"Delicate Adonis is dying, Kytherea; what should we do? Beat your breasts, maidens, and rend your garments." - Sappho fragment
"We celebrate the Adonia and we bewail Adonis" - Pherecrates fragment
"But put your cloak and mantle on and we'll to Ptolemy's, the sumptuous
king, to see the Adonis. As I hear, the queen provides us something
gorgeous." - Theocritos Idyll 15
“Heraiskos actually had a
natural talent for distinguishing between religious statues that were animated
and those that were not. For as soon as he looked at one his heart was struck
by a sensation of the divine and he gave a start in his body and his soul, as
though seized by the god. If he was not moved in such a fashion then the statue
was soulless and had no share of divine inspiration. In this way he
distinguished the secret statue of Aion which the Alexandrians worshipped as
being possessed by the god, who was both Osiris and Adonis at the same
time according to some mystical union. There was also something in Heraiskos'
nature that rejected defilements of nature. For instance, if he heard any
unclean woman speaking, no matter where or how, he immediately got a headache,
and this was taken as a sign that she was menstruating. Even his birth had
something mystical about it: he is said to have issued from his mother holding
the shushing finger up to his lips, just as the Egyptians portray Oros and Helios. As a result,
since the finger was fused to his lips, he needed surgery, and he went through
life with a scar on his lip.” – Suda, s.v.
Diagnômôn
The myth of Adonis
"Kinyras took some people with him to Kypros and founded Paphos there;
he married Metharme, a child of King Pygmalion of Kypros, and they had
Oxyporos and Adonis ... While Adonis was still a boy, because of
Artemis’ anger he was wounded by a boar during a hunt and died.
Hesiodos says the he was the son of Phoinix and Alphesiboia; but
Panyassis calls him the son of Theias, king of the Assyrians, whose
daughter was Smyrna. Because of Aphrodite’s wrath (for she did not
honour Aphrodite), Smyrna developed a lust for her father, and with the
help of her nurse slept with him for twelve nights without his knowing
it. When he found out he drew his sword and started after her, and as
he was about to overtake her, she prayed to the gods to become
invisible. The gods took pity on her and changed her into the tree
called the Smyrna. Nine months later the tree split open and the baby
named Adonis was born. Because of his beauty, Aphrodite secreted him
away in a chest, keeping it from the gods, and left him with
Persephone. But when Persephone got a glimpse of Adonis, she refused to
return him. When the matter was brought to Zeus for arbitration, he
divided the year into three parts and decreed that Adonis would spent
one third of the year by himself, one third with Persephone, and the
rest with Aphrodite. But Adonis added his own portion to Aphrodite’s.
Later on, while hunting, he was attacked by a boar and died." -
Apollodorus, The Library 3.183
The Mullet connected with Adonis
"People like to call it [the mullet known as the ‘Adonis Fish’]
‘Adonis’ because it loves both land and sea, and those who first gave
it this name were hinting (so I think) at the son of Kinyras whose life
was divided between two goddesses; one who loved him beneath the earth
[Persephone], the other [Aphrodite] above." - Aelian, On Animals 9.36
Adonis androgynous
"Adonis, having become androgynous, behaved as a man for Aphrodite and as a woman for Apollon." - Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Bk5 (as summarized in Photius, Myriobiblon 190)
Apollon slew Adonis
"Erymanthos, son of Apollon, was punished because he had seen Aphrodite
after her union with Adonis and Apollon, irritated, changed himself
into a wild boar and killed Adonis by striking through his defenses." -
Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Bk1 (as summarized in Photius, Myriobiblon 190)
Learned debate about Adnos
"He [Ptolemy Hephaestion] then pretends that the sense of the passage
discussed by Euphorion in his Hyakinthia, 'Only Kokytos [a river of the
underworld] washed the wounds of Adonis', was as follows: Kokytos was
the name of a pupil to whom Kheiron had taught medicine and who cared
for Adonis when he was wounded by the wild boar." - Ptolemy
Hephaestion, New History Bk1 (as summarized in Photius, Myriobiblon 190)
Adonis and White Rock
"Those who dive from the top of the rock [of Leukade on the island of
Leukos in Western Greece] were, it is said, freed from their love and
for this reason: after the death of Adonis, Aphrodite, it is said,
wandered around searching for this. She found it in Argos, a town of
Kypros, in the sanctuary of Apollon Erithios and ' l'emporta' after
having told Apollon in confidence the secret of her love for Adonis.
And Apollon brought her to the rock of Leukade and ordered her to throw
herself from the top of the rock; she did so and was freed from her
love. When she sought the reason of this, Apollon told her, it is said,
in his capacity as a soothsayer, he knew that Zeus, always enamoured of
Hera, had sat on this rock and been delivered from his love." - Ptolemy
Hephaestion, New History Bk7 (as summarized in Photius, Myriobiblon 190)
Persephone and Aphrodite fight over Adonis
"Some also have said that Venus [Aphrodite] and Proserpina [Persephone]
came to Jove [Zeus] for his decision, asking him to which of them he
would grant Adonis. Calliope, the judge appointed by Jove, decided that
each should posses him half of the year. But Venus [Aphrodite], angry
because she had not been granted what she thought was her right,
stirred the women in Thrace by love, each to seek Orpheus for herself,
so that they tore him limb from limb. " - Hyginus, Astronomica 2.7
An account of the Syrian worship of Adonis
“But I did see in Byblos a great temple of Aphrodite of Byblos, in
which they perform ceremonies in honor of Adon; and I learned about the
ceremonies. They say, at any rate, that the deed that was done to Adon
by the boar occurred in their land, and in memory of that misfortune
every year they beat their breasts and mourn and perform the
ceremonies, making solemn lamentations throughout the country. And when
the breast-beating and weeping is at end, first they make offerings to
Adon as if to a dead person; and then, on the next day, they proclaim
that he is alive and fetch him forth into the air, and shave their
heads as the Egyptians do when Apis dies. And all women who will not
let themselves be shaved pay this penalty: that for a single day they
proffer themselves for sale of their beauty; but the market is open
only to all foreigners, and the payment becomes an offering to
Aphrodite. 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. And I shall
tell you the reason why this seems to be true to them. Each year a head
comes from Egypt to Byblos, making a sea journey of seven days, and the
winds drive it, by guidance of the gods, and it does not turn aside in
any direction, but comes only to Byblos. And this is wholly marvelous.
It befalls every year, and happened the time that I was in Byblos, and
I saw the head that is of Byblos. And in the land of Byblos is another
marvel, a river flowing out of Mount Lebanon into the sea, which is
called the Adon. Every year it becomes blood-red, losing its natural
hue, and when it flows into the sea, it reddens a large part of it; and
this is a signal for mourning to the inhabitants of Byblos. For they
say that on those days, Adon is being wounded up on Mt. Lebanon, and
his blood as it comes into the water alters the river and gives the
stream his name. Thus say common folk. But a certain man of Byblos, who
I believe to be telling the truth, recounted to me another cause of the
phenomenon. This is his account: "The River Adon, o stranger, runs
through Lebanon, and the soil of Lebanon is quite ruddy. Therefore,
when strong winds arise on these days, depositing the earth in the
river, the earth that is completely ruddy makes it blood-red. So this
change is not because of blood, as people say, but the soil." This is
the account of the man of Byblos; but even if he spoke truly, still it
seems to me quite marvelous that the wind arises at the right time.
Then I went up onto the Lebanon from Byblos, one day's journey, because
I learned that an ancient sanctuary of Aphrodite which Cinyras founded
was there; and I saw the temple and it is an ancient one.” – Lucian, The Syrian Goddess 6-9
Ptolemy IV wrote a play called The Adonia.
Spell invoking Adonis
"Everyone fears Your Great Might. Grant me the Good Things: The
Strength of AKRYSKYLOS, the Speech of EUO'NOS, the Eyes of Solomon, the
Voice of ABRASAX, the Grace of ADO'NIOS, the God. Come to me, Kypris,
every day! The Hidden Name bestowed to You:
THOATHOE'THATHO-OYTHAETHO'USTHOAITHITHE'THOINTHO'; grant me Victory,
Repute, Beauty toward all Men and all Women!" - PGM XCII.1-16
