Sacrifice and worship

In prehistoric times, Adonis was worshiped at the Adonia festival, where his effigy was mourned and then thrown into the water. From the fifth century BCE, Athenians kept “Adonis gardens” in which they grew plants that could be forced to early growth and then died young, as a parallel to the story of Adonis himself. The ceremony performed at Athens in honor of Adonis featured throwing plants and statues into the sea or into fountains in a form of sacrifice that was intended to increase the harvest.

These rites of Adonis were based on rites for the dead, which go back to prehistoric times when dead ancestors were worshiped in caves and underground stone temples. Women tore their clothes and wept, calling “My lord, my lord” as they paraded through the streets. House fronts bore images of Adonis made of wax or terra-cotta. Dirges were played to the accompaniment of short flutes called giggros. Baskets of quick-growing plants, such as fennel, barley, and lettuce, were set out to denote the transient life of the vegetation god. They wither fast because they have small root systems and are burned by the hot summer sun. Originally, the legend had it that Aphrodite laid the body of her dead Adonis on a bed of lettuce. In later Roman accounts he was mourned by Venus, who placed his body on an imperial bed of silver draped with purple.

The Greeks believed that the spirit of Adonis was present in swine, which were consequently sacrificed to him. Thus victim became conflated with killer, a reflection of the fact that life and death are part of the same continuum. In the rites for Aphrodite, references to swine are accompanied by references to Adonis.

Like Aphrodite, Adonis is linked to the myrrh tree, and its oil was used at his festival. Myrrh was also an embalming oil and was given to the infant Jesus by the Magi from the East as a symbol of his mortality—a reminder that he was doomed to die.

Barbara Gardner

Bibliography

Hesiod, and M. L. West, trans. Theogony and Works and Days. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Howatson, M. C. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.