again as Ram, and so also Astarte, and Jupiter Ammon, and
it is this same animal that became the symbol of Jesus--the Lamb of God.
The use of the Lamb as His symbol, often leaning on a cross, is common
in the sculptures of the catacombs. On this Williamson says: "In the
course of time the Lamb was represented on the cross, but it was not
until the sixth synod of Constantinople, held about the year 680, that
it was ordained that instead of the ancient symbol, the figure of a
_man_ fastened to a cross should be represented. This canon was
confirmed by Pope Adrian I."[184] The very ancient Pisces is also
assigned to Jesus, and He is thus pictured in the catacombs.

The death and resurrection of the Solar Hero at or about the vernal
equinox is as wide-spread as his birth at the winter solstice. Osiris
was then slain by Typhon, and He is pictured on the circle of the
horizon, with outstretched arms, as if crucified--a posture originally
of benediction, not of suffering. The death of Tammuz was annually
bewailed at the spring equinox in Babylonia and Syria, as were Adonis in
Syria and Greece, and Attis in Phrygia, pictured "as a man fastened with
a lamb at the foot."[185] Mithras' death was similarly celebrated in
Persia, and that of Bacchus and Dionysius--one and the same--in Greece.
In Mexico the same idea re-appears, as usual accompanied with the cross.

In all these cases the mourning for the death is immediately followed by
the rejoicing over the resurrection, and on this it is interesting to
notice that the name of Easter has been traced to the virgin-mother of
the slain Tammuz, Ishtar.[186]

It is interesting also to notice that the fast preceding the death at
the vernal equinox,--the modern Lent--is found in Mexico, Egypt, Persia,
Babylon, Assyria, Asia Minor, in some cases definitely for forty
days.[187]

In the Pseudo-Mysteries, the Sun-God story was dramatised, and in the
ancient Mysteries it was lived by the Initiate, and hence the solar
"myths" and the great facts of Initiation became interwoven together.
Hence when the Master Christ became the Christ of the Mysteries, the
legends of the older Heroes of those Mysteries gathered round Him, and
the stories were again recited with the latest divine Teacher as the
representative of the Logos in the Sun. Then the festival of His
nativity became the immemorial date when the Sun was born of the Virgin,
when the midnight sky was filled with the rejoicing hosts of the