Adonis

An ancient Greek god. The Greeks knew Adonis as a god who was imported from the ancient Near East. His name seems to bear out this idea. It seems related to the Semitic word adon, which means "lord." Adonis fi gured prominently in The Golden Bough, a well-known collection of mythology by James George FRAZER. According to Frazer, Adonis was a typical god of vegetation. He died and rose again in imitation of plant life. The ancients did indeed know some stories about Adonis being restored to life. But these stories were told about Adonis only at a very late period. According to some myths the GODDESSES Aphrodite and Persephone struggled over Adonis. As a result, he spent part of the year with each of them in turn. According to another famous myth, told by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses, Adonis was a favorite of Aphrodite who was killed by a wild boar while hunting. The women of Athens worshipped Adonis by planting gardens on their rooftops during the hot summer months. When the plants died, they mourned the god's death.