| Aren’t there some striking parallels between the Jesus and Attis stories? |
| Hardly. First of all, the earliest existing texts about Attis (aka Atys)
date to post-Christian times. So any ‘comparisons’ are more likely
Christianity influencing the Attis story than the other way around. That
said, here is the list:
1. Attis was born on December 25th of the Virgin Nana. While many gods have their birth dates celebrated on December 25th (including Jesus, though this date is not ascribed to his birth in any biblical writing), Attis’ birthday has never been celebrated on December 25th. While Attis was conceived non-sexually, no texts make the claim that Nana was a virgin. 2. He was considered the savior who was slain for the salvation of mankind. Attis was not a savior and was never recognized as one. There are various versions of how he died. In most of them, he commits suicide by emasculating himself under a tree. Even in the ones in which he is slain (in one version Zeus sends a boar to kill him, in another a king rapes and murders Attis), it's not for the salvation of mankind in any sense. 3. His body as bread was eaten by his worshippers. His followers had a ceremony in which they ate bread and drank either wine or milk, but neither was recognized as being symbolic in any way of Attis’ body. 4. His priests were "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven." They were eunichs, but nowhere does it state that they emasculated themselves “for the kingdom of heaven”. 5. He was both the Divine Son and the Father. Actually, in the most common version of the story, Attis was the grandson of Zeus. His father was an androgynous creature named Agdistis who was disliked by the gods, including his father Zeus. In other versions, Attis had human parents. Attis’ name appears to mean ‘father’ and he was a consort of Cybele, the mother goddess. But Attis had no children and was never recognized as any sort of symbolic father figure. So other than his name meaning father (which is of no parallel to Jesus), there's nothing to this claim other than his being a descendent of a god. 6. On "Black Friday," he was crucified on a tree, from which his holy blood ran down to redeem the earth. Attis died under a tree, and shed blood which made flowers. Of course, the 'tree' Jesus died on was a crucifix, not an actual tree. There is no reference anywhere to Attis dying on a Friday (of any color), being crucified, or redeeming the Earth. 7. He descended into the underworld. That he did. But again, this was almost certainly influenced by Christian writings. 8. After three days, Attis was resurrected on March 25th (as tradition held of Jesus) as the "Most High God." There is no reference to Attis being resurrected. In one version, Agdistis (Attis’ father) asks Zeus to resurrect Attis, but Zeus merely makes it so that Attis’ finger moves continuously and his body remains uncorrupted. Attis does not come back to life in this, or any, version of the story. 9. Doane is recorded as saying that Attis was represented as a "a man tied to a tree, at the foot of which was a lamb, and, without doubt also as a man nailed to a tree..." Doane said no such thing. He did record a story in which an unnamed Phrygian flute player is tied to a tree after losing a fluting contest and is flayed alive. But the flute player was not Attis, there was no lamb in the story, and he wasn’t nailed to the tree. Note that the story of the flute player resembles the story of Marsyas, another figure falsely compared to Jesus. 10. Jackson is reported as saying that on March 22nd, a pine tree was felled and "an effigy of the god was affixed to it, thus being slain and hung on a tree..." Later the priests are supposed to have found Attis' grave empty. First of all, Jackson reported this as happening in 354 A.D., over 3 centuries after Jesus’ death. And this was representative of Attis’ death under the tree (they affixed it only so that they could carry the tree without the effigy being left behind). And Jackson reported nothing about finding Attis’ grave empty.
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