"Adonis was a Greco-Roman version of a Semitic god of Mesopotamia who at various times was identified with Osiris and Tammmuz as well as with Jesus. Adonis' Semitic name, Adonai, means "the Lord." In some versions of his story he was born of a virgin (Myrrha), and some versions say that at his death he was castrated. After his death the red anemone sprang in symbolic resurrection from the earth. Early Chrisitian writers--Origen, Jerome, and others--report joyous celebrations of resurrection on the third day after his birth. The version here is the most famous and literary one; it is taken from The Metamorphoses of Ovid. It stresses the Aphrodite (Venus) relationship, which itself seems to point back to an earlier emphasis on the return of the sacrificed savior and god-king to the Great Mother, his castration or wound in the loins being a literal reaping of the seedbearing crop.

(Myrrha had been turned into a tree by the gods. She had conceived Adonis by her father.)

Myths of the Gods, p 153-155.

Ovid recounts in his Metamorphoses (10. 298-518) the legend of how the princess Myrrha, daughter of King Kinyras of Cyprus, conceived for her father an incestuous love, which with the aid of her nurse she contrived to satisfy, first on a festival night when her father was drunk with wine, and then eleven nights following, repeatedly, until the king, desiring at last to know what his mistress looked like, brought in a light and (as Ovid tells) "beheld his crime and his daughter."

Appalled and speechless, Kinyras reached for his sword; but his daughter had already fled. She had conceived, and full of shame prayed the gods to let her be nowhere among neither living men nor the dead. And some divinity--Zeus possibley, more probably Aphrodite--in pity turned her into the tree that weeps the fragrant g um known as myrrh.

In due time the growing child inside caused the tree to swell in mid-trunk, where it cracked and gave forth its burden--whom naiads gently received, laid on a bed of leaves, and annointed with his mother's tears.

The Mythic Image, p 267. .

Picture of the Birth of Adonis.

{Compare this to a modern day rite in Italy--}

. . . He now became the darling of Venus, and avenged the passion which had assailed his mother. For, while her son Cupid was kissing Venus, with his quiver on his shoulders, he unwittingly grazed her breast with an arrow which was projecting from the sheath. The injured goddess pushed her son away. The wound was deeper than it seemed, deeper than she herself at first realized. The goddess of Cythera, captivated by the beauty of a mortal, cared no more for her sea shores, ceased to visit seagirt Paphos, Cnidos rich in fishes, or Amathis with its valuable ores. She even stayed away from heaven, preferring Adonis to the sky.,

She used to hold him in her arms, and became his constant companion. Though she had always before been accustomed to idle in the shade, devoting all her attention to enhancing her beauty, now she roamed the ridges and woods and tree-clad rocks, her garments cought up as high as her knees, just as Diana wears hers, shouting encouragement to the dogs and pursuing such animals as it is safe to hunt--fleeing hares, deer, or stags with lofty antlers. She kept clear of sturdy wild boars and did not risk any encounter with thieving wolves, bears armed with claws, or lions that glut themselves on slain cattle. Hoping that her warnings might be of some avail, she advised Adonis, too, to beware of such creatures. "Show yourself bold when your quarry flees," she told him. It is not safe to be daring when the animal you are hunting is daring too.. . But, though she had warned Adonis, his natural courage ran contrary to her advice. By chance, his hounds came upon a well-marked trail and following the scent, roused a wild boar from its lair. As it was about to emerge from the woods, the young grandson of Cinyras pierced its side with a slanting blow. Immediately the fierce boar dislodged the bloodstained spear, with the help of its crooked snout, and then pursued the panic-stricken huntsman, as he was making for safety. It sank its teeth deep in his groin bringing him down, mortally wounded, on the yellow sand.

Venus, as she drove through the air in her light chariot drawn by winged swans, had not yet reached Cyprus. She recognized the groans of the dying Adonis from afar, and turned her white birds in his direction. As she looked down from on high she saw him, lying lifeless, his limbs still writhing in his own blood. Leaping down from her car, she tore at her bosom and at her hair, beat her breast with hands never meant for such a use, and reproached the fates. "But still," she cried, "you will not have everything under your absolute sway! There will be an everlasting token of my grief, Adonis. Every year, the scene of your death will be staged anew, and lamented with the wailing cries, in imitation of those cries of mine. But your blood will be changed into a flower. Persephone was once allowed to change a womans body into fragrant mint, and shall I be grudged the right to transform Cinyras' brave grandson?"

With these words, she sprinkled Adonis' blood with sweet-smelling nectar and, at the touch of the liquid, the blood swelled up, just as clear bubbles rise in yellow mud. Within an hour, a flower sprang up, the colour of blood, and in appearance like that of the pomegranate, the fruit which conceals its seeds under a leathery skin. But the enjoyment of this flower is of brief duration; for it is so fragile, its petals so lightly attached, that it quickly falls, shaken from its stem by those same winds that give it its name, anemone.

Myths of the Gods, p 153-155.

"The deity in quetion is Adonis, whose name is a Hellenized form of the Phoenician adoni, 'my Lord'. Greek and Latin poets and mythographers recounting the legend quote his father as being either a Syrian king called Theias or Cinyras, king of Cyprus, and his mother as Myrrha. According to legend she was changed into a tree and gave birth to a child of radiant beauty. Aphrodite took charge of the child and entrusted it to the care of Persephone, who became fond of it and refused to give it up. To cut short the ensuing argument Zeus decided that Adonis would spend a third of the year with Aphrodite, another third with Persephone, and could dispose of the rest of his time as he wished. Adonis chose to give these four months to Aphrodite. The story also told how Adonis died when out hunting, struck in the thigh by a wild boar."

Larousse World Mythology, p 94.

"Some years later, when Adonis was out hunting, a boar, sent to harm him either by Artemis (it is not really known why) or by Ares (who was jealous of the young man), gored the youth in the thigh and killed him. As Aphrodite hastened to his aid, she scratched her foot on a thorn, and the rose, which until that moment had always been white, became a deep red. From the blood of Adonis rose the anemone flower, which is so often seen in spring in the eastern Mediterranean lands."

Larousse World Mythology, p 132.