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Short
Answer: No.
Long Answer:
Church Fathers denounce the idea that the
Virgin Mary was a Goddess transformed into the
Christian story.
However, there are striking
similarities in the relationship between mother and
crucified son and with the old myths of the ancient Middle
East: Osiris, Thammuz and Adonis, for example. Tales in
which goodly young men are put to death in their prime,
but are resurrected in the realms beyond death to await
their faithful followers. Osiris who allegedly was
dismembered by Set, mourned by Isis. Thammuz who too died
in the prime of manhood went down to the Underworld,
mourned by Ishtar; and Adonis too, killed young then
mourned by Venus.
The
death and resurrection of a male seems a common myth
long before the coming of Christianity. But scholars link these tales
to ancient harvest rites
symbolising how the corn is cut down in its prime and
consumed as the spirit of the harvest returned to the
realms below.
Ishtar,
Isis and Venus were Goddess lovers, not the God's mother,
but their stories appear to have been reworked for the
redemption of Eve, not the fertility of the earth. Though
the eating of the flesh and drinking of blood in the form
of bread and wine does suggest
communion with the harvest rituals.
The
Virgin Goddess
Among
the most striking similarity is that with the Virgin
Goddess Vesta, or Hestia as the ancient Greeks knew her.
The Romans established a shrine to her in the capital of
every colony and consecrated a flame in her honour. Vesta,
like her flame, remained pure, a virgin. The famous Vestal
Virgins were founded to tend her sacred fire, said to be
symbolic of the flame of life that Vesta - the Life
Giver - kept alight in every human heart.
For over a thousand years the Vestals'
responsibility was to keep the sacred flame alight, never
to let it go out, for if that were to happen, then catastrophe
would follow. The Vestal Virgins led the many festivals
for the Virgin Goddess and contemporary accounts describe
these festivities as beautiful and immensely
popular, with long processions through the streets where
people carried her statue. As so many do with Mary today.
Theodosius
the Great, the Christian Emperor of Byzantium outlawed the
worship of Vesta and then ordered an end to the great
Olympic Games.
Thus both flames were extinguished.
History records the era that followed
as: The Dark Ages.
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