With the character of the deity we know as Adonis, or Attis, we are
now thoroughly familiar. In the first instance it seems to be the
human element in the myth which is most insisted upon. He is a
mortal youth beloved by a great goddess; only after his tragic death
does he appear to assume divine attributes, and, alike in death and
resurrection, become the accepted personification of natural energies.
Baudissin, Adonis und Esmun, remarks that Adonis belongs to "einer
Klasse von Wesen sehr unbestimmter Art der wohl uber den Menschen aber
unter den grossen Gottern stehen, und weniger Individualitat besitzen
als diese."[1] Such a criticism applies of course equally to Attis.
Mithra, on the other hand, occupies an entirely different position.
Cumont, in his Mysteres de Mithra, thus describes him; he is
"le genie de la lumiere celeste. Il n'est ni le soleil, ni la lune,
ni les etoiles, mais a l'aide de ces mille oreilles, et de ces deux
milles yeux, il surveille le monde."[2]
His beneficent activities might seem to afford a meeting ground with
the Vegetation goods--"Il donne l'accroissement, il donne l'abondance,
il donne les troupeaux, il donne la progeniture et la vie."[3]
This summary may aptly be compared with the lament for Tammuz,
quoted in Chapter 3.
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