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I am not a historical scholar, this is all based on information found on the internet. However I will provide a full list of sources and explain the points listed. Where possible I will provide scholarly sources, but I do not have access to anything behind a paywall. A good resource that I will try to avoid citing is the Wikipedia article on miraculous births https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraculous_births. I will try to avoid using Wikipedia as a primary source, but it can be a useful place to find good summaries of different mythologies and further citations. This list is based on recent discussions I have had on the subject, but there are many lists of gods with “virgin birth” mythologies, so I have no doubt I will have to update it in the future.
1) Attis.
2) Osiris.
3) Horus.
4) Mithra/Mithras.
5) Dionysus.
6) Perseus.
7) Krishna.
8) Buddha.
9) Gilgamesh.1) Attis. In the original literature no mention of Nana (mother of Attis) being a virgin is made. You can read the story itself here [1]. You can see no mention of it in the Britannica entry of the subject [2], and if you look for websites that specialize in Greek mythology you can find several that go over the salient details of Attis’ story without ever mentioning virginity, for example here [3] and here [4].
2) Osiris. I have found multiple sources that explain that Osiris is the first son of Geb and Nut, but never mention Nut being a virgin at any point. [5] [6] [7] [8]. There appears to be no basis in mythology for Osiris being born of a virgin. You may start to notice a trend here.
3) Horus. Son of Osiris and Isis, conceived by magic after Osiris had been murdered. Osiris and Isis are already considered married at this point, and there are no indications that Isis was a virgin [9] [10] [11]. There do appear to be alternate stories such as where Isis actually uses her dead husbands penis to impregnate herself [12], or is impregnated by a flash of lightning [13]. But again, in none of these stories is she considered a virgin.
4) Mithra. Largely considered to have been born of a rock, you can consider a rock a virgin if you like [14] [15] [16]. Again, there appears to be no reasonable way to connect Mithras to a virgin mother, his origin seems fairly well established and in no way is considered a virgin birth.
5) Dionysus. Dionysus is a son of Zeus [17] [18][19]. I should be able to end with that sentence. Zeus, very famously, had sex with just about anything that moved. Half of the stories involving Zeus are about how Zeus managed to have sex. Unfortunately this will not be the only son of Zeus on this list and I have no idea why people would pick so many sons of Zeus as examples of a virgin birth, you can only assume they don’t know anything about Zeus. Although to be completely fair there are stories that suggest his mother (there are various attributed mothers) was a virgin when she met Zeus. That’s not the same as her being a virgin after she met Zeus. This will be another common trope. The Wikipedia article has a good summation of the myths involved [20].
6) Perseus. See I told you there would be other sons of Zeus on here. In this case, again, the mother was a virgin before she met Zeus. She was specifically locked up so that she could not have a child by her father, Zeus became a golden shower to get into her prison. Then 9 months later Perseus was born [21] [22] [23] [24]. Again the implication is that Zeus had sex.
7) Krishna. Krishna is the eighth child of a married couple. There is no indication that his mother was a virgin [25] [26] [27]. Eighth child of a married couple. Why would his mother still be a virgin at this point?
8) Buddha. Myths have developed of a miraculous birth, but not of a virgin birth [28] [29] [30]. They often do specifically mention that he had a father. Early accounts of his birth are lacking in detail [31], but do not mention a virgin mother.
9) Gilgamesh. This seems to be a case of finding any random mythological figure who’s circumstances of birth might indicate a virgin mother if you don’t bother to spend any time actually looking up those circumstances and declaring the mother a virgin. For example the Wikipedia page for Gilgamesh [32] mentions that Gilgamesh’s mother was locked up to prevent the birth of Gilgamesh. But just the slightest extra effort will find that Gilgamesh is the son of Ninsuna/Ninsun and her mortal consort the king of Urak Lugulbanda [33][34]. You can in fact find this by reading the Epic of Gilgamesh itself [35] where the concept of virginity does not appear to be mentioned at all. While Wikipedia is not a good primary source of information it can be an excellent place to find general information on a subject. A brief look at the page for Ninsun will find that the concept of virginity is not part of the story [36]
[1] https://www.theoi.com/Phrygios/Attis.html?fbclid=IwAR3XIKmRt9uovBnZklDqBUiGXwmLXUPvjrcFYKTbazWwmjs_M6y4Nb5mTfI#:~:text=Pausanias%2C%20Description%20of,legend%20of%20Attis.%22
[2] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Attis
[3] https://www.theoi.com/Phrygios/Attis.html?fbclid=IwAR17mU4I-NIy98NtpBHup9mIkJrO1RzME7rtZCklvnqE1v5Xz5yUfveiV-Y
[4] https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Attis/attis.html?fbclid=IwAR10h7Od8EXs9_I2TX5V9YKgXr1FPM1P5WN-EZEtKi6o004VUwUQrhSt3gc
[5]https://egyptianmuseum.org/deities-osiris
[6] https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/mythology/summary-and-analysis-egyptian-mythology/osiris
[7] https://westportlibrary.libguides.com/osiris
[8] https://historycooperative.org/osiris/
[9] https://www.worldhistory.org/Horus/#:~:text=The%20two%20sisters,son%20from%20Set.
[10] https://study.com/learn/lesson/horus-egyptian-sky-god.html#:~:text=Isis%20transformed%20herself,well%2Dknown%20version.
[11] https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Horus/311738#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20most%20widely,and%20gave%20birth%20to%20Horus.
[12] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352414341_Osiris_Isis_Horus_Christianity_and_Islam#:~:text=Isis%20impregnates%20herself,Horus%20is%20conceived.
[13] https://www.jstor.org/stable/3855901
[14] https://www.worldhistory.org/Mithra/#:~:text=There%20is%20no,dying%20at%20all.
[15] https://books.google.com.vn/books?id=HQ0VAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA93&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
[16] https://study.com/learn/lesson/cult-mithras-god-history-religion.html#:~:text=The%20key%20elements,Mithras%20and%20Sol.
[17] https://mythopedia.com/topics/dionysus?fbclid=IwAR2RACUmeQ_BQ98az8MrqxVUQ2ppLEAqfqzeRaV25DgFqQBVlhSD9YRSKCo
[18] https://www.thoughtco.com/birth-of-dionysus-117975
[19] https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/DionysosMyths.html
[20] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus#First_birth
[21] https://www.theoi.com/Heros/Perseus.html
[22] https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Heroes/Perseus/perseus.html
[23] https://symbolsage.com/perseus-greek-hero-story/
[24] https://study.com/learn/lesson/perseus-greek-mythology.html
[25] https://thejaijais.com/blogs/sunitas-blog/the-story-of-lord-krishnas-birth
[26] https://hoovufresh.com/blogs/blog/birth-story-of-lord-krishna-krishna-janmashtami-2020#:~:text=Krishna%20was%20the%20eighth%20child,girl%20on%20the%20same%20night.
[27] https://isha.sadhguru.org/sg/en/wisdom/article/krishna-birth-story
[28] https://kadampa.org/reference/birth-buddha
[29] https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/buda/hd_buda.htm
[30] https://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/lifebuddha/2lbud.htm
[31] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Buddha-founder-of-Buddhism#:~:text=Accounts%20of%20the%20life%20of%20the%20Buddha%20appear,of%20the%20life%20of%20a%20prehistoric%20buddha%2C%20Vipashyin.
[32] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgamesh
[33] https://uruk-warka.dk/Gilgamish/The%20Epic%20of%20Gilgamesh.pdf
[34] https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gilg/hd_gilg.html#:~:text=The%20tale%20revolves%20around%20a,the%20wise%20cow%20goddess%20Ninsun.
[35] https://uruk-warka.dk/Gilgamish/The%20Epic%20of%20Gilgamesh.pdf
[36] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninsun
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