Dying-and-rising deity
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In comparative mythology, the related motifs of a dying god and of a dying-and-rising god (also known as a death-rebirth-deity) have appeared in diverse cultures.
The category life-death-rebirth deity also known as a "dying-and-rising" or "Resurrection" deity is a convenient means of classifying the many divinities in world mythology or religion who are born, suffer death, an eclipse, or other death-like experience, pass a phase in the underworld among the dead, and are subsequently reborn, in either a literal or symbolic sense.
Male deities among such figures might include Osiris, Adonis, Tammuz, phoenix, Jesus, Baldur, and Odin.
Female deities who passed into the kingdom of death and returned include Inanna (also known as Ishtar) whose cult dates to 4000 BC and Persephone, the central figure of the Eleusinian Mysteries, whose cult may date to 1700 BC as the unnamed goddess worshiped in Crete.
Historically, this category has been most strongly associated with two different approaches to the study of religion. The first, which might be labelled the "naturalist" approach, seeks to explain such myths in terms of parallels with natural processes. The second, which might be labelled the "internal" approach, seeks to explain such myths in terms of individual spiritual transformation.
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Dying deities
- Akkadian mythology
- Arabian mythology
- Aztec mythology
- Canaanite mythology
- Christian mythology
- Dacian mythology
- Egyptian mythology
- Etruscan mythology
- Atunis (also known as "Adonis" in Greek)
- Finnic mythology
- Greek mythology
- Hindu mythology
- Khoikhoi mythology
- Norse mythology
- Phrygian mythology
- Religion in ancient Rome
- Slavic mythology
- Sumerian mythology
- Yoruba mythology
Rising deities
These deities, rise after death.
See also
- Comparative mythology
- Descent to the underworld
- Greco-Roman mysteries
- John Barleycorn
- List of dying or rising deities
- List of virgin births
- Mother goddess
- Mytheme
- Osiris-Dionysus
- Ouroboros
- Psychology of religion
- Resurrection
- Sparagmos
- Vegetation deity