Mother and child parallel
Isis nursing Horus, (Louvre)
Some believe that the close maternal relationship between Isis and Horus presented in ancient Egyptian imagery were incorporated into later Christian iconography.[32][33] In particular, the depictions of Mary and Jesus from Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Black Madonna of Częstochowa share many similarities to extant ancient Egyptian art depictions of Horus and Isis.[34] Egyptologist Erik Hornung wrote that "There was an obvious analogy between the Horus child and the baby Jesus and the care they received from their sacred mothers; long before Christianity, Isis had borne the epithet 'mother of the god.'"[35]
Child deities
[36] Shed is an Ancient Egyptian deity, popularly called, 'the savior' and is first recorded after the Amarna Period.[37] Representing the concept of salvation he is identified with Horus and in particular "Horus the Child".[38] Rather than have formal worship in a temple or as an official cult, he appears to have been a god that ordinary Egyptians looked to save them from illness, misfortune or danger.[39] He is shown on the Metternich Stela as vanquishing danger in the form of a serpent, a scorpion and a crocodile.[40]
The rise of "Savior" names in personal piety during the Amarna period has been interpreted as the popular response of ordinary people to the attempts by Akhenaten to proscribe the ancient religion of Egypt. Shed has also been viewed as a form of the ancient Semitic god Reshef.[41] Shed can be depicted as a young prince overcoming snakes, lions and crocodiles.[42]
Shed has been viewed as a form of savior, a helper for those in need when state authority or the Kings help is wanting. The increased reliance on divine assistance could even extend to saving a person from the underworld, even to providing a substitute, and lengthening a person's time in this world. In the New Kingdom Shed "the savior" is addressed on countless stelae by people searching or praising him for help.[43]
Mithras
Further information: Mithraism#Mithraism and Christianity
The worship of Mithras was widespread in much of the Roman Empire from the mid-2nd century CE.[44][45] The Mithra cult in the Roman Empire was a syncretism of different religious motifs, centered on the god Mithras who emerges from a rock. Its closest similarities to Christianity are the story of the slaying of the bull by Mithras; a bull is captured and killed by Mithras when he plunges a knife into it and from the dead bull grain and plants are produced, that symbolize life. Mithras was a solar deity, closely associated with the Roman Sol Invictus.[46]
