for that purpose a massacre of infants was ordered.
Everywhere he performed miracles, raising the dead, healing lepers,
and the deaf and the blind, and championing the poor and oppressed.
He had a beloved disciple, Arjuna, (cf. John) before whom he was
transfigured.[2] His death is differently related--as being shot by an
arrow, or crucified on a tree. He descended into hell; and rose again
from the dead, ascending into heaven in the sight of many people. He
will return at the last day to be the judge of the quick and the dead.
[1] Cox's Myths of the Aryan Nations, p. 107.
[2] Bhagavat Gita, ch. xi.
Such are some of the legends concerning the pagan and pre-Christian
deities--only briefly sketched now, in order that we may get something
like a true perspective of the whole subject; but to most of them, and
more in detail, I shall return as the argument proceeds.
What we chiefly notice so far are two points; on the one hand the
general similarity of these stories with that of Jesus Christ; on the other
their analogy with the yearly phenomena of Nature as illustrated by the
course of the Sun in heaven and the changes of Vegetation on the earth.
(1) The similarity of these ancient pagan legends and beliefs with
Christian traditions was indeed so great that it excited the attention and
the undisguised wrath of the early Christian fathers. They felt no doubt
about the similarity, but not knowing how to explain it fell back upon
the innocent theory that the Devil--in order to confound the
Christians--had, CENTURIES BEFORE, caused the pagans to adopt
certain beliefs and practices! (Very crafty, we may say, of the Devil,
but also very innocent of the Fathers to believe it!) Justin Martyr for
instance describes[1] the institution of the Lord's Supper as narrated in
the Gospels, and then goes on to say: "Which the wicked devils have
IMITATED in the mysteries of Mithra, commanding the same thing to
be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed with certain
incantations in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated you either
know or can learn." Tertullian also says[2] that "the devil by the
mysteries of his idols imitates even the main part of the divine
mysteries." . . . "He baptizes his worshippers in water and makes them
believe that this purifies them from their crimes." . . . "Mithra sets his
mark on the forehead of his soldiers; he celebrates the oblation of bread;
he offers an image of the resurrection, and presents at once the crown

and the sword; he limits his chief priest to a single marriage; he even
has his virgins and ascetics."[3] Cortez, too, it will be remembered
complained that the Devil had positively taught to the Mexicans the
same things which God had taught to Christendom.
[1] I Apol. c. 66.
[2] De Praescriptione Hereticorum, c. 40; De Bapt. c. 3; De Corona, c.
15.
[3] For reference to both these examples see J. M. Robertson's Pagan
Christs, pp. 321, 322.
Justin Martyr again, in the Dialogue with Trypho says