Αδωνις
The fable of Adonis is derived from a Syrian legend, mentioned as early as Hesiod. The most generally accepted version is as follows. Theias, king of Syria, had a daughter, Myrrha or Smyrna, who was impelled by the wrath of Aphrodite to want to commit incest with her father. With the help of her nurse Hippolyta she succeeded in deceiving Theias, with whom she spent twelve nights, but on the twelfth night Theias realized how his daughter had deceived him and armed with his knife pursued her with the aim of putting her to death. Myrrha put herself under the protection of the gods, who changed her into a myrrh tree. Ten months later the bark of the tree rose and burst open and a child emerged, who was called Adonis. Aphrodite, moved by the infant's beauty, sheltered it and entrusted it secretly to Persephone to bring up, but she too was so taken by the child's beauty that she did not want to give it back to Aphrodite. This argument between the two goddesses was settled by Zeus (another version says by the Muse Calliope in the name of Zeus) and it was decided that Adonis should spend one-third of the year with Aphrodite, one-third with Persephone and one-third wherever he chose, but Adonis always spent two-thirds of the year with Aphrodite and only one-third with Persephone. Later, the anger of Artemis (provoked for reasons which are not exactly known) caused him to be gored by a wild boar during a hunt, and he was fatally injured.
This first outline of the myth, which can be seen as symbolic of the mystery of natural growth, embodied in this child who is born of a tree, spends a third of the year underground and for the remainder come into the daylight to join forces with the goddess of springtime and love, was subsequently both embellished and elaborated. The reason often given for the curse of Artemis upon Myrrha is that Cenchreis, mother of Smyrna, and wife of Cinyras (who here takes the place of Theias) had offended the goddess by claiming that her daughter was more beautiful; Smyrna's desire for an illicit love was a punishment for Cenchreis' presumption. As soon as she realized the incestuous nature of her passion, Smyrna wanted to hang herself but her nurse advised her to satisfy her love. Once incestuous intercourse had taken place the girl his herself in shame in a forest where Aphrodite, taking pity on her victim, changed her into a tree. Smyrna's father who cleft the bark of the tree with his sword, thus bringing the baby Adonis into the world, but in yet another version it was a wild boar which freed the child from the protecting tree by opening it up with its tusks, thus foretelling the young man's death. It pleased the imagination of Hellenistic poets to think of Adonis as having been brough up by the Nymphs, hunting or leading his flocks in the country or the forest. The tragedy which led to his death was sometimes said to have been caused not by Artemis but by the jealousy of Ares, Aphrodite's lover, or, on yet another hypothesis, by the vengeance of Apollo on Aphrodite who had blinded ERYMANTHUS, the god's son, because he had seen her bathing naked.
The Adonis legend is set sometimes on Mount Idalion, sometimes in Lebanon. A river called the Adonis flowed through Byblos, its waters coloured red every year on the day when the death of Adonis was celebrated.
The story of Adonis provides a basis for several legends about flowers, not merely the mythical origin of myrrh (the tears of Myrrha) but also that of the red rose, which was originally white. As Aphrodite was running to the assistance of her wounded friend she pricked her foot on a thorn and the flowers dedicated to him were coloured by her blood. Anemones too were said to be born of the blood of the wounded Adonis. The idyllic poet Bion tells that the goddess shed as many tears as Adonis shed drops of blood; from each tear sprang a rose and from each drop of blood an anemone.
In honour of her friend, Aphrodite established a funeral feast, celebrated each spring by the Syrian women. Vessels and boxes were planted with seeds, which were watered with warm water to make them grow very quickly, and they were called gardens of Adonis. Plants thus brought on unnaturally quickly, died soon after they appeared above the surface, thus symbolizing the fate of Adonis, and the women uttered ritual laments over the fate of the youth beloved of Aphrodite.
The Semitic roots of this legend are plain to see, even the name of the god can be traced back to the Hebrew word meaning 'lord'. Adonis is found depicted on Etruscan mirrors, and his cult spread throughout the Mediterranean world in the Hellenistic period.
{E2 DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY}
Table of Sources:
- Apollod. Bibl. 3, 14, 4
- Hyg. Fab. 58; 271
- Serv. on Virgil, Ecl. 10, 18
- Ovid, Met. 10, 345ff.
- Serv. on Virgil, Aen. 5, 72
- Hyg. Fab. 248
- Theocr. 1, 109; 3, 46 with schol.
- Prop. 3, 5, 38
- Lucian, Dea Syra 8
- Strabo 16, 2, 18-19, p. 755
- Paus. 6, 24, 7
- Bion, 1, 72
- Theocr. 15, 102; 136ff.
- Orphic Hymns 56, 9
- Ausonius, Epit. in Glauc.; Cupido crucif. 57f
- Clem. Alex. Protrep. 2, 33, 8f