The Portrait of Mary and her Son have a
comparison on Pagan Gods of Isis and her Son
Horus.
The cult of Serapis was to have sweeping
success throughout Greece and Asia Minor,
especially in Rome, where it became the most
popular religion. There was a Serapis temple in
Rome as early as 105 BC.
Initiation into the
Serapis cult included the rite of baptism, and Sir Alan Gardiner, the British Egyptologist, argued in
the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology in 1950 that
Egyptian baptism should be seen as analogous
to Christian baptism, of which he commented: "In
both cases a symbolic cleansing by means of
water serves as initiation into a properly legitimated religious life." The cults of Serapis
and Isis did not merely survive the emergence of
Christianity, but in the 2nd century AD actually
increased in popularity. Serapis and Christ
existed side-by-side and were frequently seen as
interchangeable. Some early Christians made no distinction between Christ and
Serapis and frequently worshipped both, while
paintings of Isis with her son Horus became
identified by early Christians as portraits of Mary
with her son Jesus.
The rite of baptism, part of
the initiation ceremony of the Serapis cult, was also adopted by the Church as part of its
initiation ceremony.
