Ah the "Jesus is similar to other figures" myth. I researched every claim I could find years ago and put my findings into a document. Here was my compiled findings about the claimed similarities between Jesus and Dionysus. Red is claims I feel can't be made, green are claims I feel could be argued, if spuriously:
-Claim #1: Born of a virgin on December 25
I can’t find any claims of Dionysus’ birthday. But his father was Zeus. And if you know anything about Greek mythology with that fact alone it should be obvious how absurd the idea that Dionysus was the son of a virgin with
Zeus of all people as his father is!! Now Zeus has a lot of weird sex, in this case impregnating Dionysus’ mother with a lightning bolt, but given Zeus’ promiscuous nature I’d say that’s just another case of his weird sexuality. Lightning impregnation != virgin birth.
-Claim #2: He was placed in a manger
There’s no evidence of this happening to Dionysus. In one story his mother was incinerated, causing him to be “born” prenatally. Zeus does not put him into a manger, but then sews Dionysus to his leg until the god is ready to go out on his own.
-Claim #3: He was a traveling teacher
Dionysus is a god of reversals, meaning reversals of social norms. He was a traveling partier and spread wine, sex, art, and madness.
-Claim #4: He performed miracles.
As a god, of course Dionysus did, but the miracles of his travels are a bit different. He’s prone to drive people insane or otherwise curse them if they are too rigid in enforcing social order. That’s not the kind of miracles the claimant wants you to believe he has done, of course, as he’s trying to draw parallels with the miracles of Jesus.
-Claim #5: He “rode in a triumphal procession on an donkey.”
This is true, though he rode the donkey constantly and the reason and message behind the donkey is different. Jesus rode as a sign of humility. Dionysus, as god of reversals, revels in having an inglorious mount.
-Claim #6: He was a sacred king killed and eaten in an eucharistic ritual for fecundity and purification.
Not at all. As a baby Dionysus was killed by Titans, butchered, roasted, and literally, not figuratively, devoured by his enemies except for his heart. Because gods are gods, Zeus is able to heal Dionysus from his heart alone but that’s really not anything like the eucharist.
-Claim #7: Dionysus rose from the dead on March 25.
No date is given, and he didn’t actually “die” in the above story. He survived being dismembered and devoured and healed from just the remaining heart. This is not uncommon, the gods can survive lots in Greek mythology. Zeus literally ate his first wife, the Goddess of Wisdom, but she’s still alive, inside of him, giving him advice and divine wisdom.
-Claim #8: He was the God of the Vine, and turned water into wine.
Actually Dionysus summons wine from nothing. He turns empty jugs into jugs of wine. He’s the God of Wine, after all, he doesn’t need something like water as a baseline to conjure up alcohol!!
-Claim #9: He was called “King of Kings” and “God of Gods.”
That title was Zeus’, not Dionysus’.
-Claim #10: He was identified with the Ram or Lamb.
He had ram’s horns. But the animal associated with him was the bull. Lambs, having no horns being too young, do not even enter into the equation.
-Claim #11: He was considered the “Only Begotten Son,”
Watching Disney’s Hercules, while largely inaccurate to the Greek mythos, is still accurate enough to disprove this title was even an option to call Dionysus, Son of Zeus.
-Claim #12: He was considered the “Savior”, “Redeemer”, “Sin Bearer”, “Anointed One”, “Alpha and Omega”
Dionysus’ actual titles are the following: “Fire-Born”, “Son of the Nymphs”, “First-Born”, "Well-Fruited", "He of the Green Fruit", "Teeming", "Bursting”, “Roarer” “Loud-Shouter", "God of Many Forms", "Render of Men", "He Who Delights in Sword and Bloodshed", "Womanly One", "Womanly Stranger", and finally “Dionysus of the Tree”, which brings us to...
-Claim #13: His title of “Young Man of the Tree” indicates he was hung on a tree or crucified.
If the title “of the Tree” indicates that he was nailed to or hung from a tree, then I can only assume “King Malcolm of Scotland” was killed by being nailed to Scotland. Dionysus was, in addition to his other functions, the God of Trees. The title “of the Trees” hardly denotes being killed by trees, unless, of course, you have the gift of wishful thinking.
So looking at my notes from years ago, the total similarities are both traveled, both performed miracles, and both rode a donkey. Three very vague similarities in my own opinion.
Edit: Replaced *** with donkey. Really surprised that *** is even censored given how often the word appears in older translations of many scriptures
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