Aesculapius, the heathen “Good Physician,” and “the good Saviour,” healed the sick and raised the dead.  He was the son of God and of Coronis, and was guarded by a goatherd.

Prometheus is another forerunner of Christ, stretched in cruciform position on the rocks, tormented by Jove, the Father, because he brought help to man, and winning for man, by his agony, light and knowledge.

Osiris, the great Egyptian God, has much in common with the Christian Jesus.  He was both god and man, and once lived on earth.  He was slain by the evil Typhon, but rose again from the dead.  After his resurrection he became the Judge of all men.  Once a year the Egyptians used to celebrate his death, mourning his slaying by the evil one:  “this grief for the death of Osiris did not escape some ridicule; for Xenophanes, the Ionian, wittily remarked to the priests of Memphis, that if they thought Osiris a man they should not worship him, and if they thought him a God they need not talk of his death and suffering....  Of all the gods Osiris alone had a place of birth and a place of burial.  His birthplace was Mount Sinai, called by the Egyptians Mount Nyssa.  Hence was derived the god’s Greek name Dionysus, which is the same as the Hebrew Jehovah-Nissi” ("Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity,” by Samuel Sharpe, pp. 10, 11; ed. 1863).  Various places claimed the honour of his burial.  “Serapis” was a god’s name, formed out of “Osiris” and “Apis,” the sacred bull, and we find (see ante, p. 206) that the Emperor Adrian wrote that the “worshippers of Serapis are Christians,” and that bishops of Serapis were bishops of Christ; although the stories differ in detail, as is natural, since the Christian tale is modified by other myths—­Osiris, for instance, is married—­the general outline is the same.  We shall see, in Section II., how thoroughly Pagan is the origin of Christianity.

We find the Early Fathers ready enough to claim these analogies, in order to recommend their religion.  Justin Martyr argues:  “When we say that the word, who is the first birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that he, Jesus Christ, our teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter.  For you know how many sons your esteemed writers ascribe to Jupiter; Mercury, the interpreting word and teacher of all; Aesculapius, who, though he was a great physician, was struck by a thunderbolt, and so ascended to heaven; and Bacchus too, after he had been torn limb from limb; and Hercules, when he had committed himself to the flames to escape his toils; and the sons of Leda, the Dioscuri; and Perseus, son of Danae; and Bellerophon, who, though sprung from mortals, rose to heaven on the horse Pegasus” ("First Apology,” ch. xxi.).  “If we assert that the Word of God was born of God in a peculiar manner, different from ordinary generation, let this,