The film Zeitgeist begins with list of pagan gods such Horus, Attis, Krishna, Dionysus and Mithra. It goes through the list of details associated with Jesus Christ and then applies them to these pagan gods in order to create the impression that Christianity is only a copycat religion. However, viewers (whether believers or unbelievers) should be skeptical of this film, and any other such copycat claims, with the realization that there is an agenda behind them.
Moving on from it’s scholarly train wreck about alleged parallels between Jesus and Horus, it claims:
Attis, of Phyrigia, born of the virgin Nana on December 25th, crucified, placed in a tomb and after 3 days, was resurrected.
The birth of Attis on December 25th is extremely difficult to verify, though it is highly telling that it’s easy to find it repeated on “skeptical” websites.
The story of Attis varies depending on which version you choose to go with, as the source material is highly contradictory. In one, it begins when Agdistis, a hermaphroditic demon with male and female sex organs, gets castrated by gods that feared him. They disposed of his organ, and an almond tree grew where it landed. — Pausanias, the second century Greek writer, says:
There grew up from it an almond-tree with its fruit ripe, and a daughter of the river Sangarius, they say, took of the fruit and laid it in her bosom, when it at once disappeared, but she was with child. A boy was born, and exposed, but was tended by a he-goat. As he grew up his beauty was more than human, and Agdistis fell in love with him. (Description of Greece 17:17:11),
After Attis’s birth, Nana’s father ordered the child exposed so that he would die, but fortunately he was saved by the goddess Cybele and was mothered by a she-goat. He then grew to manhood and was so handsome in appearance that Agdistis and/or Cybele, the mother of the gods, fell in love with him, depending on the version.
When Attis was sent to marry the daughter of the king of Pessinos, Agdistis drove Attis insane to the point of castrating himself so that nobody else could have him. When Agdistis saw Attis’ dead body, he repented of driving him insane and made sure that his body didn’t decay. He was then reborn as an evergreen pine tree, as recounted by Strabo the historian. — In other versions, Cybele, who was jealous and refused to take Attis back, got sexually involved with women, and this drove Attis insane and he mutilated himself under a pine tree where he died. — Pausanias points out one tradition in which Attis is killed by a boar. (Description of Greece 7, 17, 10)
I will accept for argument’s sake that Nana was a virgin, as there was one disinterested academic site I had found that describes her as such. That said, any Mythicist reading this shouldn’t get too excited because, given the surrounding details of the birth of Attis, it appears to be simply incidental. I would argue that even though she herself didn’t commit a sexual act, that since the fruit she took was the product of a male sexual organ from a hermaphrodite, it would still have a sperm and egg fertilization. Frankly, I’d call Attis’s conception a result of a form of artificial insemination. Jesus, however, is a far different case because, as the Nicaean Creed says, “By the Holy Spirit, [he] was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” (Brackets, mine) –No sexual organs were involved. —As for the death of Attis, he was either castrated or gored by a wild bore. He was not crucified.
The claim that Attis was dead for three days and later resurrected seems to have its roots in the Magna Mater’s Spring Festival which lasted from the 15th of March until the 27th. — On the eighth say of the festival, a pine tree which symbolized Attis was cut down, and this was followed by three days of mourning. On the tenth day, he was burred, and then on the so-called Halaria, or the “Day of Joy” was on the eleventh day. This is cited as the resurrection day.
A.T. Fear, who contributed a chapter to the book entitled Attis and Related Cults and wrote about this very same festival, points out in the chapter entitled “Cybele and Christ“ provides useful information on this topic. Accordingly, Attis was killed and resurrected after three days during a celebration that depicts his resurrection out of a tomb. — But there is a major problem. The ceremony that Dr. Fear describes is from a major festival of the metroac cult. But later he points out that this very cult seems to have gone through changes in the attempt to offset Christianity, to ensure its survival in the market. Dr. Fear does question whether the process of changing the Attis cult was conscious, but he never even implies that Jesus was influenced by Attis. He says that the cult either mutated or that it responded to Christianity. He also dates the emphasis of the celebration of Attis’ “resurrection” to the fourth century A.D. (Pages 39, 44)
According to Michele Renee Salzman, the three days of mourning were introduced during Emperor Claudius’ reign which was from 41 to 54 AD. (On Roman Time, pg. 165) Even though this is close to the time of Christ, it is afterwards. A skeptical response could be that the gospels are usually dated afterwards, so therefore it could still have happened….to which I would reply that St. Paul gives a creed which mentions the three days (1 Corinthians 15:3,8), and that scholars popularly have dated it to about between three to eight years after the death of Jesus. (Habermas, pages 152, 157). If the crucifixion was in 33 A.D., and if St. Paul received between three to eight years later, that places it between 36 to 41, either seven years before or to the first year of Claudius.
Yes, I know St. Paul wrote his epistle in the 50s, but unless he was innovating, which is highly unlikely, the creed existed before. However, this also depends on the time St. Paul received the creed. Even if he received it on the minimum year (which still makes imitation unlikely because of the time constraint), Gary Habermas points out that non-Pauline phrases which indicate that St. Paul isn’t making it up. This means it existed previously, in other words, definitely before 41.
I will also point out that we know from Suetonius that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome around 49 A.D., (Claudius 25), and we also know from Acts 18:1, 3 that at least some Jewish Christians were among them, namely Aquila and Pricilla. So it wouldn’t be out of the question to suggest that Claudius may have heard of the three day concept from Christians, not vice versa. If this detail was copied at all, it cannot be completely ruled out that it was done by the emperor himself. But this is speculation, and I will err on the side of assuming none happened one way or the other.
Also, the apparent resurrection day was was introduced during the reign of Antoninus Pius, between 130 to 161 AD. The obvious problem with supposing that this was an inspiration for Christianity was that these aspects of the festival are post-Christian.
So, my conclusion here is that Zeitgeist’s claims about Attis are only marginally better that those made about Horus. His death in both versions of his life differ from the crucifixion of Jesus, and the emphasis on the three day death and resurrection of Attis are from the post-Christian era, not from before as would be expected if Christianity were influence by the Attis cult. — Academic correctness on Peter Joseph’s part (the producer of Zeitgeist) seems to be secondary to his Anti-Christian agenda.
Refences and Recommended Links:
Description of Greece, Pausanius
CATULLUS. “ATTIS” (#63), Department of Classics: Monmouth College
The Great Mother from Asia Minor to Rome
Hilaria, Encyclopedia Britannica
Cybele, Attis & Related Cults, Edited by Eugene N. Lane. The paper “Cybele and Christ” contribution by A. T. Fear.
The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ, by Gary R. Habermas.
- In case someone misses the point, my speculation based somewhat on the date given for the creed St. Paul cites in 1 Corinthians 15 in relation to Claudius perhaps obtaining an idea of a concept of three days from the Christians is simply to show that it can sometimes be just as easy to just make the claim that pagans were who imitated Christians instead, not to say that it was indeed what occurred in this particular case.
- Another reason for the date of the Creed is that it is thought to have been given to St. Paul when he met with St. Peter when he fled from Demascus. (Galatians 1:17,18,19). St. Paul says that he fled from the governor under King Aretas IV (2 Corinthians 11:32) who is usually dated to have died in A.D. 40, which would also push St. Paul’s reception of the creed yet earlier than the reign of Claudius.
On Roman Time, by Michele Renee Salzman.
- Salzman’s work is interesting in that he cites an inscription as evidence of interaction between the Attis cult and Christianity and a view of salvation (Pg. 168). A Mythicist may get excited at this, but the inscription itself is dated to 376 A.D. (the late 4th century) He doesn’t indicate the direction of the interaction, and, as such, I see no reason to suppose his work to be in contradiction to that of A.T. Fear. Also, he mentions alters dating to 295, still too early no matter how one may spin it.
So, what do we know about Cybele/Attis and the taurobolium?, by Glenn Miller of The Christian Thinktank
Attis, Cybele, and Jesus, by James Patrick Holding
Da Pacem Domine 