History Main / HijackedByJesus

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2011'': The Greek gods traditionally didn't much resemble their mythological versions in the ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' mythos but the New 52 merrily strapped a bunch of Christian terms and iconography to them. For a few examples Hades--both the realm and the god--is referred to as Hell, despite the term originating in ''Norse'' mythology before being borrowed by Christians, Olympus is called Heaven unironically despite being far from any kind of paradise no matter who is currently on the throne, and the First Born wears a crown of cruel thorns and is treated as a kind of Anti-Christ figure.

*** Odin's self-sacrifice to gain knowledge (by hanging himself on the World Tree for nine days) bears a striking resemblance to the Crucifixion. In particular, note that Odin sacrificed himself ''to himself'' -- and since conventional Christianity interprets Jesus as an incarnation of God, the Crucifixion thus entailed the Christian God likewise sacrificing himself to himself. However, there are no reported Viking activities in the area of Israel at the time, and all reported versions of that myth are from ''after'' Christianity became a thing in Europe, so it may also be a case of the Vikings trying to hijack Christian stories, instead of the other way. It may also be just a coincidence: deaths by hanging were a common punishment in real life, same as crucifixion, but the part of the god having his side torn by a pike seems too specific and suggests an influence in either way.

* [[Disney/{{Hercules}} Disney's adaptation]] of ''[[Myth/GreekMythology Hercules]]'', featuring Hades as {{Satan}}, Zeus as {{God}} (and a BumblingDad), Hercules as Jesus, and the other Olympians as angels. [[{{Bowdlerise}} To protect family values]], Zeus's "special relationship" with mortal women was ignored, making Hercules a son of ''Hera'', and poisoned (by Hades, of course) with mortality. This moves Hera out of her original ClingyJealousGirl and BigBad roles in the original myths. Interestingly enough, the movie does nothing to rectify Hera's status as Zeus's [[BrotherSisterIncest sister]], however, outside of just not mentioning it. Hades was one of the few Greek Gods who ''didn't'' routinely screw with mortals or curse them, and could even be convinced to help them (Orpheus). Granted, kidnapping Persephone wasn't very nice, but that's probably the worst thing he ever did. Moreover, he ''was'' genuinely in love with her and gave her a relatively happy matrimony, which is more than most other male gods of his level can boast of. (It was also a deal with Zeus as a way of compensating for him getting the short end of the deal, being in charge of the underworld instead of sky or sea). The only time he did screw over any mortals (beyond the whole death thing), was with Theseus and Pirithous, which actually only serves to strengthen the depiction of Hades as a loving husband, since Pirithous and Theseus were attempting to kidnap Persephone.
* This isn't the first time Hades' image was hijacked. Disney's ''The Goddess of Spring'', a pre-cursor to ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', made the merger between Satan and Hades ''even more'' blatant. WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick gave her review going on in detail about how poorly this was handled.
* Disney did it again in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}''. Although this is all taking place in a Ancient Middle Eastern setting, in ''Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'', the wedding of Aladdin and Jasmine is [[ChristianityIsCatholic suspiciously Catholic-looking]]. (Although [[FridgeBrilliance it's worth noting that]] ''[[TheGenieKnowsJackNicholson the Genie]]'' [[FridgeBrilliance organized the wedding...]])
* Chernabog from ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' sort of zig-zags this trope; he is technically an example, as, in spite of being named for and based on a Slavic god, he resembles a black-skinned BigRedDevil to a T and commands over a flaming hell that his mythological counterpart never had the barest hint of. The kicker is that it's no coincidence that he was at least once referenced as {{Satan}} by Walt Disney: the entire film was made and released with the intent that he ''was'' the Devil, and he was later [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] into being Chernabog as a form of [[{{Bowdlerise}} bowdlerization]].

* Hades in the ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'' cartoon is [[EverybodyHatesHades more of a Satan stand in]] than a faithful adaptation of Hades from Greek myth and is a supervillain

** King Conchobhar, of the Ulster Cycle and DeirdreOfTheSorrows the Exile of the Sons of Usna, finds the petrified brain of Mesgegra, king of Leinster, embedded in his head after a battle. The healers are not able to remove it but sew up the wound and tell him that he'll survive as long as he doesn't become excited or over-exert himself. Seven reasonably peaceful years later, "Conchobar is told of the death of Christ, and becomes so angry that the brain bursts from his head, and he dies. The blood from the wound baptizes him as a Christian, and his soul goes to heaven". Conchobhar is also supposedly the exact same age as Jesus, never mind that the story takes place several centuries before St. Patrick even arrived in Ireland.
None of this adds up based on what is known about Gaelic Ireland; he'd have to be at least 18 years of age to marry, in which case he would have gone through several wives by the time of Deirdre's birth, and she'd have to be 15 to marry, thus making him at least 35 when she reached that age and at least 40 when he took her hostage. And he lived to fight at least one or two major wars. There is no way that he could have done all of this within the lifetime of Christ, who was supposed to be 33 to 37 when he died. And that his blood "baptizes him" does not excuse him for the fact that he committed many atrocities in his life, often for his own selfish reasons.

** King Conchobhar, of the Ulster Cycle and DeirdreOfTheSorrowsthe Exile of the Sons of Usna, finds the petrified brain of Mesgegra, king of Leinster, embedded in his head after a battle. The healers are not able to remove it but sew up the wound and tell him that he'll survive as long as he doesn't become excited or over-exert himself. Seven reasonably peaceful years later, "Conchobar is told of the death of Christ, and becomes so angry that the brain bursts from his head, and he dies. The blood from the wound baptizes him as a Christian, and his soul goes to heaven". Conchobhar is also supposedly the exact same age as Jesus, never mind that the story takes place several centuries before St. Patrick even arrived in Ireland.

** Saint Bridget, a female saint who is suspiciously like the Celtic goddess, Bridgid.

* It has been claimed that the story of the HolyGrail and TheSpearOfDestiny are likely Christianized versions of older myths. For example, the Fisher King is '''BRÂN THE BLESSED!!!'''

* Tarot, interestingly enough, underwent an ''[[InvertedTrope inversion]]'' of this trope, as it became increasingly associated with occultism in the 19th and 20th century. The most obvious aspect of this was the Popess and Pope (Trumps II and IV) coming to be known as the High Priestess and Hierophant, while the suits of Coins and Batons (which were already established in Italian and Spanish playing cards) were renamed Pentacles and Wands, respectively.

** In ''Film/WonderWoman'', Queen Hippolyta tells a young Diana the story of how Zeus created the humans, but that his son, Ares, was jealous and set out to destroy them by seducing them to the dark side of war. And later how Ares rebelled against the other gods and was cast out. Meanwhile, the Amazons were made as a counterpoint to Ares' evil. As [[http://izzythehutt.tumblr.com/post/161397652006/wonder-woman-is-a-weird-feminist-rewrite-of this Tumblr post]] points out, it's basically a weirdly feminist retelling of Genesis where Adam was seduced by the serpent before God even bothered to create Eve.

* Disney did it again in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}''. Although this is all taking place in a Ancient Middle Eastern setting, in ''Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'', the wedding of Aladdin and Jasmine is [[ChristianityIsCatholic suspiciously Catholic-looking]]. (Although it's worth noting that ''[[TheGenieKnowsJackNicholson the Genie]]'' organized the wedding… [[FridgeBrilliance Hmmm…]])

* Originally, the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}' ' had no backstory other than "Aliens from a distant planet fight each other". Then we were introduced to the Quintessons, and the backstory became "All transformers were originally built for slave labor, but rebelled against their creators". Nowadays Hasbro's official backstory is "Primus and Unicron are the personafication of Good and Evil, Primus created the transformers while Unicron wants to destroy everything. There also were 13 primes, and one of them is a traitor." While not an official rule, Optimus Prime tends to die and come back in every adaptation, taking over Jesus's role.

** The goddess Hel probably held the domain of famine. Her tableware was named "Hunger" and her silverware named "Famine". This wasn't just poetic, a bad harvest would mean enduring a subarctic winter without enough to eat, possibly staring at your empty cookware. Hel's domain was death by natural causes, and starvation was a natural cause of death.

* ClassicalMythology: There's some speculation that the cults of Orphic Dionysus and Mithras, both competed with early Christianity and may have influenced it. There are a few parallels: both involve a being who's partially man and partially god, who is born through miraculous circumstances and who dies only to return to life [[note]] So far as we can tell, anyway; both cults were pretty secretive [[/note]].

* Originally, the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}' ' had no backstory other than "Aliens from a distant planet fight each other". Then we were introduced to the Quintessons, and the backstory became "All transformers were originally built for slave labor, but rebelled against their creators". Nowadays Hasbro's official ([[SarcasmMode and very original]]) backstory is "Primus and Unicron are the personafication of Good and Evil, Primus created the transformers while Unicron wants to destroy everything. There also were 13 primes, and one of them is a traitor." While not an official rule, Optimus Prime tends to die and come back in every adaptation, taking over Jesus's role.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'' sort of does this with Hecate - while in the Classical world she was a goddess of various things including witches, here, following in the footsteps of the early Christians, she's all witches all the time (also one vampire) and in Hellboy's world all witches are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil evil and servants of Hell.]] She's also very invested in tempting Hellboy to bring about the apocalypse. Later on, though, she self-defines as a more Lovecraftian amoral goddess who just wants to bring about the apocalypse because it's her nature to do so - less Satanic, but still far more malevolent than the (for lack of a better term) non-fictional Hecate.

* Chernabog from ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' sort of zig-zags this trope; he is technically an example, as, in spite of being named for and based on a Slavic god, he resembles a black-skinned BigRedDevil to a T and commands over a flaming hell that his mythological counterpart never had the barest hint of. The kicker is that it's no coincidence that he was at least once referenced as {{Satan}} by Walt Disney: the entire film was made and released with the intent that he ''was'' the Devil, and he was later [[Retcon retconned]] into being Chernabog as a form of [[{{Bowlderize}} bowlderization]].

** It's often believed in the scholarship of Myth/NorseMythology that Loki was the pretty standard TricksterArchetype found in about half the tales, not the sudden betrayer of the gods/Satan analog that shows up partway through Creator/SnorriSturluson's writing. Loki may have even been an aspect of Odin. On the other hand, the Lokasenna, in the Poetic Edda, is generally considered to preserve largely pre-Christian sources, and depicts the precise same betrayal.

* The depiction of Hecate in ''Series/{{Charmed}}''. "The Wedding from Hell" pretty much reduces an InNameOnly use of Hecate's name without ever using enough of the mythology that it was ever a "depiction of Hecate". Which still makes it a HijackedByJesus, since Hecate is certainly not this kind of generic evil goddess.

* ''ComicBook/Hellboy'' sort of does this with Hecate - while in the Classical world she was a goddess of various things including witches, here, following in the footsteps of the early Christians, she's all witches all the time (also one vampire) and in Hellboy's world all witches are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil evil and servants of Hell.]] She's also very invested in tempting Hellboy to bring about the apocalypse. Later on, though, she self-defines as a more Lovecraftian amoral goddess who just wants to bring about the apocalypse because it's her nature to do so - less Satanic, but still far more malevolent than the (for lack of a better term) non-fictional Hecate.

* In ''ComicBook/GoldenLad'', the titular lad draws his power from a pendant that is supposedly powered by "the blood of a thousand martyred Aztecs". Martyrdom is a Christian concept.

* Origins of various words meaning God in different languages predate Christianity. Theos, Deus, Dievas, God, Allah, etc.

* [[Disney/{{Hercules}} Disney's adaptation]] of ''[[Myth/GreekMythology Hercules]]'', featuring Hades as {{Satan}}, Zeus as {{God}} (and a BumblingDad), Hercules as Jesus, and the other Olympians as angels. [[{{Bowdlerise}} To protect family values]], Zeus's "special relationship" with mortal women was ignored, making Hercules a son of ''Hera'', and poisoned (by Hades, of course) with mortality. This moves Hera out of her original ClingyJealousGirl and BigBad roles in the original myths. Interestingly enough, the movie does nothing to rectify Hera's status as Zeus's [[BrotherSisterIncest sister]], however, outside of just not mentioning it. Hades was one of the few Greek Gods who ''didn't'' routinely screw with mortals or curse them, and could even be convinced to help them (Orpheus). Granted, kidnapping Persephone wasn't very nice, but that's probably the worst thing he ever did. Moreover, he ''was'' genuinely in love with her and gave her a relatively happy matrimony, which is more than most other male gods of his level can boast of. (It was also a deal with Zeus as a way of compensating for him getting the short end of the deal, being in charge of the underworld instead of sky or sea).

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

* Disney did it again in ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}''. Despite taking place in a Middle Eastern setting that should have been Islamic all the way (in fact, the sultan mentions Allah in the first movie, albeit as part of a throwaway line about stubborn daughters), in ''Disney/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'', the wedding of Aladdin and Jasmine is [[ChristianityIsCatholic suspiciously Catholic-looking]].
* A more minor example is Chernobog from ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}''; though named for and based on a Slavic god, he was at least once referenced as {{Satan}} by Walt Disney.

* Hades in the ''Disney/Hercules'' cartoon is [[EverybodyHatesHades more of a Satan stand in]] than a faithful adaptation of Hades from Greek myth and is a supervillain