mens_sana

I find both to be mythological — which means there is something wrong with the way you are formulating your problem.

aa5874

I actually think both are mythological, too. I am just trying to figure out how an HJer cannot come to the same conclusion.

Ben C Smith

I will probably regret getting into this at all, but what did Augustus look like, seeing that his father was a snake and his mother was a human?

Ben.

Amaleq13

Which story about Zeus depicts him interacting with specific historical figures in a specific historical timeframe?

spin

Is this a negative comment about Gaius Octavius? :angel:


pisn

Huon

During the Antiquity, some people thought that the gods (Greek or non-Greek) were mythological figures, but if they were considered "atheists" they were in danger. See the example of Socrates, who was not an atheist but was obliged to drink hemlock, because he was not politically correct.

The greco-roman gods were declared mythological figures by the Jews and the Christians at the beginning of the common era, but there still were pagans in West Europe until the end of the Vth century. The Norman invaders (french and irish point of view ) of the VIIth-Xth century were pagans.
Zeus has fathered many childs from many different women, which is humanly possible, but these children belong to the category of semi-gods.
It is a question of time and civilisation. Today, almost nobody believes in a sea god or sea goddess, and a strong minority, or even a clear majority, believes in a god, son of another aspect of god.
There are at least three sorts of HJers :
1 - these who believe in JC, and accept all the miracles and stories about JC,
2 - these who believe in JC, and still consider that some stories about him are dubious,
3 - these who do not believe in JC as a god, consider that almost what is said about him is mythology, and still can accept the idea that a man, Jehoshuah (?) by name, created a small jewish sect, and was indirectly at the origin of Christianity.

Huon

aa5874, possibly JC is a mythological figure, mentioned only in the NT, and known only through the religious assertions of Christian believers. But there are some other figures who could be partially or totally unhistorical (anhistorical ?) : Peter, Paul, James, the apostles, Mark, Luke, Matthew, the many Johns. However, Christianity existed, at least during the second century. Where is the frontier between purely mythological figures, and possibly/probably historical figures, who have been loaded with myths, and also credible stories, describing very small events which happened or did not happen ?

Of course, an answer is : Peter, Paul, James, the apostles, Mark, Luke, Matthew, the many Johns, are not the sons of god. But Peter at least, performed miracles.

mountainman

What elements of physical evidential consideration
would people tender in support of this inference?

Constantine's Bible?
What else external thereto?

mountainman

Hi aa5874 dude,

I am at present an FJer, who is attempting to research the historical
invention of the new and strange Roman religious order under the
malevolent despot bullneck (c.312-325CE), yet I believe I can shed
some light on your perplexity.

Take a look at the entity called Apollonius of Tyana,
given honorable mention by our dear friend Eusebius.

In a number of earlier threads entitled:
comparitive historicity (Apollonius of Tyana c.f. Jesus of Nazareth)
H I S T O R I C I T Y - Can it be reduced to a percentage value?
the concept of historicity is discussed.

Although you use the term in this thread, you yourself have not
engineered any mechanism whereby the defintion of the term
historicity is explored and developed with example figures. This
needs to be approached and resolved in an objective manner
that is amenable to all parties (or the consensus) IMO.

aa5874

Can tell you me which historian recorded, as true, that the father of Augustus was a snake? And also which historian recorded that the mother of Augustus verified that the snake is his father?

This is the type of information that I been have looking for to lend support to the HJ position.