Christos

"The anointed one." Christos, or The Christ, was a title given to many gods - Adonis, Attis, Dumuzi, Hermes, Osiris, and Priapus among them - and the name given to Jesus of Nazareth by his followers. The practice of anointing began with the sacred marriage ritual, when temple virgins - as embodiments of the Goddess - poured holy oil over the head and phallus of a stone god, and subsequently deflowered themselves. Variations of this practice were common throughout Asia and the Middle East. In Rome, perfoming this ceremony before the consumation of a marriage was thought to make the couple's firstborn god-begotten.

Among the cult of the Essenes, of whom some say Jesus was a member, a Christos was a priest who was designated as a sin bearer or redeemer.