Several factors point against pagan identification: There is no mention of Cybele or of a statue; verse 7 does not mention a “king,” but rather a “kingdom”; there is no citation of the sun; the attempt to interpret the Greek term for “people” (laos) as “stone” (laas) is very strained and based on occasional usage; there is no reference to a priest; and while Dietrich argues that Attis’s priests could eat the sacred fish of the Syrian goddess Atargatis, all of Avercius’s compatriots eat the fish. The identification of Attis as a “holy shepherd” is possible, but the connection to Jesus is suggested more decisively, as in Clement of Alexandria’s hymn to Christ (Instructor 3), which not only mentions Jesus as a holy shepherd but also cites holy fish!