the Macedonian dynasty in
Egypt.[127:5]

_Cyrus_, King of Persia, was believed to have been of _divine origin_;
he was called the "_Christ_," or the "_Anointed_ of God," and God's
messenger.[127:6]

_Plato_, born at Athens 429 B. C., was believed to have been the son of
God by a _pure virgin_, called Perictione.[127:7]

The reputed father of Plato (Aris) was admonished in a dream to respect
the person of his wife until after the birth of the child of which she
was then pregnant by a god.[127:8]

Prof. Draper, speaking of Plato, says:

"The Egyptian disciples of Plato would have looked with anger
on those who rejected the legend that Perictione, the mother
of that great philosopher, a pure virgin, had suffered an
immaculate conception through the influences of (the god)
Apollo, _and that the god had declared to Aris, to whom she
was betrothed, the parentage of the child_."[128:1]

Here we have the legend of the angel appearing to Joseph--to whom Mary
was betrothed--believed in by the disciples of Plato for centuries
before the time of Christ Jesus, the only difference being that the
virgin's name was Perictione instead of Mary, and the confiding
husband's name Aris instead of Joseph. We have another similar case.

The mother of _Apollonius_ (B. C. 41) was informed by a god, who
appeared to her, _that he himself should be born of her_.[128:2] In the
course of time she gave birth to Apollonius, who became a great
religious teacher, and performer of miracles.[128:3]

_Pythagoras_, born about 570 B. C., had divine honors paid him. His
mother is said to have become impregnated through a _spectre_, or Holy
Ghost. His father--or foster-father--was also informed that his wife
should bring forth a son, who should be a benefactor to mankind.[128:4]

_AEsculapius_, the great performer of miracles,[128:5] was supposed to be
the son of a god and a worldly mother, Coronis. The Messenians, who
consulted the oracle at Delphi to know where AEsculapius was born, and of
what parents, were informed that a god was his father, Coronis his
mother, and that their son was born at Epidaurus.

Coronis, to conceal her pregnancy from her father, went to Epidaurus,
where she was delivered of a son, whom she exposed on a mountain.
Aristhenes, a goat-herd, going in search of a goat and a dog missing
from his fold, discovered the child, whom he would have carried to his
home, had he not, upon approaching to lift