Since ancient times, people have revered the deity forever reborn after the winter cold. The first example is the Sumerian god, Tammuz. After the Akkadians took their place in Mesopotamia, they appropriated all the religious ideas of the Sumerians. They also wept with weeping and wailing the death of the shepherd Tammuz, who was the bridegroom and lover of the goddess Inanna, and later - Astarte. Then the cult of fertility fell into the mythology of the Egyptians and through Crete - to the Greeks. They replaced Astarte with Aphrodite.
Birth of adonis
The birth of a lovely baby was associated with a scandalous story. Cyprus was ruled by the wise and fair King Kineer. His wife boasted that their daughter was more beautiful than Aphrodite. Girl Mirra did not want to read Aphrodite. The goddess came up with how viciously one can take revenge on a wretch: she inspired her with a passion for her own father. At night, the nurse introduced Mirra into the royal chambers. Under cover of darkness, King Kineer, drunk with wine, did not recognize his daughter, and she conceived a son from him. In the morning, seeing with whom he spent the night full of passion, the king became angry and, cursing, decided to kill her. But the gods this time were merciful. Aphrodite repented and allowed Mirra to escape. She turned the maiden into a myrrh tree. In it, under the crown in the trunk, a baby grew. In a rage, his father cut the trunk with a sword, and a baby fell out of it.
So Adonis was born. From infancy he was beautiful. Aphrodite put him in a casket and handed it to the mistress of the underworld - Persephone. This is where the question arises: is Adonis a god or not a god? Judging by his origin, he was just a man. Persephone raised and raised a boy. The beautiful young man became her secret lover.
Cult of adonis
The Hellenes borrowed the myth of Adonis from the Phoenicians and Egyptians. His name translates as "lord" or "lord." In Asia Minor and Egypt, Adonis is the god of a dying and resurrected nature. In Hellas, in honor of a beautiful young man who was not a god, holidays were held for three days in the summer. Dying and then alive, he resurrected nature. For the Hellenes, the heyday of all life on earth was a great triumph, and for them Adonis was the god of the best season of the year. The cult of the demigod was especially magnificent in Athens and Alexandria. In the Bible on the first day in mourning robes, everyone mourned his death and death of all plants. Then, with hymns and joyful songs, they met his return to earth. In Athens and Alexandria, the order would be exactly the opposite: on the first day, the wedding of Adonis and Aphrodite consulted - a symbol of the flourishing of life. The next day was mourning. Everywhere there were pots and bowls with pre-grown wheat, lettuce, anise, and they were thrown into the water where they died. In Egypt, in Alexandria, the festivities took place most magnificently. The statues of Aphrodite and Adonis were laid on purple beds and surrounded by “Adonis gardens”, arbors twined with greens, fruits, amphora with honey and oil, pies, animal images. Singers and singers sang hymns in which they asked to return Adonis next year. The next day, the women, letting go of hair with grief, mourned the loss and hoped for his return. Thus grief and hope were united, and the fate of Adonis became a symbol of the immortality of the soul. This was Adonis in ancient Greek mythology.
Aphrodite
The most beautiful of the beautiful goddesses was born near the island of Kiefer from a drop of blood of Uranus, which formed a snow-white foam.
Aphrodite emerged from it, and she was blown to Cyprus by the wind. On it, she appeared from the blue waves of the sea, and she was met by Ora - the goddess of the seasons. Beauty became the wife of Hephaestus. Jack of all trades made a magic belt for his wife. The husband concluded all kinds of seduction in him: desire, love, words of temptation and temptation, blinding and self-deception. Gods and mere mortals fell in love with her. With Hephaestus, whom Aphrodite cheated on left and right, the gods divorced her and she became the wife of Ares. But this did not stop the passionate passion that Aphrodite experienced for a beautiful young man.
Return of the young man to the surface of the earth
Time passed, and Aphrodite went down to the underworld to find out from Persephone where her casket is. Queen Aida called the young man. His unearthly, divine beauty lit in the heart of the goddess of beauty love at first sight and crazy passion. She began to insist that Adonis, the god of beauty, as she saw it, return to her. Persephone refused.
Then Aphrodite all in tears rushed with a complaint to Zeus. He, the supreme judge in all controversial issues, did not want to interfere in women's squabbles and referred the controversial case to a court, where the chairman was Muse Calliope, the patroness of eloquence and heroic poetry. She was wise and wore a crown that showed her supremacy over all other muses. She was able to awaken the overcoming of egoism and cause sacrifice. At the trial, it was decided that Aphrodite and Persephone had equal rights to the young man. Nobody asked him himself. The year of Calliope was divided into three parts. A third belonged to Persephone, a third to Aphrodite and the last part to Adonis himself, so that he would have fun as he wished. It was a fair decision.
Adonis life on earth
Tender, forever young, blue-eyed, with long wavy golden hair and a wreath of fragrant flowers, with pearling skin, surrounded by Orami and Kharitas - such was the goddess of heaven, sea, love, beauty and fertility.
She spent all her time on Olympus, occasionally going down to earth. There, lovely songbirds accompanied her, and wild animals fondled her, and after every step she took, strange flowers grew.
In order to tighten the young man who was more beautiful than many gods to himself, the celestial lady never forgot to put on her belt. Adonis and Aphrodite spent all time on earth together. A tender girl, forgetting about the scorching sun, participated in a hunt, which a young handsome man passionately loved to have fun with.
The beloved of the god Adonis begged him not to hunt for huge wild boars, bears and lions that can kill a person, but to amuse himself with the prey of ducks, hares, and roe deer. In blooming bushes on earth, Persephone was forgotten. There was only Aphrodite - that was whom God Adonis loved.
Death of a youth
The gods who molested Aphrodite, but were rejected by her, looked with envy at this love and told her husband Ares about everything. He was furious decided to take revenge. Once Adonis went hunting alone. His dogs raised from the den a huge powerful boar, which weighed approximately 200 kg.
Perhaps Ares himself turned into a formidable boar, either Persephone forgotten by all, or the angry mistress of all the animals, Diana. It is these versions that myths offer.
And Adonis himself, hearing a furious flood of barking packs of dogs, was full of excitement and forgot the instructions of his beloved. Dogs clung to the thick skin of a boar and held him with all their might. The young man aimed his spear, but hesitated. The boar threw himself off the dogs and rushed at the hunter. With his fang, he pierced an artery on his hip. Having fallen from the horse to the ground, the unfortunate instantly bled to death and died.
Searches for Aphrodite
When the goddess learned of the death of her lover, she rushed through the mountains, groves and bushes, shedding tears, in search of Adonis. Every wound on her leg was bleeding. Where her blood fell, a scarlet rose immediately grew - a symbol of unfading love. She found him in the thicket of wild onion - lettuce.
Since then, he always causes tears to those who touch him. From the blood of her beloved with the help of nectar, Aphrodite grew an anemone with delicate petals. The wind rips them off as easily as Adonis's life ended. On the island of Crete, the goddess planted a pomegranate, whose flowers are delicate, and the juice of the fruits is like blood. She wanted to deprive herself of an unnecessary life now and threw herself from a cliff into the sea. But the gods are immortal. Aphrodite remained alive. Seeing the inconsolable grief of Aphrodite, Zeus ordered Hades and Persephone to release every spring until the fall of Adonis to earth. When he returns from the kingdom of shadows, then nature begins to come to life and rejoice: everything grows rapidly, blossoms and bears fruit.
Son of Adonis and Aphrodite
According to one version of the myth, lovers had a son - Eros. This is the god of love. He knows how to bring happiness or sorrow, as he wants. No one can escape his well-aimed arrows. The playful kid is having fun, shooting them at the target, and laughing joyfully. His arrows carry a happy or unhappy unrequited love, with torment and suffering. Zeus knew about this and wanted his grandson to be killed immediately as soon as he was born. But Aphrodite hid the baby in the wilds of the forest. There he was fed with milk two formidable lionesses. Eros has grown, and now there is love on earth, now bitter and desperate, then full of happiness.
