[maryz]

You do realize, of course, that the same Golden Bough crowd who first attributed teachings on Mary to pagan analogues, also -- even pre-eminently -- took Christ as merely another corn god/harvest god who died and rose again (these were pretty much universal in paganism)? Unclear why you're so willing to accept the minor one and reject the major one.

[Kolokotronis]

"You do realize, of course, that the same Golden Bough crowd who first attributed teachings on Mary to pagan analogues, also -- even pre-eminently -- took Christ as merely another corn god/harvest god who died and rose again (these were pretty much universal in paganism)?"

There's another way to look at such things. The Fathers called these reoccurring pagan concepts "Σπόροι του Θεού", "seeds of God", the idea being that throughout human history and across cultures we see these sorts of "divine" actors because God planted these seeds of understanding among people so that all humanity, not just Jews or Greeks or other Hellenes, would in due course be ready and able to accept the Incarnation.