Glycon Simon Apollonius of Tyana Pythagoras Orpheus
Isis / Osiris Dionysus Zalmoxis Kore Samothrace
Heroes Attis Mithras Other godmen
Adonis, 500 BC - a dying, resurrected savior

Pagan Christs
Was Jesus new?  Was Jesus unique?  Lets talk about the Pagan godman Adonis.

You're maybe thinking of the Greek Adonis. We're talking here about Adonis before he got to Greece. Like Mithras, Attis, Isis & Osiris—and Jesus—Adonis was a transplant from the Middle East.

When I get to filling in this page, I'll fill in the details.  For now you can read Frazer's Golden Bough for details.

Dating Adonis  

Adonis fades into prehistory.  Lucian, who wrote On the Syrian Goddess, lived from about 45 AD to 120 AD—he grew up in Syria near the temples he describes in the book, and

"When I was young, I fulfilled that rite [of the God there]. [Lucian, On the Syrian Goddess, Ch. 60]

By his time, says Lucian, the temples were already ancient—in fact

"Most say Deukalion [the Greek Noah] founded the sanctuary.  This is the Deukalion in whose time the great flood befell." [Lucian, On the Syrian Goddess, Ch. 12]]

 
 

They say, at any rate, that the deed that was done to Adon by the boar [i.e. the death of the God] occurred in their land, and in memory of that misfortune every year they beat their breasts and mourn and perform the ceremonies, making solemn lamentations throughout the country. And when the breast-beating and weeping is at end, first they make offerings to Adonis as if to a dead person; and then, on the next day, they proclaim that he is alive and fetch him forth into the air...  [Lucian, On the Syrian Goddess, Ch. 6]

Don't believe me, believe the ancients themselves.

 

And in the land of Byblos is another marvel, a river flowing out of Mount Lebanon into the sea, which is called the Adon. Every year it becomes blood-red, losing its natural hue, and when it flows into the sea, it reddens a large part of it; and this is a signal for mourning to the inhabitants of Byblos. For they say that on those days, Adon is being wounded up on Mt. Lebanon, and his blood as it comes into the water alters the river and gives the stream his name.

  [Lucian, On the Syrian Goddess, Ch. 8]

Don't believe me, believe the ancients themselves.

   

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