Inspired by religion discussion on Main

[sistermagpie]

> > Magpie:
> > I believe what I had read was that Horus eventually incorporated or merged with sun gods or a sun god. But I also heard there was a separate story that was very like Jesus. But even then they weren't the same story. There were always differences. It's funny which ones pop out at us when we read. Like I probably wouldn't make any distinction between a god murdered and a personal sacrifice since I'd probably think of it more like a ritual with a certain level of agreement each time.
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Well, could you please link to the version that you have read? Because really it will totally satisfy my criteria, if he died for the good of people even if not for the same good as Jesus did.

Magpie:
Unfortunately, I can't remember where I originally heard it. A quick google search brings up this site:

http://books.google.com/books?id=dmLgeHTmp7cC&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123&dq=gods+who+sacrificed+themselves+for+humans+horus&source=bl&ots=f7csDO4fmW&sig=zZrWEEVqiaDIWiOGBMIzQdbQHCI&hl=en&ei=LQPiSYmGE6frlQfnxc3gDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5b.htm

Though I also found a site that said pretty much every claim about Horus doing anything that paralleled anything Jesus did is completely false. It looks like people have claimed the Jesus story was simply a copycat of the Horus myth, which sounds pretty unbelievable to me. 

My very uneducated opinion is that I don't believe for a second that nobody ever heard myths about saviors--human/divine or totally one or the other--who sacrificed themselves for the good of others, but that there were things unique to all of them. Iow, there was no proto-Christianity before there was Christianity.

I would absolutely consider Prometheus to fit this criteria. He's the champion of mortals, committed a crime for us and took his punishment for it--a punishment that couldn't possibly have been any big surprise. He risked the wrath of Zeus to give pepole the means of life. Go Prometheus!

-m