Which Pagan Deity most resembled Christ?

[Spiderman]

I'm gonna say Dionysus...he changed water into wine, was born of a mortal mother and Divine Father, died and rose again, and transubstantiated bread and wine into his body and blood.

He was also God of the vine... and Jesus said he was the vine.

Who do you think most resembled Christ?

 

[Muslim-UK]

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

I'm gonna say Dionysus...he changed water into wine, was born of a mortal mother and Divine Father, died and rose again, and transubstantiated bread and wine into his body and blood.

He was also God of the vine... and Jesus said he was the vine.

Who do you think most resembled Christ?

I would go with Dionysos too but I'll disagree with a couple of your claims. Only one of his aspects, Bakcheos, was born of a mortal mother (Semele) according to the stories. His milder aspect Zagreus was born of Persephone, and his psychopomp aspect Iakchos was born of either Demeter or the titaness Aura, depending on what your source is.

Not sure where the notion that he transubstantiated bread and wine into his body and blood came from either.

 

[Spiderman]

I would go with Dionysos too but I'll disagree with a couple of your claims. Only one of his aspects, Bakcheos, was born of a mortal mother (Semele) according to the stories. His milder aspect Zagreus was born of Persephone, and his psychopomp aspect Iakchos was born of either Demeter or the titaness Aura, depending on what your source is.

Not sure where the notion that he transubstantiated bread and wine into his body and blood came from either.

Not exactly transubstantiation but holy Communion with the God through consuming bread and wine

"Dionysus-Bacchus-Zagreus-or, in the older, Sumero-Babylonian myths, Dumuzi-absu, Tammuz-...whose blood, in this chalice to be drunk, is the pagan prototype of the wine of the sacrifice of the Mass, which is transubstantiated by the words of consecration into the blood of the Son of the Virgin. (Campbell, MG, 4.23)
Dionysus: Born of a Virgin on December 25th, Killed and Resurrected after Three Days

 

[Spiderman]

The Dionysiacs, the Dionysian Mysteries, had a communion in which the priests and the congregation together partook of the blood and of the flesh of their divinity Dionysus. The blood was wine, the flesh was the cereal, bread if you wish, or wheat.
"The Eucharist" by G. de Purucker

 

[Sanzbir]

I'm gonna say Dionysus...he changed water into wine, was born of a mortal mother and Divine Father, died and rose again, and transubstantiated bread and wine into his body and blood.

Those similarities are largely a myth. Some sources claim the mortal woman Semele was the mother, but others claim the goddess Persephone was his mother.

Death and resurrection was wildly different in both cases. Dionysus was torn apart by titans and devoured, but he arguably never even died from this, and was healed from his heart which was left over. Gods don't die from being eaten in Greek tradition, their immortality is greater than that. Kronus devoured his kids, they were fine when he was cut open. Zeus even ate his first wife, and she is still alive inside of him giving him advice (and since she's the goddess of wisdom, that's the source of Zeus' divine knowledge).

Dionysus' cult drank wine to symbolize his blood and him being devoured by the Titans (and as he was God of Wine, that makes sense), but they ate meat to symbolize his flesh, not bread.

He was also God of the vine... and Jesus said he was the vine.

Not a very good connection in my opinion. One clearly means it as literal, one clearly means it as metaphor.

It'd be like saying Dwayne Johnson and Simon Peter were similar because they were both called "The Rock". It's true, but they have that nickname for very different reasons.

Who do you think most resembled Christ?

Limited to just Pagan Deities??

I'd have to say Glycon, since his cult was basically just a guy with a snake puppet cribbing ideas from early Christianity anyways, just with a snake for a messiah.

 

[SabahTheLoner]

Interesting you say Dionysus. Sometimes he's associated with Satan because Dionysus is a god of estacty. He's also associated with satyrs, like Pan. But I see where the resemblance is.

Odin is similar to Jesus in a way since he sacrificed himself for the sake of others. It's a very loose resemblance, though.

 

[Sanzbir]

Odin is similar to Jesus in a way since he sacrificed himself for the sake of others. It's a very loose resemblance, though.

Was he hanged from Yggdrasil for the sake of others?? I always thought it was to gain mastery over the runes. That's more of a personal benefit, though, and he didn't die.

Or are you referring to him being devoured by Fenrir at Ragnarok??

 

[Spiderman]

Some sources say the mysteries of Dionysus were celebrated with consuming wine and cereal (wheat)...I dunno, I wasn't there

 

[SabahTheLoner]

Was he hanged from Yggdrasil for the sake of others?? I always thought it was to gain mastery over the runes. That's more of a personal benefit, though, and he didn't die.

Or are you referring to him being devoured by Fenrir at Ragnarok??

The latter, mainly.

 

[Sanzbir]

Some sources say the mysteries of Dionysus were celebrated with consuming wine and cereal (wheat)...I dunno, I wasn't there

Huh... my sources state the Omophagia was a symbolic meal of raw meat and wine.

Checking my sources, it seems like the Orphic followers of Dionysus, at least, were the ones that did the practice and used raw meat. They're also the specific sect that believed in his death and resurrection, but they explicitly believed Dionysus' mother was Persephone, a goddess.

So it seems to me like the similarities are only strong if you take specific elements from different Dionysus Cults and ignore other contradictory elements, and combine the beliefs of different cults together.

 

[Sanzbir]

The latter, mainly.

Ah, that makes more sense. Though then the same can be said for Thor, Heimdall, Frey, and everyone else who dies at Ragnarok.

And of course Ragnarok hasn't happened yet.

 

[Spiderman]

Huh... my sources state the Omophagia was a symbolic meal of raw meat and wine.

Checking my sources, it seems like the Orphic followers of Dionysus, at least, were the ones that did the practice and used raw meat. They're also the specific sect that believed in his death and resurrection, but they explicitly believed Dionysus' mother was Persephone, a goddess.

So it seems to me like the similarities are only strong if you take specific elements from different Dionysus Cults and ignore other contradictory elements, and combine the beliefs of different cults together.

The Dionysiacs, the Dionysian Mysteries, had a communion in which the priests and the congregation together partook of the blood and of the flesh of their divinity Dionysus. The blood was wine, the flesh was the cereal, bread if you wish, or wheat.
"The Eucharist" by G. de Purucker

 

[Spiderman]

I dunno... I'm far from being an expert on Pagan Deities

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

The Dionysiacs, the Dionysian Mysteries, had a communion in which the priests and the congregation together partook of the blood and of the flesh of their divinity Dionysus. The blood was wine, the flesh was the cereal, bread if you wish, or wheat.
"The Eucharist" by G. de Purucker

From that source:

"When the Dionysiacs spoke of drinking the blood of their god in the wine and taking the flesh into themselves through the cereal, the wheat or the bread, they never intended it in the literal way in which it is now accepted in the old-fashioned orthodox Christianity. They intended it in a mystical sense..."

Dionysos worshippers, according to Purucker, didn't engage in transubstantiation as orthodox Christians understand it.

Now that I think on it; a possible exception could be made for the Orphics.

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

Huh... my sources state the Omophagia was a symbolic meal of raw meat and wine.

Checking my sources, it seems like the Orphic followers of Dionysus, at least, were the ones that did the practice and used raw meat. They're also the specific sect that believed in his death and resurrection, but they explicitly believed Dionysus' mother was Persephone, a goddess.

This is incorrect. The Orphics probably wouldn't have used raw meat as they were vegetarians - shunning the more traditional, corporeal cults as barbaric. The tale of Orpheus' death at the hands of Maenads - Dionysos' more traditional followers - is probably designed to emphasise this difference. If anything, the Orphics were more likely to have bread as a central part of their feast over meat. Also, the Orphics believed Persephone was one of Dionysos' mothers. One of the god's epithets (that the Orphics as well as others used) is Dimeter: 'of two mothers'. The Orphic Hymn to Semele calls her:

"... fair Semele of the lovely tresses,
of the full bosom,
mother of thrysos-bearing,
joyous Dionysos."

Also, the belief in his death & rebirth was not unique to Orphism as you allude. Dionysos' mysteries at Delphi, for instance, held a set of myths associating his dismemberment and planting of his 'parts' as the winter and spring festivals respectively. Other cults would have associated his epithets Meilichios and Bakcheos with the cooler and warmer weathers specifically due to the latter's associations with fire as well as Dionysos' syncretism with Sabazios; a Thracian/Phrygian god strongly associated with beer and fire. This would have strengthened the god's association with the annual cycle from winter to summer back to winter, repeat ad infinitum.

So it seems to me like the similarities are only strong if you take specific elements from different Dionysus Cults and ignore other contradictory elements, and combine the beliefs of different cults together.

I agree. Dionysos is only similar to Jesus if you view him through Orphic eyes. Indeed I think Orphism, though it had died out by the time of Christianity, wouldn't seem all that alien to us if it were revived today exactly as practised back then. If you view him in the more traditional sense, however, there's too much spilled blood, wine and torn flesh between them to make out more than a passing similarity.

 

[Sanzbir]

This is incorrect. The Orphics probably wouldn't have used raw meat as they were vegetarians - shunning the more traditional, corporeal cults as barbaric. The tale of Orpheus' death at the hands of Maenads - Dionysos' more traditional followers - is probably designed to emphasise this difference. If anything, the Orphics were more likely to have bread as a central part of their feast over meat. Also, the Orphics believed Persephone was one of Dionysos' mothers. One of the god's epithets (that the Orphics as well as others used) is Dimeter: 'of two mothers'. The Orphic Hymn to Semele calls her:

I read in "A New Ritual of the Orphic Mysteries" by Michael Tierney (Volume 16 of the Classical Quarterly) that they specifically raw used bull or goat meat for this ritual.

Do you have a better source that shows they were vegetarian without exception even for this ritual??

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

I read in "A New Ritual of the Orphic Mysteries" by Michael Tierney (Volume 16 of the Classical Quarterly) that they specifically raw used bull or goat meat for this ritual.

Do you have a better source that shows they were vegetarian without exception even for this ritual??

I don't have a source that deals specifically with that ritual but does describe the Orphics, generally, as vegetarians. Plato in The Laws says they're vegetarians; and Professor Guthrie in Orpheus and Greek Religion says that the Orphics were vegetarians because they believed in transmigration of the soul (so basically eating an animal was a form of cannibalism as the animal's soul could be one which was a human in a previous incarnation).

While neither deal with the ritual you mention, it seems unreasonable to assume that Orphics would so readily compromise several of their most basic beliefs in an attempt to commune with the gods.

 

[syo]

Who do you think most resembled Christ?

Jesus taught the message of love. He resembles god Eleos.