Similar birth legends to those of Jesus have also been transmitted of other founders of religions, such as Zoroaster [Zarathustra], who is said to have lived about the year 1000 B.C.
His mother, Dughda, dreams, in the sixth month of her pregnancy, that the wicked and the good spirits are fighting for the embryonic Zoroaster; a monster tears the future Zoroaster from the mother’s womb; but a light god fights the monster with his horn of light, re-encloses the embryo in the mother’s womb, blows upon Dughda, and she becomes pregnant again.
On awakening, she hurries in her fear to a wise dream-interpreter, who is unable to explain the wonderful dream before the end of three days. He then declares that the child she is carrying is destined to become a man of great importance; the dark cloud and the mountain of light signify that she and her son will at first have to undergo numerous trials, through tyrants and other enemies, but at last they will overcome all perils.
The Myth of the Birth of the Hero; Otto Rank (1914); page 56
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