| Aren’t there some striking parallels between the Jesus and Adonis stories? |
| No. There are several different versions of the Adonis legend,
but none of them provide any sort of parallel to the story of Jesus.
Critics claim that Adonis was born of a virgin, but there are no versions
of the story in which he is virgin-born. In the most common versions,
his mother (named either Myrrha or Smyrna) conceives Adonis by having sex
with her father, the King of Assyria. Ashamed, she hides in the woods
and the gods turn her into a Myrrh tree. The tree later bursts open
(or is broken open by a wild boar, or struck by an arrow fired by Theias)
and Adonis emerges. In other versions, his mother is Queen Metharme
of Cyprus or Aephesiboea, but I've found no references to either of them
being virgins.
Critics also claim that Adonis died and was resurrected. Adonis is killed by a wild boar which was sent by Artemes (or, in some versions, Ares), and each drop of blood turns into the very first roses. In some post-Christian versions, his followers cremate his body and scatter his ashes to the wind, proclaiming that Adonis lives. Other than the proclamation that he lives, which is clearly not referencing a bodily resurrection since they're tossing about his ashes, there is no reference to his having lived after death. And, again, this is post-Christian anyways.
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