Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions by T. W. Doane
2. _Christ Jesus was born of a Virgin._ In this respect he is also the
1822 words | Chapter 317
_Sun_, for 'tis the sun alone who can be born of an immaculate virgin,
who conceived him without carnal intercourse, and who is still, after
the birth of her child, a virgin.
This Virgin, of whom the Sun, the true "Saviour of Mankind," is born, is
either the bright and beautiful _Dawn_,[474:4] or the dark
_Earth_,[474:5] or _Night_.[474:6] Hence we have, as we have already
seen, the _Virgin_, or _Virgo_, as one of the signs of the
zodiac.[474:7]
This Celestial Virgin was feigned to be a mother. She is represented in
the Indian Zodiac of Sir William Jones, with ears of corn in one hand,
and the lotus in the other. In Kircher's Zodiac of Hermes, she has corn
in both hands. In other planispheres of the Egyptian priests she carries
ears of corn in one hand, and the infant Saviour _Horus_ in the other.
In Roman Catholic countries, she is generally represented with the
child in one hand, and the lotus or lily in the other. In Vol. II. of
Montfaucon's work, she is represented as a female nursing a child, with
ears of corn in her hand, and the legend IAO. She is seated on clouds, a
star is at her head. The reading of the Greek letters, from right to
left, show this to be very ancient.
In the Vedic hymns Aditi, _the Dawn_, is called the "_Mother of the
Gods_." "She is the mother with powerful, terrible, with _royal sons_."
She is said to have given birth to the _Sun_.[475:1] "As the _Sun_ and
all the _solar deities_ rise from the _east_," says Prof. Max Müller,
"we can well understand how Aditi (the Dawn) came to be called the
'Mother of the Bright Gods.'"[475:2]
The poets of the Veda indulged freely in theogonic speculations without
being frightened by any contradictions. They knew of Indra as the
greatest of gods, they knew of Agni as the god of gods, they knew of
Varuna as the ruler of all; but they were by no means startled at the
idea that their Indra had a mother, or that Varuna was nursed in the lap
of Aditi. All this was true to nature; for their god was the _Sun_, and
the mother who bore and nursed him was the _Dawn_.[475:3]
We find in the _Vishnu Purana_, that Devaki (the virgin mother of the
Hindoo Saviour Crishna, whose history, as we have seen, corresponds in
most every particular with that of Christ Jesus) _is called
Aditi_,[475:4] which, in the _Rig-Veda_, is the name for the _Dawn_.
Thus we see the legend is complete. Devaki is Aditi, Aditi is the Dawn,
and the Dawn is the Virgin Mother. "The Saviour of Mankind" who is born
of her is the Sun, the Sun is Crishna, and Crishna is Christ.
In the _Mahabharata_, Crishna is also represented as the "Son of
_Aditi_."[475:5] As the hour of his birth grew near, the mother became
more beautiful, and her form more brilliant.[475:6]
_Indra_, the sun, who was worshiped in some parts of India as a
_Crucified God_, is also represented in the Vedic hymns as the _Son of
the Dawn_. He is said to have been born of Dahana, who is Daphne, a
personification of the Dawn.[475:7]
The _humanity_ of this SOLAR GOD-MAN, this demiurge, is strongly
insisted on in the _Rig-Veda_. He is the son of God, but also the son
of Aditi. He is Purusha, the man, the male. Agni is frequently called
the "Son of man." It is expressly explained that the titles Agni, Indra,
Mitra, &c., all refer to _one Sun god_ under "many names." And when we
find the name of a mortal, _Yama_, who once lived upon earth, included
among these names, the humanity of the demiurge becomes still more
accentuated, and we get at the root idea.
_Horus_, the Egyptian Saviour, was the son of the virgin _Isis_. Now,
this Isis, in Egyptian mythology, is the same as the virgin Devaki in
Hindoo mythology. She is the _Dawn_.[476:1] _Isis_, as we have already
seen, is represented suckling the infant Horus, and, in the words of
Prof. Renouf, we may say, "in whose lap can the _Sun_ be nursed more
fitly than in that of the _Dawn_?"[476:2]
Among the goddesses of Egypt, the highest was Neith, who reigned
inseparably with Amun in the upper sphere. She was called "Mother of the
gods," "Mother of the sun." She was the feminine origin of all things,
as Amun was the male origin. She held the same rank at Sais as Amun did
at Thebes. Her temples there are said to have exceeded in colossal
grandeur anything ever seen before. On one of these was the celebrated
inscription thus deciphered by Champollion:
"I am all that has been, all that is, all that will be. No
mortal has ever raised the veil that conceals me. _My
offspring is the Sun._"
She was mother of the _Sun_-god _Ra_, and, says Prof. Renouf, "is
commonly supposed to represent _Heaven_; but some expressions which are
hardly applicable to heaven, render it more probable that she is one of
the many names of the _Dawn_."[476:3]
If we turn from Indian and Egyptian, to Grecian mythology, we shall also
find that their _Sun-gods_ and _solar heroes_ are born of the same
virgin mother. Theseus was said to have been born of Aithra, "_the pure
air_," and OEdipus of Iokaste, "_the violet light of morning_."
Perseus was born of the virgin Danae, and was called the "_Son of the
bright morning_."[476:4] In Iô, the mother of the "sacred bull,"[476:5]
the mother also of Hercules, we see the _violet-tinted morning_ from
which the sun is born; all these gods and heroes being, like _Christ_
Jesus, _personifications of the Sun_.[476:6]
"The Saviour of Mankind" was also represented as being born of the
"_dusky mother_," which accounts for many Pagan, and so-called
Christian, goddesses being represented _black_.[477:1] This is the _dark
night_, who for many weary hours travails with the birth of her child.
The Sun, which scatters the darkness, is also the child of the darkness,
and so the phrase naturally went _that he was born of her_. Of the two
legends related in the poems afterwards combined in the "Hymn to
Apollo," the former relates the birth of Apollo, the _Sun_, from Leto,
the _Darkness_, which is called his mother.[477:2] In this case, Leto
would be _personified_ as a "black virgin," either with or without the
child in her arms.
The _dark earth_ was also represented as being the mother of the god
Sun, who apparently came out of, or was born of her, in the East,[477:3]
as Minos (the sun) was represented to have been born of Ida (the
earth).[477:4]
In Hindoo mythology, the _Earth_, under the name of _Prithivi_, receives
a certain share of honors as one of the primitive goddesses of the Veda,
being thought of as the "_kind mother_." Moreover, various _deities_
were regarded as the progeny resulting from the fancied union of the
Earth with Dyaus (_Heaven_).[477:5]
Our Aryan forefathers looked up to the _heavens_ and they gave it the
name of _Dyaus_, from a root-word which means "_to shine_." And when,
out of the forces and forms of nature, they afterwards fashioned other
gods, this name of Dyaus became _Dyaus pitar_, the _Heaven-father_, or
Lord of All; and in far later times, when the western Aryans had found
their home in Europe, the _Dyaus pitar_ of the central Asian land became
the _Zeupater_ of the Greeks, and the _Jupiter_ of the Romans, and the
first part of his name gave _us_ the word _Deity_.
According to Egyptian mythology, Isis was also the Earth.[477:6] Again,
from the union of Seb and Nut sprung the mild Osiris. Seb is the
_Earth_, Nut is _Heaven_, and Osiris is the _Sun_.[477:7]
Tacitus, the Roman historian, speaking of the Germans in A. D. 98, says:
"There is nothing in these several tribes that merit
attention, except that they all agree in worshiping the
goddess _Earth_, or as they call her, _Herth_, whom they
consider as the common mother of all."[477:8]
These virgin mothers, and virgin goddesses of antiquity, were also, at
times, personifications of the _Moon_, or of Nature.[478:1]
Who is "God the _Father_," who overshadows the maiden? The overshadowing
of the maiden by "God the Father," whether he be called Zeus, Jupiter or
Jehovah, is simply the _Heaven_, the _Sky_, the "_All-father_,"[478:2]
looking down upon with love, and overshadowing the maiden, the broad
flushing light of _Dawn_, or the _Earth_. From this union the _Sun_ is
born without any carnal intercourse. The _mother_ is yet a _virgin_.
This is illustrated in Hindoo mythology by the union of Pritrivi,
"_Mother Earth_," with Dyaus, "Heaven." Various deities were regarded as
their progeny.[478:3] In the Vedic hymns the _Sun_--the Lord and
Saviour, the Redeemer and Preserver of Mankind--is frequently called the
"_Son of the Sky_."[478:4]
According to Egyptian mythology, Seb (the _Earth_) is overshadowed by
Nut (_Heaven_), the result of this union being the beneficent Lord and
Saviour, Osiris.[478:5] The same thing is to be found in ancient Grecian
mythology. Zeus or Jupiter is the _Sky_,[478:6] and Danae, Leto,
Iokaste, Io and others, are the _Dawn_, or _the violet light of
morning_.[478:7]
"The _Sky_ appeared to men (says Plutarch), to perform the
functions of a _Father_, as the _Earth_ those of a _Mother_.
The sky was the father, for it cast seed into the bosom of the
earth, which in receiving them became fruitful, and brought
forth, and was the mother."[479:1]
This union has been sung in the following verses by Virgil:
"Tum pater omnipotens fecundis imbribis æther
Conjugis in grenium lætæ descendit."
(Geor. ii.)
The _Phenician_ theology is founded on the same principles. _Heaven_ and
_Earth_ (called Ouranos and Ghè) are at the head of a genealogy of æons,
whose adventures are conceived in the mythological style of these
physical allegorists.[479:2]
In the Samothracian mysteries, which seem to have been the most
anciently established ceremonies of the kind in Europe, the _Heaven_ and
the _Earth_ were worshiped as a male and female _divinity_, and as the
_parents of all things_.[479:3]
The Supreme God (the _Al-fader_), of the ancient _Scandinavians_ was
_Odin_, a personification of the _Heavens_. The principal goddess among
them was _Frigga_, a personification of the _Earth_. It was the opinion
among these people that this Supreme Being or Celestial God had united
with the Earth (Frigga) to produce "Baldur the Good" (the Sun), who
corresponds to the Apollo of the Greeks and Romans, and the Osiris of
the Egyptians.[479:4]
_Xiuletl_, in the Mexican language, signifies _Blue_, and hence was a
name which the Mexican gave to _Heaven_, from which _Xiuleticutli_ is
derived, an epithet signifying "_the God of Heaven_," which they
bestowed upon _Tezcatlipoca_, who was the "Lord of All," the "Supreme
God." He it was who overshadowed the Virgin of Tula, Chimelman, who
begat the Saviour Quetzalcoatle (the Sun).
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