The Problem With Identifying Gods With Each Other

Not only do Mythicists find their parallels by looking over a wide chronological range, they also cross cultures and even religions.

So for example, there may not be enough material to support the parallels just in the myths about Dionysus, there may be if we throw in the myths about Osiris.

Now, to be fair, Mythicists usually make these jumps when there are already existing connections. Herodotus notes the connection between Osiris and Dionysus and there are other identifications between Egyptian and Greek gods.

This is something that we need to be careful with. There are times when the identification is pretty clear. The Roman adoption of Greek gods is an example.

Roman gods are not just similar to Greek gods, they are the same gods. There was an actual borrowing. Jupiter, the father of Hercules is Zeus, the father of Heracles. They have the same stories.

Some ancients make these connections with other gods but with less clear cut similarity. How similar is Dionysus and Osiris? Not really. The main similarity is that both had their bodies ripped apart. But there is no parallels of Isis and Horus in Dionysus’ story.

What Herodotus is doing is not saying that Dionysus and Osiris are exactly the same. What he is doing is trying to make cultural connections. he is also trying to borrow the antiquity of Egyptian religion to lend credibility to Greek religion.

We do not have examples in ancient writings where they take two mythologies of different gods and blend them into one. The closest we get to this is Serapis, and he is a unique case.

An added complication to this is the case of Mithras. While the Roman Mithras has a religious lineage that goes to the Persian Mithra and the Indian Mitra, that doesn’t mean that Indian stories can be merged into the Roman god. Just because Mitra might have had a goddess for a mother doesn’t mean that Mithras did.

I find the identification between gods of different religions to be fascinating. I just urge caution and suggest we look at how the ancients actually used these identofications.