Adonis
For other uses of the name Adonis, see Adonis (disambiguation). |
A 19th-century reproduction of a Greek bronze of Adonis found at Pompeii. |
Adonis, an annual
vegetation life-death-rebirth deity, imported from
Syrian into
Greek mythology, always retained aspects of his
Semitic Near Eastern origins and was one of the most complex cult figures in classical times. He had multiple roles and there has been much scholarship over the centuries of his meaning and purpose in the
Greek religious beliefs. His Semitic counterpart is
Tammuz. His
Etruscan counterpart was
Atunis. (Some mythologists believe he was later exported to
Germania, and his counterpart in
Germanic mythology is
Baldr.) He is an annually-renewed, ever-youthful vegetation god, a
life-death-rebirth deity whose nature is tied to the calendar. His
cult belonged to women: the cult of dying Adonis was fully-developed in the circle of young girls around
Sappho on
Lesbos, about 600 BCE, as a fragment of Sappho reveals.
Adonis was certainly based in large part on Tammuz. His name is Semitic, a variation on the word meaning "
lord" that was also used, as "
Adonai", to refer to
Yahweh in the
Old Testament. When the Hebrews first arrived in Canaan, they were opposed by the king of the
Jebusites, Adonizedek, whose name means "lord of Zedek" (Jerusalem). Yet there is no trace of a Semitic cult directly connected with Adonis, and no trace in Semitic languages of any specific
mythemes connected with his Greek myth; both Greek and Near Eastern scholars have questioned the connection (Burkert, p 177 note 6 bibliography). The connection in cult practice is with Adonis' Mesopotamian counterpart,
Tammuz::"Women sit by the gate weeping for Tammuz, or they offer incense to
Baal on roof-tops and plant pleasant plants. These are the very features of the Adonis cult: a cult confined to women which is celebrated on flat roof-tops on which sherds sown with quickly germinating green salading are placed, Adonis gardens... the climax is loud lamentation for the dead god." —Burkert, p. 177).
Adonis was worshipped in unspoken
mystery religions: not until Imperial Roman times (in
Lucian of Samosata,
De Dea Syria, ch. 6 [
1]) does any written source mention that the women were consoled by a
revived Adonis. Women in Athens would plant "
gardens of Adonis" quick-growing herbs that sprang up from seed and died. The Festival of Adonis was celebrated by women at midsummer by sowing fennel and lettuce, and grains of wheat and barley. The plants sprang up soon, and withered quickly, and women mourned for the untimely death of the vegetation god (Detienne 1972).
Adonis' birth is shrouded in confusion for those who require a single, authoritative version. The resolutely patriarchal Hellenes sought a father for the god, and found him in
Byblos and
Cyprus, faithful indicators of the direction from which his cult had come.
Walter Burkert questions whether Adonis had not from the very beginning come to Greece with Aphrodite (Burkert 1985, p. 177).
Multiple versions of the birth of Adonis exist: The most commonly accepted version is that
Aphrodite urged
Myrrha to commit
incest with her father,
Theias, the King of
Smyrna or
Syria (which helps confirm the area of Adonis' origins). Myrrha's nurse helped with the scheme, and Myrrha coupled with her father in the darkness. When Theias at last discovered this deception by means of an oil lamp, he flew into a rage, chasing his daughter with a knife. Myrrha fled from her father, and Aphrodite turned her into a
myrrh tree. When Theias shot an arrow into the tree — or when a boar used its tusks to rend the tree's bark — Adonis was born from the tree. This myth fits both Adonis' nature as a vegetation god and his origins from the hot foreign desert lands where the myrrh tree grew. (It was not to be seen in Greece.)
# Pseudo-Apollodorus, (
Bibliotheke, 3.182) considered Adonis to be the son of
Cinyras, of
Paphos on Cyprus, and
Metharme.#
Hesiod, in a fragment, believes he is the son of
Phoenix and
Aephesiboea.
|
Death of Adonis, by Luca Giordano. |
As soon as Adonis was born. the baby was so beautiful that Aphrodite placed him in a closed chest, which she delivered for security to
Persephone, who was also entranced by his unearthly beauty and refused to give him back. The argument between the two goddesses was settled, either by
Zeus or
Calliope, with Adonis spending four months with Aphrodite, who seduced him with the help of
Helene, her friend, four months with Persephone and four months of the years to himself. Some say Aphrodite eventually seduced Adonis into spending his four months alone with her.
Adonis died at the tusks of a wild
boar, sent by either
Artemis in retaliation for Aphrodite instigating the death of Hippolytus, a favorite of the huntress goddess, or Aphrodite's paramour,
Ares.
[According to Nonnus, Dionysiaca 42.1f. Servius on Virgil's Eclogues x.18; Orphic Hymn lv.10;Ptolemy Hephaestionos, i.306, are all noted by Graves.] As Aphrodite sprinkled
nectar on his body, each drop of Adonis' blood turned into a blood-red
anemone, and the river Adonis (modern
Nahr Ibrahim) flowing out of
Mount Lebanon in coastal Syria ran red, according to Lucian (chs. 6 – 9). Therefore, Persephone ultimately laid claim to Adonis as his shade was transported forever more to the
Underworld. Lucian, who attributes the color of the river Adonis to
siltation, adds "Nonetheless, there are some inhabitants of Byblos who say that
Osiris of Egypt lies buried among them, and the mourning and the ceremonies are all made in honor of Osiris instead of Adon" [
2]. Certainly there are many parallels with the myth of Osiris, encased in the coffin, imprisoned in the tree from which he issues forth.
"In Greece" Burkert concludes, "the special function of the Adonis cult is as an opportunity for the unbridled expression of emotion in the strictly circumscribed life of women, in contrast to the rigid order of
polis and family with the official women's festivals in honour of
Demeter."
The most detailed and prettiest literary version of the story of Adonis is
Ovid,
Metamorphoses'', x
In modern parlance the name "Adonis" is frequently used as an allusion to an extremely attractive, youthful male, often with a connotation of deserved vanity: "the office Adonis".
In
Arthur Miller's
Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman refers to his sons Biff and Happy as "Adonises." This is representative of the idealistic way he views them.
Giovan Battista Marino's masterpiece,
Adone, published in 1623, is a long, sensual poem, which elaborates the myth of Adonis, and represents the transition in
Italian literature from
Mannerism to the
Baroque.
In the video game
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, a demon named Vyers refers to himself as the "Dark Adonis".
*
Burkert, Walter, 1985.
Greek religion, "Foreign gods" p 176f
*Detienne, Marcel, 1972.
Les jardins d'Adonis, translated by Janet Lloyd, 1977.
The Gardens of Adonis, Harvester Press.
*
Graves, Robert (1955) 1960.
The Greek Myths (Penguin), 18.h-.k
*
Kerenyi, Karl, 1951
The Gods of the Greeks pp 75 – 76,
*
Theoi.com: Aphrodite and Adonis*
Adonia, feasts celebrating Adonis
