Adonis, in Greek mythology, is the god of
beauty and desire, and is a central figure
in various mystery religions. His religion
belonged to women: the dying of Adonis was
fully developed in the circle of young girls
around the poet Sappho from the island of
Lesbos, about 600 BC, as revealed in a fragment
of Sappho's surviving poetry.
Adonis has had multiple roles, and there has
been much scholarship over the centuries concerning
his meaning and purpose in Greek religious
beliefs. He is an annually-renewed, ever-youthful
vegetation god, a life-death-rebirth deity
whose nature is tied to the calendar. His
name is often applied in modern times to handsome
youths, of whom he is the archetype.
Etymology and origin
The Greek Ἄδωνις, Adōnis was a borrowing
from the Canaanite / Phoenician language word
ʼadōn, meaning "lord", which is related
to Adonai, one of the names used to refer
to the god of the Hebrew Bible and still used
in Judaism to the present day. Syrian Adonis
is Gauas or Aos, akin to Egyptian Osiris,
the Semitic Tammuz and Baal Hadad, the Etruscan
Atunis and the Phrygian Attis, all of whom
are deities of rebirth and vegetation.
Myths
The most detailed and literary version of
the story of Adonis is a late one, in the
nine books of Philon commenting Sanchoniaton
dating back to 2000 BC
Persephone was also taken by Adonis' beauty
and refused to give him back to Aphrodite.
The dispute between the two goddesses was
settled by Zeus: Adonis was to spend one-third
of every year with each goddess and the last
third wherever he chose. He chose to spend
two-thirds of the year with Aphrodite.
Adonis was killed by a wild boar, said to
have been sent vicariously by Artemis, jealous
of Adonis' hunting skills or in retaliation
for Aphrodite instigating the death of Hippolytus,
a favorite of the huntress goddess; or by
Aphrodite's paramour, Ares, who was jealous
of Aphrodite's love for Adonis; or by Apollo,
to punish Aphrodite for blinding his son,
Erymanthus. Adonis died in Aphrodite's arms,
who came to him when she heard his groans.
When he died she sprinkled the blood with
nectar, from which sprang the short-lived
anemone, which takes its name from the wind
which so easily makes its petals fall. And
so it is the blood of Adonis that each spring
turns to red the torrential river, the Adonis
River in modern Lebanon. Afqa is the sacred
source where the waters of the river emerge
from a huge grotto in a cliff 200 meters high.
It is there that the myth of Astarte and Adonis
was born.
Parentage and birth
Adonis' birth is shrouded in confusion for
those who require a single, authoritative
version, for various peripheral stories circulated
concerning Adonis' parentage.
The most widely accepted version is recounted
in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where Adonis is the
son of Myrrha and her father Cinyras. Myrrha
turned into a myrrh tree and Lucina helped
the tree to give birth to Adonis.
The patriarchal Hellenes sought a father for
the god, and found him in Byblos and Cyprus,
which scholars take to indicate the direction
from which Adonis' had come to the Greeks.
Pseudo-Apollodorus, considered Adonis to be
the son of Cinyras, of Paphos on Cyprus, and
Metharme. According to pseudo-Apollodorus'
Bibliotheke, Hesiod, in an unknown work that
does not survive, made of him the son of Phoenix
and the otherwise unidentified Alphesiboea.
In Cyprus, Adonis gradually superseded that
of Cinyras. Hesiod made him the son of Phoenix,
eponym of the Phoenicians, thus a figure of
Phoenician origin; his association with Cyprus
is not attested before the classical era.
W. Atallah suggests that the later Hellenistic
myth of Adonis represents the conflation of
two independent traditions.
Alternatively the late source Bibliotheke
calls him the son of Cinyras and Metharme.
Another version of the myth is that Aphrodite
compelled Myrrha to commit incest with her
father Theias, the king of Assyria. Fleeing
his wrath, Myrrha was turned into a myrrh
tree. Theias struck the tree with an arrow,
whereupon it burst open and Adonis emerged.
Another version has a wild boar tear open
the tree with its tusks, thus foreshadowing
Adonis' death.
The city Berytos in Lebanon was named after
the daughter of Adonis and Aphrodite, Beroe.
Both Dionysus and Poseidon fell in love with
her.
Origin of the cult
Adonis was certainly based in large part on
Tammuz. His name is Semitic, a variation on
the word adon meaning "lord". Yet there is
no trace of a Semitic deity 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. The connection
in 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 legend: 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.
When the legend of Adonis was incorporated
into Greek culture is debated. Walter Burkert
questions whether Adonis had not from the
very beginning come to Greece with Aphrodite."
In Greece," Burkert concludes, "the special
function of the Adonis legend 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."
Mystery cults
Adonis was worshipped in unspoken mystery
religions: not until Imperial Roman times
does any written source mention that the women
were consoled by a revived Adonis. The third
century BCE poet Euphorion of Chalcis in his
Hyacinth wrote "Only Cocytus washed the wounds
of 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 death of the vegetation
god.
Cultural references to the rebirth mythology
The myth of the death and rebirth of Adonis
has featured prominently in a variety of cultural
and artistic works. 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. Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote the poem
Adonais for John Keats, and uses the myth
as an extended metaphor for Keats' death.
Such allusions have continued to the present
day. Adonis is the pen name of a famous Syrian
poet, Ali Ahmad Said Asbar, who was nominated
more than once for a Nobel Prize for literature,
including in 2006. His choice of name relates
especially to the rebirth element of the myth
of Adonis, which was an important theme in
mid-20th century Arabic poetry, chiefly amongst
followers of the "Free Verse" movement founded
by Iraqi poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab. Adunis
has used the myth of his namesake in many
of his poems, for example in "Wave I", from
his most recent book "Start of the Body, End
of the Sea", which includes a complete retelling
of the birth of the god.
Modern association with physical beauty and
youth
An extremely attractive, youthful male is
often called an Adonis, often with a connotation
of deserved vanity: "the office Adonis." The
legendary attractiveness of the figure is
referenced in Sarrasine by Honoré de Balzac,
which describes an unrequited love of the
main character, Sarrasine for the image in
a painting of an Adonis and a castrato. The
allusion to extreme physical attractiveness
is apparent in the psychoanalytical Adonis
Complex which refers to a body image obsession
with improving one's physique and youthful
appearance.
Bodybuilders use the expression "Adonis belt"
to refer to the two shallow grooves of the
surface anatomy of the human abdomen running
from the iliac crest to the pubis. Also, the
Golden Ratio of a tape measure of shoulder-to-waist
ratio is called the Adonis Index.
See also
Adonia, feasts celebrating Adonis
Adonism
Apheca
Myrrha, mother of Adonis per Greek mythology
Psychology:
Muscle dysmorphia, as part of Adonis Complex
Theorizing about Myth, a Jungian interpretation
of the Adonis myth by R. Segal
Notes
References
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.
Frazer, James. The Golden Bough..
Graves, Robert 1960. The Greek Myths, 18.h-.k
Kerenyi, Karl, 1951 The Gods of the Greeks
pp 75–76.
Theoi.com: Aphrodite and Adonis
Hamilton, Edith, 1942,1969 Mythology pg. 90-91
Mahony, Patrick J. An Analysis of Shelley's
Craftsmanship in Adonais. Rice University,
1964.
O'Brian, Patrick. "Post Captain." Aubrey/Maturin
series. W.W. Norton, pg. 198. 1994.
Thiollet, Jean-Pierre, 2005. Je m'appelle
Byblos, H & D, p. 71-80.
