re: #171 Standard, Yet Pretty

That’s a frequent mythicist assertion, but little evidence seems to exist for it. and what exists shows a possibility of borrowing, not the fact.

It was mostly borrowed from Mythraism which was popular in Rome at the time. The Vatican was even built on the ruins of a mythratic temple. As I recall there’s a mythratic inscription from the temple saying “drink my blood and eat my flesh” (a reference to mythratic sacrifice/ritual meal) which still exists on Vatican grounds.