Adonis

File:Adonis3.jpg

Adonis, a Roman torso, restored and completed by François Duquesnoy, (Louvre Museum)

Adonis is a mortal male of incredible beauty in Greek mythology who was Aphrodite's preferred lover, even in spite of the fact he was born out of an incestuous relationship. Despite his initially mortal status, Adonis was resurrected by Zeus after his earthly death and came to be recognized as an ever-youthful, annually-renewed vegetation deity in Greek religion, whose nature is tied to the calendar. In his connection to the seasons, Adonis is an archetypal life-death-rebirth figure ,and a central cult figure in various mystery religions. 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 B.C.E., as a fragment of Sappho reveals.

Origin

Death of Adonis, by Luca Giordano.

The mythological figure Adonis undoubtedly derives from Ancient Near Eastern gods, such as the Babylonia Tammuz and the Sumerian Dumuzi. Both of these gods were companions of love goddesses, and both suffered death and mutilation. Adonis, it seems was based very heavily on Tammuz, as the connection in cult practice is with Tammuz is considerable. "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). This ritual of mourning planting for the god closely resembles that which was performed by Greek women in the festival of Adonia (see below). Adonis bears some similarity to the Egyptian Osiris, another deity of fertility who was also attacked by a boar, as well the Etruscan Atunis and the Phrygian Attis, both of whom are deities of rebirth and vegetation.

Adonis' Semitic origin seems to be even more likely when considering his name, which is a variation of the Phoenician adon meaning "lord" . Hence, the theonym Adonis bears striking resemblance to Adonai, one of the names used to refer to Yahweh, the singular God of the ancient Israelites 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" (Justice). Yet there is no trace of a Semitic cult directly connected with Adonis, and no trace in Semitic languages of any specific myths which resemble that of Adonis. both Greek and Near Eastern scholars have questioned the connection.

File:Adonis01.jpg

A 19th-century reproduction of a Greek bronze of Adonis found at Pompeii.

Mythology

Aphrodite and Adonis, Attic red-figure aryballos-shaped lekythos by Aison, ca. 410 B.C.E., Louvre.

Adonis' birth is shrouded in confusion for those who require a single, authoritative version. On the contrary, multiple versions of the birth of Adonis exist: The most commonly accepted version is that Aphrodite urged Smyrna (Myrrha) to commit incest with her father, Theias, the King of Smyrna or Syria (which helps confirm the area of Adonis' origins). Other suggestions have been made as to who was Adonis' father. Pseudo-Apollodorus, (Bibliotheke, 3.182) considered Adonis to be the son of Cinyras, of Paphos on Cyprus, and Metharme. Hesiod, meanwhile, in a fragment, wrote that Adonis was the son of Phoenix and Aephesiboea.

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.)

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, queen of the underworld. Persephone was also entranced by his unearthly beauty and fell in love with the youth, refusing to give him back to Aphrodite. An argument between Aphrodite and Persephone ensued, resulting in an appeal to Zeus, the heavenly monarch (or Calliope in other versions). Zeus decreed that Adonis should spend four months of the year with Aphrodite, four months with Persephone, and four months of the years to himself. Thus, the myth of Adonis provided ancient Greeks with an explanation for the changing seasons. Some say Aphrodite with the help of her friend Helene eventually seduced Adonis into spending his four months alone with her.

Adonis became an avid hunter, and ended up being killed in a field of lettuce by a wild boar during the hunt. This boar was sent by Persephone, who was livid with Aphrodite's attempts at commandeering more time with Adonis. Alternative tellings claim that the boar was sent by either Artemis in retaliation for Aphrodite's complicity in the death of her lover Hippolytus, or else by Aphrodite's paramour, Ares, who had grown considerably jealous of her trysts with Adonis. In the aftermath, Aphrodite mourned feverishly, pleading to Zeus for the life of her lover. Zeus was swayed by Aphrodite's pleas, and eventually resurrected Adonis, allowing him to spend half of each year with her and the other half in the underworld. Thus, this myth centers around the idea of death and resurrection, a process which parallels the decay of the summer as winter approaches, and the eventual revival in the spring. Further, the juxtaposition between Adonis' birth from the myrrh tree, the spice of which was used by Greeks as an aphrodisiac, and his death in a field of lettuce, a vegetable which symbolizes impotence, suggests that Adonis symbolizes immature and excessive sexuality. Thus, he stands in contrast to Demeter, the goddess of marriage and agriculture, and provides a more temperant sexuality controlled by the grounds of marriage.

An alternative version of the story has Aphrodite sprinkle nectar on Adonis' body. Upon mixing with the nectar, 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 Lebanon ran red, according to Lucian (chs. 6 – 9). Therefore, Persephone ultimately laid claim to Adonis as his soul 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". Certainly there are many parallels with the myth of Osiris, encased in the coffin, imprisoned in the tree from which he issues forth.

Worship

Adonis was celebrated during the annual festival of Adonia held at Byblos and other locations, during the hottest period of the summer with the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star. This was also the time of the year in which women were considered to be at their most wanton, thus it is fitting that the festival seems to have been celebrated primarily be women. During this festival, prostitutes would plant "gardens of Adonis" on their roof-tops, which consisted of quick-growing plants such as fennel and lettuce, which sprang up from seed and then promptly withered. The expedient death of the plants in their pots reenacted the premature death Adonis, which occured before he could enter into marriage, the definitive union of the mature Greek citizen. Women partaking in the festival would then mourn for the untimely death of the vegetation god. Not only did this festival commemorate Adonis, but it also seems to have been undertaken to urge on rainfall and growth of vegetation. As well, Burkert notes that "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."

Influence

The figure of Adonis has remained prominent not only in Greece but also in other parts of the Western world, both past and present. Some mythologists suggest that Adonis was later exported to Germania, and that his counterpart in Germanic mythology is Balder, the Norse god of spring and renewal who was also resurrected after perishing. 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. Such references are often found in works of literature and popular culture. 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. In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (chapter 1) by Oscar Wilde, Lord Henry refers to the image of Dorian Gray in Basil's painting as, "...this young Adonis..." Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote the poem Adonais for John Keats, and uses the myth as an extended metaphor for Keats' death. 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 episode Brush With Greatness of The Simpsons, Marge paints a picture of Homer which she names "Bald Adonis."

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• "Adonis." The New Encyclopedia Britannica: Volume 1 Micropaedia. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2002. 105.
• Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion (John Raffan, trans.). Oxford: Blackwell Press, 1985. ISBN 0631112413
• Detienne, Marcel. The Gardens of Adonis (Janet Lloyd, trans). Highlands, NJ: Harvester Press, 1977.
• Frazer, James. The Golden Bough. London: Penguin, 1996.
• Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1955.

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