Adonis
Adonis is a mortal male of incredible beauty in Greek mythology who was Aphrodite's preferred lover, 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. An archetypal life-death-rebirth figure, Adonis was also closely connected to the seasons. Religious activity concerning Adonis was almost exclusively undertaken by women, as in the midsummer Adonia festival, and the cult of young girls dedicated to him on the Island of Lesbos.
Origins
The mythological figure Adonis undoubtedly derives from various Ancient Near Eastern gods, most notably the Babylonian Tammuz and the Sumerian Dumuzi. Like Adonis, both of these gods were companions of love goddesses, and both suffered grisly deaths by mutilation. Cult practices indicate that Adonis was based particularly heavily on Tammuz, for whom women would sit and weep, often sitting on roof-tops and planting pleasant plants in memory of the god. This ritual of lamentation and planting closely resembles that which was performed by Greek women in the festival of Adonia (see below). Adonis also bears some similarity to the Egyptian Osiris, another deity of fertility who was 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). However, there is no trace of a Semitic cult directly connected with Adonis, and no trace in Semitic languages of any specific myths which resembles that of Adonis. This has caused some Greek and Near Eastern scholars to question whether the connection is anything more than incidental.
Mythology
Adonis' birth is shrouded in confusion for those who require a single, authoritative version. On the contrary, multiple tellings 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. 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 Adonis' nature as a vegetation god and suggests his his origins from the hot foreign desert lands where the myrrh tree grew, since it was not found in ancient Greece.
Adonis was a beautiful baby, so beautiful in fact 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 ensued between Aphrodite and Persephone, 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 that even once these divisions of time were put in place, Aphrodite was still dissatisfied, and with the help of her friend Helene, she eventually seduced Adonis so that he would spend the four months which he had at his disposal 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 beloved 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 its 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, who provides an example of 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. 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, notes that there are some inhabitants of Byblos claiming that Osiris of Egypt is buried among them, and that their subsequent mourning and ceremonies are all made in honor of Osiris rather than Adonis.
Worship
Adonis was celebrated during the annual festival of Adonia held at Byblos and other locations during the hottest period of the summer alongside 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. These gardens 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 of 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 the story of Adonis, but it also seems to have been undertaken in an effort to urge on rainfall and the growth of vegetation. A fragment of Sappho reveals that a fully-developed cult dedicated to the dying Adonis was prevalent among circles of young girls centred around the poet Sappho on Lesbos Island around 600 B.C.E. Burkert concludes that the special function of the worship of Adonis was that it provided a brief repreive from the otherwise strictly circumscribed lives of Greek women, in stark contrast to the rigorous order of polis and family which characterized the official women's festivals which honoured 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, identifying parallels between he and Balder, the Norse god of spring and renewal who was also resurrected after his death. In modern parlance the name "Adonis" is commonly 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. For instance, in Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman refers to his sons Biff and Happy as "Adonises", illustrating the idealistic way he views them. In the first chapter of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray 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, suggesting that the posthumous influence of his work upon the world is a form of immortality. More recently, in the episode "Brush With Greatness" of the animated television series The Simpsons, Marge paints a picture of her husband Homer which she titles "Bald Adonis." Thus, allusions to Adonis remain commonplace today.
ReferencesISBN 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.
- Koepping, Klaus-Peter. "Adonis." Encyclopedia of Religion. Edited by Mercia Eliade. New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1987. ISBN 0029098505
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