While most if not all of my readers are familiar with the story of Christ’s resurrection following his crucifixion, many of you may not be aware that there are a number of other religious traditions that hold that their deities came back from the dead.
Here are a few examples from different religious traditions:
The Greek Tradition: A young Dionysus (Bacchus) was lured from safety by the Titans with wondrous toys. Upon seizing Dionysus, the Titans murdered him, ripped him asunder, and cooked his flesh. Upon smelling the cooking, Zeus went to investigate. Discovering the source of the Titan’s culinary delights, he slew them. Zeus then resurrected Dionysus.
*in some forms of this legend, humanity is also created in this act, but this is likely a latter day attempt by followers of Dionysus to inflate his importance*
The Zoroastrian Tradition: In this faith, we are ALL the recipients of a resurrection. Humanity and this world is a gigantic trap to lure in evil. When evil is destroyed, Ahura Mazda (the God of Good) will resurrect all mankind and grant them immortality. Presumably there will be a party afterwords. As the host deity is Persian, I suggest you not eat the hors d’oeuvres unless you have a penchant for peacock eye.
The Egyptian Tradition: In this faith, there is a great amount of resurrection, for gods and mortals! The most famous example is that of the god Osiris. Osiris was murdered by his brother Set, and his body was chopped up (even his penis!) and scattered around the Kingdom of Egypt. Only the perseverance of Osiris’ wife Isis in collecting every bit of his body allowed Osiris to be resurrected. Luckily for him, he was a god, his wife was a god, and that seems to have been enough. It’s good to be divine! Minus the body mutilation stuff…
The Aztec Tradition: This one is a bit tricky. The god Quetzalcoatl is often associated with the man Quetzalcoatl. The logical conclusion would be that man and god are synonymous or that man was named for god. We’re talking religion though, so logic is irrelevant. The god (or man, it’s hard to tell) Quetzalcoatl was exiled due to the trickery of his rival god Tezcatlipoca. Something about making him think he was getting old and ol’ Quetzalcoatl having sex with a lady of questionable quality. Sounds like a midlife crisis to me… but according to the legend, Quetzalcoatl would return from his death/exile one day, and end the sacrifice of blood to the gods.
While the Aztecs didn’t get Quetzalcoatl to come back, they did get Cortez. He DID end blood sacrifice too! So, this one actually came true. Kind of. Score one for prophecy!
The Norse Tradition: In Nordic mythology, the god Baldur the Beautiful (son of Odin and Frigga) was made invincible by his mother from all things, save one (there’s always gotta be a catch!). His weakness was a small plant called mistletoe (that name ring a bell?) and his adopted cousin Loki thought it would be a great prank to fasten a dart from the mistletoe and kill Baldur with it. A laugh riot that Loki!
Well, his mother was quite miffed and saddened that her son was dead, as mothers usually are. So, Frigga marched down to see the Norse goddess of death, Hel. After much pleading, Hel agreed to release Baldur if all beings mortal and immortal would weep for Baldur. So they alllll wept. Except for Loki (who happens to be Hel’s husband), who for some reason decided to accomplish his not weeping by transforming into an old lady.
Now, you might be thinking: “Wait a minute! That’s a god ALMOST coming back from the dead!” Well believe you me, it gets better. The Ragnarok happens (or hasn’t happened, or will happen… time is relative in the Norse faith) and Loki gets killed, as well as most of the gods and most everyone else. Since Loki is dead, and everyone’s probably crying anyway because of the near end of the world, Baldur comes back! Paradise on earth ensues, peace forever, immortality for all, it’s good stuff.
So, if you see Loki… make him cry. With a bit of creative thinking, maybe we can have paradise without a catastrophic war! Then all of us, Loki included can sing Kumbaya as lead by Baldur the Beautiful.
Babylonian Tradition: Tammuz the Babylonian god of Vegetation died once a year and was in turn resurrected by his wife Ishtar a Goddess of Fertility. The time in between resurrections was winter, meaning that his death was likely a way of attempting to explain why things got cold and stopped growing once a year. Knowing how weather is in Iraq, those wimpy Babylonians didn’t know how good they had it!
Cult of Mithras: This one’s a trick, Mithraic traditions hold nothing of Mithras’ resurrection or dying at all. He was a supreme friggin’ god! He moved around the cosmos. You don’t kill the guy that moves around the cosmos! Bad things happen when that happens…
Conclusion: Well, here are all the gods lined up equally in their dying and resurrecting. It can be said that when all gods are equal, all gods are equally insignificant, but you can be the judge of that. Open up your heart and take home one of these snuggly wuggly supernatural beings free of charge! Baldur’s looking lonely, and no one’s wanted to play with poor Osiris in centuries.
Till next time, hope you learned something!
