Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 93

The ancient Persians wors.h.i.+ped the Virgin and Child. On the monuments of Mithra, the Saviour, the Mediating and Redeeming G.o.d of the Persians, the Virgin Mother of this G.o.d is to be seen suckling her infant.[332:5]

The ancient Greeks and Romans wors.h.i.+ped the Virgin Mother and Child for centuries before the Christian era. One of these was _Myrrha_,[332:6]

the mother of _Bacchus_, the Saviour, who was represented with the infant in her arms. She had the t.i.tle of "Queen of Heaven."[332:7] At many a _Christian_ shrine the infant Saviour Bacchus may be seen reposing in the arms of his deified mother. The names are changed--the ideas remain as before.[332:8]

The Rev. Dr. Stuckley writes:

"Diodorus says Bacchus was born of Jupiter, the Supreme G.o.d, and Ceres (Myrrha). Both Ceres and Proserpine were called _Virgo_ (Virgin). The story of this woman being deserted by a man, and espoused by a G.o.d, has somewhat so exceedingly like that pa.s.sage, Matt. i. 19, 20, of the blessed Virgin's history, that we should wonder at it, _did we not see the parallelism infinite between the sacred and the profane history before us_.

"There are many similitudes between the Virgin (Mary) and the mother of Bacchus (also called Mary--see note 6 below)--in all the old fables. Mary, or Miriam, St. Jerome interprets Myrrha Maris. Orpheus calls the mother of Bacchus a _Sea G.o.ddess_ (and the mother of Jesus is called '_Mary, Star of the Sea_.'")[332:9]

Thus we see that the reverend and learned Dr. Stuckley has clearly made out that the story of Mary, the "Queen of Heaven," the "Star of the Sea," the mother of the Lord, with her translation to heaven, &c., was an _old story_ long before Jesus of Nazareth was born. After this Stuckley observes that the _Pagan_ "Queen of Heaven" has upon her head a crown of twelve stars. This, as we have observed above, is the case of the _Christian_ "Queen of Heaven" in almost every Romish church on the continent of Europe.

The G.o.ddess _Cybele_ was another. She was equally called the "Queen of Heaven" and the "Mother of G.o.d." As devotees now collect alms in the name of the Virgin Mary, so did they in ancient times in the name of Cybele. The _Galli_ now used in the churches of Italy, were anciently used in the wors.h.i.+p of Cybele (called _Galliambus_, and sang by her priests). "Our Lady Day," or the day of the Blessed Virgin of the Roman Church, was heretofore dedicated to Cybele.[333:1]

_Minerva_, who was distinguished by the t.i.tle of "Virgin Queen,"[333:2]

was extensively wors.h.i.+ped in ancient Greece. Among the innumerable temples of Greece, the most beautiful was the _Parthenon_, meaning, the _Temple of the Virgin G.o.ddess_. It was a magnificent Doric edifice, dedicated to Minerva, the presiding deity of Athens.

_Juno_ was called the "Virgin Queen of Heaven."[333:3] She was represented, like _Isis_ and _Mary_, standing on the crescent moon,[333:4] and was considered the special protectress of women, from the cradle to the grave, just as Mary is considered at the present day.

_Diana_, who had the t.i.tle of "Mother," was nevertheless famed for her virginal purity.[333:5] She was represented, like _Isis_ and _Mary_, with stars surrounding her head.[333:6]

The ancient _Muscovites_ wors.h.i.+ped a sacred group, composed of a woman with a _male child_ in her lap, and another _standing by her_. They had likewise another idol, called _the golden heifer_, which, says Mr.

Knight, "seems to have been the animal _symbol_ of the same personage."[333:7] Here we have the Virgin and infant Saviour, with the companion (John the Baptist), and "The _Lamb_ that taketh away the sins of the world," among the ancient _Muscovites_ before the time of Christ Jesus. This G.o.ddess had also the t.i.tle of "Queen of Heaven."[334:1]

The ancient _Germans_ wors.h.i.+ped a virgin G.o.ddess under the name of _Hertha_, or Ostara, who was fecundated by the active spirit, _i. e._, the "Holy Spirit."[334:2] She was represented in images as a woman with a child in her arms. This image was common in their consecrated forests, and was held peculiarly sacred.[334:3] The Christian celebration called _Easter_ derived its _name_ from this G.o.ddess.

The ancient _Scandinavians_ wors.h.i.+ped a virgin G.o.ddess called Disa. Mr.

R. Payne Knight tells us that:

"This G.o.ddess is delineated on the sacred drums of the Laplanders, _accompanied by a child_, similar to the _Horus_ of the Egyptians, who so often appears in the lap of Isis on the religious monuments of that people."[334:4]

The ancient _Scandinavians_ also wors.h.i.+ped the G.o.ddess Frigga. She was mother of "Baldur the Good," his father being Odin, the supreme G.o.d of the northern nations. It was she who was addressed, as Mary is at the present day, in order to obtain happy marriages and easy childbirths.

The Eddas style her the most favorable of the G.o.ddesses.[334:5]

In _Gaul_, the ancient Druids wors.h.i.+ped the _Virgo-Paritura_ as the "Mother of G.o.d," and a festival was annually celebrated in honor of this virgin.[334:6]

In the year 1747 a monument was found at Oxford, England, of pagan origin, on which is exhibited a female nursing an infant.[334:7] Thus we see that the Virgin and Child were wors.h.i.+ped, in pagan times, from China to Britain, and, if we turn to the New World, we shall find the same thing there; for, in the words of Dr. Inman, "even in Mexico the 'Mother and Child' were wors.h.i.+ped."[334:8]

This mother, who had the t.i.tle of "Virgin," and "Queen of Heaven,"[334:9] was Chimalman, or Sochiquetzal, and the infant was Quetzalcoatle, the crucified Saviour. Lord Kingsborough says:

"She who represented 'Our Lady' (among the ancient Mexicans) had her hair tied up in the manner in which the Indian women tie and fasten their hair, and in the knot behind was inserted a small _cross_, by which it was intended to show that she was the Most Holy."[335:1]

The Mexicans had pictures of this "Heavenly G.o.ddess" on long pieces of leather, which they rolled up.[335:2]

The annunciation to the Virgin Chimalman, that she should become the mother of the Saviour Quetzalcoatle, was the subject of a Mexican hieroglyphic, and is remarkable in more than one respect. She appears to be receiving a bunch of flowers from the emba.s.sador or angel,[335:3]

which brings to mind the _lotus_, the sacred plant of the East, which is placed in the hands of the Pagan and Christian virgins.

The 25th of March, which was celebrated throughout the ancient Grecian and Roman world, in honor of "the Mother of the G.o.ds," was appointed to the honor of the Christian "Mother of G.o.d," and is now celebrated in Catholic countries, and called "Lady day."[335:4] The festival of the conception of the "Blessed Virgin Mary" is also held on the very day that the festival of the miraculous conception of the "Blessed Virgin Juno" was held among the pagans,[335:5] which, says the author of the "Perennial Calendar," "is a remarkable coincidence."[335:6] It is not such a very "remarkable coincidence" after all, when we find that, even as early as the time of St. Gregory, Bishop of Neo-Caesarea, who flourished about A. D. 240-250, Pagan festivals were changed into Christian holidays. This saint was commended by his namesake of Nyssa for changing the Pagan festivals into Christian holidays, the better to draw the heathens to the religion of Christ.[335:7]

The month of _May_, which was dedicated to the heathen Virgin Mothers, is also the month of Mary, the Christian Virgin.

Now that we have seen that the wors.h.i.+p of the Virgin and Child was universal for ages before the Christian era, we shall say a few words on the subject of pictures and images of the Madonna--so called.

The most ancient pictures and statues in Italy and other parts of Europe, of what are supposed to be representations of the Virgin _Mary_ and the infant Jesus, are _black_. The infant G.o.d, in the arms of his black mother, his eyes and drapery white, is himself perfectly black.[335:8]

G.o.dfrey Higgins, on whose authority we have stated the above, informs us that, at the time of his writing--1825-1835--images and paintings of this kind were to be seen at the cathedral of Moulins; the famous chapel of "the Virgin" at Loretto; the church of the Annunciation, the church of St. Lazaro, and the church of St. Stephens, at _Genoa_; St. Francis, at _Pisa_; the church at _Brixen_, in the Tyrol; the church at _Padua_; the church of St. Theodore, at _Munich_--in the two last of which the white of the eyes and teeth, and the studied redness of the lips, are very observable.[336:1]

"The _Bambino_[336:2] at _Rome_ is black," says Dr. Inman, "and so are the Virgin and Child at Loretto."[336:3] Many more are to be seen in Rome, and in innumerable other places; in fact, says Mr. Higgins,

"There is scarcely an old church in Italy where some remains of the wors.h.i.+p of the _black Virgin_, and _black child_, are not met with;" and that "pictures in great numbers are to be met with, where the white of the eyes, and of the teeth, and the lips a little tinged with red, like the black figures in the museum of the Indian company."[336:4]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 20]

Fig. No. 20 is a copy of the image of the Virgin of Loretto. Dr. Conyers Middleton, speaking of it, says:

"The mention of Loretto puts me in mind of the surprise that I was in at the first sight of the Holy Image, for its face is as black as a negro's. But I soon recollected, that this very circ.u.mstance of its complexion made it but resemble the more exactly the _old idols of Paganism_."[336:5]

The reason a.s.signed by the Christian priests for the images being black, is that they are made so by smoke and incense, but, we may ask, if they became black by smoke, why is it that the _white_ drapery, _white_ teeth, and the _white_ of the eyes have not changed in color? Why are the lips of a bright red color? Why, we may also ask, are the black images crowned and adorned with jewels, just as the images of the Hindoo and Egyptian virgins are represented?

When we find that the Virgin Devaki, and the Virgin Isis were represented just as these so-called _ancient Christian_ idols represent Mary, we are led to the conclusion that they are Pagan idols adopted by the Christians.

We may say, in the words of Mr. Lundy, "what jewels are doing on the neck of this poor and lowly maid, it is not easy to say."[337:1] The _crown_ is also foreign to early representations of the Madonna and Child, but not so to Devaki and Crishna,[337:2] and Isis and Horus. The _coronation_ of the Virgin Mary is unknown to primitive Christian art, but is common in Pagan art.[337:3] "It may be well," says Mr. Lundy, "to compare some of the oldest _Hindoo_ representations of the subject with the Romish, and see how complete the resemblance is;"[337:4] and Dr.

Inman says that, "the head-dress, as put on the head of the Virgin Mary, is of Grecian, Egyptian, and Indian origin."[337:5]

The whole secret of the fact of these early representations of the Virgin Mary and Jesus--so-called--being _black_, crowned, and covered with jewels, is that they are of pre-Christian origin; they are _Isis_ and _Horus_, and perhaps, in some cases, Devaki and Crishna, baptized anew.

The Egyptian "Queen of Heaven" was wors.h.i.+ped in Europe for centuries before and after the Christian Era.[337:6] Temples and statues were also erected in honor of Isis, one of which was at Bologna, in Italy.

Mr. King tells us that the Emperor Hadrian zealously strove to reanimate the forms of that old religion, whose spirit had long since pa.s.sed away, and it was under his patronage that the creed of the Pharaohs blazed up for a moment with a bright but fict.i.tious l.u.s.tre.[337:7] To this period belongs a beautiful sard, in Mr. King's collection, representing Serapis[337:8] and Isis, with the legend: "Immaculate is Our Lady Isis."[337:9]

Mr. King further tells us that:

"The '_Black Virgins_' so highly reverenced in certain French cathedrals during the long night of the middle ages, proved, when at last examined critically, basalt figures of Isis."[337:10]

And Mr. Bonwick says:

"We may be surprised that, as Europe has _Black_ Madonnas, Egypt had _Black_ images and pictures of Isis. At the same time it is a little odd that the Virgin Mary copies most honored should not only be _Black_, but have a decided _Isis cast_ of feature."[338:1]

The shrine now known as that of the "Virgin in Amadon," in France, was formerly an old Black _Venus_.[338:2]

"To this we may add," (says Dr. Inman), "that at the Abbey of Einsiedelen, on Lake Zurich, the object of adoration is an old _black doll_, dressed in gold brocade, and glittering with jewels. She is called, apparently, the Virgin of the Swiss Mountains. My friend, Mr. Newton, also tells me that he saw, over a church door at Ivrea, in Italy, twenty-nine miles from Turin, the fresco of a _Black_ Virgin and child, the former bearing a _triple crown_."[338:3]

This _triple crown_ is to be seen on the heads of Pagan G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses, especially those of the Hindoos.

Dr. Barlow says:

"The doctrine of the Mother of G.o.d was of Egyptian origin. It was brought in along with the wors.h.i.+p of the Madonna by Cyril (Bishop of Alexandria, and the Cyril of Hypatia) and the monks of Alexandria, in the fifth century. The earliest representations of the Madonna have quite a Greco-Egyptian character, and there can be little doubt that Isis nursing Horus was the origin of them all."[338:4]