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1.Mithra was born in a cave on the 25th of December. He was born of a Virgin. He traveled far and wide as a teacher and illuminate of men. He slew the Bull (symbol of the Earth which the sunlight fructifies). His great festivals were the winter solstice and the spring equinox (Christmas and Easter). He had twelve companions or disciples (the twelve months). He was buried in a tomb, from which he rose again, and his resurrection was celebrated yearly with great rejoicing. He was called Savior and Mediator, and sometimes figured as a Lamb. A sacramental feasts in remembrance of him were held by his followers. This legend is apparently partly astronomical and partly vegetational. The birth feast of Mithra was held in Rome on the 8th day before the 1st of January, being also the day of the Circassian games, which were sacred to the Sun . This at any rate was reported by his later disciples.

2.Osiris was born (according to Plutarch) on the 361st day of the year. He was a great traveler. As King of Egypt he taught men civil arts and "tamed them by music and gentleness, not of force of arms". He was the discoverer of corn and wine. He was betrayed by Typhon, the power of darkness and slain and dismembered. "This happened on the 17th of the month Athyr when the sun enters into the Scorpion (the sign of the Zodiac which indicates the oncoming of Winter), according to Plutarch. His body was placed in a box, but on the 19th came again to life and an image placed in a coffin was brought out before the worshipers and saluted with glad cries of "Osiris is risen". "His sufferings, his death and his resurrection were enacted year by year in a great mystery -play at Abydos".

3.Vegetation myth of Adonis or Tammuz, the Syrian God of vegetation was a very beautiful youth born of a Virgin (Nature) and so beautiful that Venus and Proserpine (the Goddesses of the Upper and Underworlds) both fell in love with him. To reconcile their claim upon him, it was agreed that he should spend half the year (summer) in the upper world, and the winter half with Proserpine below. He was killed by a board (Typhon) in the autumn. Every year the maidens 'wept for Adonis'. In a spring a festival of his resurrection was held, the women set out to seek him, and having found the corpse and placed it in a coffin or hollow tree and performed wild rites and lamentations, followed by even wilder rejoicings over his resurrection. At Aphaca in the North of Syria and halfway between

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