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Real Name |
Adonis |
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First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
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Greek Myth |
Origin[]
In Greek mythology, Adonis was the mortal lover of the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone. He was famous and considered to be the ideal of male beauty in classical antiquity.
Adonis was the son of Myrrha, who was cursed by Aphrodite with insatiable lust for her own father, King Cinyras of Cyprus, after Myrrha's mother bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than the goddess. It was to her nurse that, with much reluctance, Myrrha revealed her shameful passion. Sometime later, during a festival in honour of Demeter, the nurse found Cinyras half-passed out with wine and Myrrha's mother nowhere near him. Thus, she spoke to him of a girl who truly loved him and desired to sleep with him, giving him a fictitious name and simply describing her as Myrrha's age. Cinyras agreed, and the nurse was quick to bring Myrrha to him. Myrrha left her father's room impregnated. After several couplings, Cinyras discovered his lover's identity and drew his sword to kill her; driven out after becoming pregnant, Myrrha was changed into a myrrh tree but still gave birth to Adonis. According to classicist William F. Hansen, the story of how Adonis was conceived falls in line with the conventional ideas about sex and gender that were prevalent in the classical world, since the Greeks and Romans believed that women, such as Adonis's mother Myrrha, were less capable of controlling their primal wants and passions than men.
Aphrodite found the baby, and took him to the underworld to be fostered by Persephone. She returned for him once he was grown and discovered him to be strikingly handsome. However, Persephone too found Adonis to be exceedingly handsome and wanted to keep Adonis for she too fell in love with him; Zeus settled the dispute by decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of the year with Aphrodite, one third with Persephone, and one third with whomever he chose. Adonis chose Aphrodite, and they remained constantly together. Another version states that both goddesses got to keep him for half the year each at the suggestion of the Muse Calliope. Thus was Adonis' life divided between Aphrodite and Persephone, one goddess who loved him beneath the earth, the other above it. In his comical work Dialogues of the Gods, the satirical author Lucian features Aphrodite in several dialogues, in one of which she complains to the moon goddess Selene that Eros made Persephone fall in love with Adonis and now she has to share him with her.
The myth goes that Adonis was gored by a wild boar during a hunting trip and died in Aphrodite's arms as she wept. His blood mingled with her tears and became the anemone flower. Aphrodite declared the Adonia festival to commemorate his tragic death, celebrated by women every year in midsummer. During this festival, Greek women would plant "gardens of Adonis", small pots containing fast-growing plants, which they would set on top of their houses in the hot sun. The plants would sprout but soon wither and die. Then, the women would mourn the death of Adonis, tearing their clothes and beating their breasts in a public display of grief.
In a very different version from the standard, surviving in the works of fifth century AD grammarian Servius and perhaps originating from the island of Cyprus, Adonis was made to fall in love with a mortal girl named Erinoma by Aphrodite herself at the command of Hera. Erinoma, a virgin girl favoured by Artemis and Athena, rejected his advances, so Adonis crept up stealthily in her bedroom and raped her. Adonis then fled and went into a cave to hide from Zeus, who also loved Erinoma and would surely avenge the violence done against her. Hermes, however, lured him with a trick, as Ares wounded him mortally in the form of a boar. Adonis died, but was eventually restored to life after Aphrodite begged Zeus. Erinoma bore him a son named Taleus.
Adonis was also said to have been loved by other gods such as Apollo, Heracles, and Dionysus. He was described as androgynous, for he acted like a man in his affections for Aphrodite but as a woman for Apollo. "Androgynous" here means that Adonis took on a receptive role during sex with Apollo, which was interpreted in classical Greece to be the feminine position.
Heracles' love of Adonis is mentioned in passing by Ptolemy Hephaestion. The text states that due to his love of Adonis, Aphrodite taught Nessos the centaur the trap to ensnare him.
Another tradition states that Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and madness, carried off Adonis.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of Adonis from before January 1, 1929 are public domain in the US.
Some notable appearances are listed below:
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Metamorphoses
- Bibliotheke
- Roman de la Rose (1275)
- Adonis (1563)
- The Faerie Queene (1590)
- Venus and Adonis (1593)
- L'Adone (1623)
- Dialogues of the Gods (1905)
- The Greek Anthology (1916)
Public Domain Comic Appearances Inspired by Adonis[]
- Stuntman #3, Green Hornet Comics #37-38: Thomas Huxley Andover was the top scholar of the university's science department and also a talented sculptor. He was recruited by Professor Homer to prove his theory that the next champion boxer should be selected based on brain power instead of brute force. They name him Kid Adonis due to his resemblance to the mythic figure of Adonis that he was sculpting when they were introduced.
- Amazing Adventures #4:Shlep and Blep, scouts for an invasion from the planet Blyntzyn, create robots to test for their invasion. They used the power of love against the humans. The male robot is named Adonis 2-PX-89 while the female is Venus 1-XP-98.