n
mourning, sorrow was depicted in every face, and wails and weeping
resounded. Coffins were exposed at every door and borne in
numerous processions. Frail stalks of young corn and flowers were
thrown into the river to perish, as types of the premature death
of blooming Adonis, cut off like a plant in the bud of his age.22
The second day the whole aspect of things was changed, and the
greatest exultation prevailed, because it was said Adonis had
returned from the dead.23 Venus, having found him dead, deposited
his body on a bed of lettuce and mourned bitterly over him. From
his blood sprang the adonium, from her tears the anemone.24 The
Jews were captivated by the religious rites connected with this
touching myth, and even enacted them in the gates of their holy
temple. Ezekiel says, "Behold, at the gate of the Lord's house
which was towards the north [the direction of night and winter]
there sat women weeping for Tammuz." It was said that Aphrodite
prevailed on Persephone to let Adonis dwell one half the year with
her on earth, and only the rest among the shades, a plain
reference to vegetable life in summer and winter.25 Lucian, in his
little treatise on the Syrian Goddess, says that "the river
Adonis, rising out of Mount Libanus, at certain seasons flows red
in its channel: some say it is miraculously stained by the blood
of the fresh wounded youth; others say that the spring rains,
washing in a red ore from the soil of the country, discolor the
stream." Dupuis remarks that this redness was probably an artifice
of the priests.26 Milton's beautiful allusion to this fable is
familiar to most persons. Next came he "Whose annual wound in
Lebanon allured The Syrian damsels to lament his fate In amorous
ditties all a summer's day, While smooth Adonis from his native
rock Ran purple to the sea with Thammuz' blood."

20 Julius Firmicus, De Errore Prof. Relig.

21 Mithraica, Memoire Academique sur le Culte Solaire de Mithra,
par Joseph de Hammer, pp: 66-68, 125-127. Tertullian, Prescript.
ad Her., cap. xl. Porphyry, De Abstinentia, lib. iv. sect. 16.
Hyde. Hist. Vet. Pers. Relig., p. 254.

22 Hist. du Culte d'Adonis, Mem. Acad. des Inscript., vol. iv. p.
136.

23 Theocritus, Idyl XV.

24 Bion, Epitaph Adon., l. 66.

25 See references in Anthon's Class. Dict., art. Adonis.

26 Dupuis, Orig. de Cultes, vol. iv. p. 121, ed. 1822.

There is no end to the discussions concerning the secret purport
of this fascinating