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• He was considered the "Only Begotten Son," "Savior," "Redeemer," "Sin Bearer," "Anointed One," and the "Alpha and Omega. "41

• He was identified with the Ram or Lamb.42

• His sacrificial title of "Dendrites" or "Young Man of the Tree" intimates he was hung on a tree or crucified.43

As Walker says, Dionysus was "a prototype of Christ with a cult center at Jerusalem," where during the 19t century BCE he was worshipped by Jews, as noted. Dionysus/Bacchus's symbol was "IHS" or "IES," which became "Iesus" or "Jesus." The "IHS" is used to this day in Catholic liturgy and iconography. As Roberts relates:

"IES," the Phoenician name of the god Bacchus or the Sun personified; the etymological meaning of that title being, "I" the one and "es" the fire or light; or taken as one word "ies" the one light. This is none other than the light of St. John's gospel; and this name is to be found everywhere on Christian altars, both Protestant and Catholic, thus clearly showing that the Christian religion is but a modification of Oriental Sun Worship, attributed to Zoroaster. The same letters IHS, which are in the Greek text, are read by Christians "Jes," and the Roman Christian priesthood added the terminus "us".. .

And Larson states:

Dionysus became the universal savior-god of the ancient world. And there has never been another like unto him: the first to whom his attributes were accredited, we call Osiris; with the death of paganism, his central characteristics were assumed by Jesus Christ.44

Like Jesus the Nazarene, Dionysus is the "true Vine," and the grape imagery is important to both cults. As Walker says:

[The grapevine] was preeminently an incarnation of Dionysus, or Bacchus, in his role of sacrificial savior. His immolation was likened to the pruning of the vine, necessary to its seasonal rebirth. . . . In Syria and Babylon the vine was a sacred tree of life. Old Testament writers adopted it as an emblem of the chosen people, and New Testament writers made it an emblem of Christ (John 15:1, 5). When accompanied by wheat sheaves in sacred art, the vine signified the blood (wine) and body (bread) of the savior: an iconography that began in paganism and was soon adopted by early Christianity.45

On Crete, Dionysus was called Iasius,4b a title also of the godman of the Orphic mysteries of Samothrace, who has been identified with Dionysus and who was promulgated by the "apostle" Orpheus in his missionary work as he took the same route later purportedly traveled by Paul. lasius, Iesius or Jason is in fact equivalent to Jesus.

Hercules/ Heracles

Heracles, or Hercules, is well-known for his 12 labors, which correspond to the 12 signs of the zodiac and are demonstrations of his role as "Savior." Born of a virgin, he was also known as the "Only Begotten" and "Universal Word."47 The virgin mother of Heracles/ Hercules was called Alcmene, whose name in Hebrew was "almah," the "moon-woman," who, as Walker says, "mothered sacred kings in the Jerusalem cult, and whose title was bestowed upon the virgin Mary. Parallels between earlier myths of Alcmene and later myths of Mary were too numerous to be coincidental. Alcmene's husband refrained from sexual relations with her until her god-begotten child was born."48

Walker also recounts the story of Hercules and its relationship to the Christian tale:

His Twelve Labors symbolized the sun's passage through the twelve houses of the zodiac ... After his course was finished, he was clothed in the scarlet robe of the sacred king and killed, to be resurrected as his own divine father, to ascend to heaven ... The influence of Heracles's cult on early Christianity can hardly be overestimated. St. Paul's home town of Tarsus regularly reenacted the sacred drama of Heracles's death by fire, which is why Paul assumed there was great saving virtue in giving one's body to be burned, like the Heracles-martyrs (1 Corinthians 13:3). Heracles was called Prince of Peace, Sun of Righteousness, Light of the World. He was the same sun greeted daily by the Persians and Essenes