ds upon
earth. A passage from Menaut's translation of the great inscription of
Nebuchadnezzar, reads thus:

"I am Nabu-kuder-usur . . . the first-born son of Nebu-pal-usur,
King of Babylon. The god _Bel_ himself created me, the god
_Marduk_ engendered me, and deposited himself the germ of my
life in the womb of my mother."[123:5]

In the life of _Zoroaster_, the law-giver of the _Persians_, the common
mythos is apparent. He was born in innocence, of an immaculate
conception, of a ray of the Divine Reason. As soon as he was born the
glory from his body enlightened the whole room.[123:6] Plato informs us
that Zoroaster was said to be "the son of Oromasdes, which was the name
the Persians gave to the Supreme God"[123:7]--therefore he was the _Son
of God_.

From the East we will turn to the West, and shall find that many of the
ancient heroes of Grecian and Roman mythology were regarded as of divine
origin, were represented as men, possessed of god-like form, strength
and courage; were believed to have lived on earth in the remote, dim
ages of the nation's history; to have been occupied in their life-time
with thrilling adventures and extraordinary services in the cause of
human civilization, and to have been after death in some cases
translated to a life among the gods, and entitled to sacrifice and
worship. In the hospitable Pantheon of the Greeks and Romans, a niche
was always in readiness for every new divinity who could produce
respectable credentials.

The Christian Father Justin Martyr, says:

"It having reached the Devil's ears that the prophets had
foretold the coming of Christ (_the Son of God_), he set the
_Heathen Poets_ to bring forward a great many who should be
called _the sons of Jove_. The Devil laying his scheme in
this, to get men to imagine that the _true_ history of Christ
was of the same character as the _prodigious fables_ related
of the sons of Jove."

Among these "sons of Jove" may be mentioned the following: _Hercules_
was the son of Jupiter by a mortal mother, Alcmene, Queen of
Thebes.[124:1] Zeus, the god of gods, spake of Hercules, his son, and
said: "This day shall a child be born of the race of Perseus, who shall
be the mightiest of the sons of men."[124:2]

_Bacchus_ was the son of Jupiter and a mortal mother, Semele, daughter
of Kadmus, King of Thebes.[124:3] As Montfaucon says, "It is the son of
Jupiter and Semele which the po