Parallels to divine sonship

Now Jesus, who is called Son of God, even if he were only a man in the ordinary sense, would be worthy to be called Son of God because of his wisdom, for all writers call God the Father of both men and gods. But if, as we said above, we say that he was begotten from God in a special manner, apart from ordinary generation, being the Logos of God, let this be no stranger to you who call Hermes the messenger-word from God. If someone objects that he was crucified, this too is shared with those sons of Zeus whom you say suffered and whom we listed above. For their deaths are not narrated as alike but as differing, so he should not appear inferior because his suffering was distinctive. Rather, as we promised, as the argument proceeds we will show him superior—or rather, it has already been shown, since the superior one is revealed by his deeds. And if we say that he was born through a virgin, let this be something we share with the story of Perseus. When we say that he made the lame, the paralyzed, and those afflicted from birth healthy, and raised the dead, we will seem to say things similar to those said to have been done by Asclepius.