At the time of Christianity’s creation, it was common to find narratives involving romantic unions between gods and mortals. These stories, far from being exclusive to Christianity, were often used to legitimize important figures and attract community adherence.
This phenomenon can be observed in various ancient cultures. Additional examples from other cultures further demonstrate this trend. In Egyptian mythology, the myth of Horus, involving Isis and Osiris, emerged around 1400-1200 BCE but retained its influence into the Ptolemaic period, approximately 327 years before the birth of Jesus. Similarly, Greek mythology from around 800 BCE includes stories of Dionysus, Hercules, and Perseus, which emphasize Zeus’s unions with mortal women. The foundation of Rome, dated to approximately 753 BCE, is attributed to Romulus and Remus, sons of Mars and the mortal Rhea Silvia, blending divine intervention with historical narrative. Closer to the birth of Jesus, the first century CE offers examples of divine-mortal relationships recorded by Flavius Josephus and seen in the Roman Imperial cult, where emperors were often considered divine or semi-divine figures. Another nearby example is the Mithraic tradition, prevalent in the Roman Empire, which included themes of miraculous births and divine salvation. This interconnected web of narratives illustrates how the idea of divine interaction with humanity was a recurring motif across eras and regions, demonstrating that the miraculous conception of Jesus was part of a broader cultural phenomenon in which divine figures legitimized historical and spiritual leaders.
To provide a more grounded and recent example of how these myths manifested in society, Flavius Josephus recounts an intriguing story that illustrates the allure and consequences of divine interaction in Roman culture.
“A love affair with a god seems to have been considered something both possible and attractive among Roman ladies at that time. Josephus tells an edifying story in that connection. There lived in Rome at the time of Tiberius a lady named Paulina, whose beauty was as great as her chastity. A rich knight, Decius Mundus, fell hopelessly in love with her, offering her 200,000 drachmas for a single night, but was refused. A freedwoman found a way, however. She had learned that the fair Paulina was a diligent worshipper of the goddess Isis, and founded her plan on that. With 40,000 drachmas she bribed the priests of the goddess to inform Paulina that the god Anubis longed for her. “The woman was glad and boasted to her friends of the great honor Anubis was paying her. She also told her husband that she had been invited by Anubis to eat and to sleep with him. The husband willingly consented, knowing his wife’s chastity. She came to the temple, and after she had dined and it was time to go to sleep, the priests put out all the lights and closed the door. Mundus, who had previously hidden in the temple, now came to her not at all unwillingly. She was his all night, for she thought he was the god. After he had had his pleasure, he left early in the morning, before the priests came into the temple, and Paulina went back to her husband and related how the god Anubis had been with her, and boasted of it to her acquaintances.” But the noble knight Mundus went so far in shamelessness as to mock the lady a few days later in the street for having given herself to him for nothing. Great indignation on the part of the crestfallen worshipper of the god; she ran post-haste to Tiberius and had the priests of Isis crucified, their temple destroyed and Mundus exiled.”
This narrative highlights how myths involving divine interventions continued to be relevant in Roman society.
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