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Tammuz-Adonis THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 26$
late period and probably through Greek, not Semitic, agencies, came the establishment of the cult at Bethlehem, where, according to Jerome (Epist., lviii. 3, Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2 ser., vi. 120), there was a grove to Tammuz-Adonis, and in the cave of the nativity " lamentation was made for the paramour of Venus." The extinction of the cult in certain parts of Syria, notably at Aphaka, under Constantine is reported by Sozomen (Hist. eccl., ii. 5, Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2 ser., ii. 262j; yet the reports from Arabic sources by Chwolson (Die Ssabier, ut sup.) show its continuance much later.
It was not to be expected that a myth and a cult which wandered so widely as these of TammuzAdonis would retain everywhere their original forms. It is a law of the diffusion of religions that observances of a religious character in trans-
ri. Forms plantation to a new locus take on nat- of the orally, and, so to speak, unconsciously, Myth. something of the local character in order to domicile themselves and to become acceptable to the new clientele.* The scholia to classical authors make mention, too frequently for citation here, of the details of the cult. So the story and the rites of this deity, while faithful in the main to the Semitic originals so far as these can be made out and also often preserving the consciousness of this origin, yet in different localities differed in the minutiae. This has already been illustrated by the story of the finding in the Cypriote Argos of the body of the god, while the Phenician form locates the event in the Lebanon near Aphaka. The many epithets applied to Adonis illustrate the same fact -Kiris or Kirris (in Laconia), Memnon, Serach, Koare or Koros, Itaios, Abobas (in Pamphylia, from the Semitic abub, " flute "), Gingras, Hoies or Aces or Ao (among the Dorians), Gauss, Pygmaion (in Cyprus; cf. Hesychius, s.v. " Pygmaion "), Luch nos, Pherektes (cf. for many of these O. Gruppe, ut sup., s.v. " Adonis "). Each of these applied to Adonis probably has reference to or suggestion of local peculiarity of observance or conception. The genius of Greek mythology required that a father be found for the deity, the Babylonian conception being lost in the distance both of space and time. The principal story in the `Vest was that Aphrodite, in revenge for a slight upon her beauty by the queen of Iiinyras, king of Cyprus, in declaring her daugh ter more fair than the goddess, inspired the unfortu nate girl with an illicit passion for her own father, which for twelve nights she contrived to indulge. When the father discovered the identity of his com panion, in horror he pursued her with drawn sword, and the girl was saved from him only by being metamorphosed into a myrtle-tree (Apollodorus, III., xiv. 4). The story of the birth then assumes various forms-the father cleaves the tree, and Adonis is born; or in ten months the tree parts of itself to give birth to the beautiful young god; or a boar (one of the constant elements of the myth) rips the bark with his tusk and so brings the boy* Of course it is not to be forgotten that the story and cult of Adonis were bound up with that of the goddess with whom he was associated, and that the accounts of him underwent variations more or less concordant with those of Aphrodite in different environments.
to birth (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, iii. 182, ed. R. Wagner, Leipsie, 1894; Ovid, Metamorphoses, x. 298-502; Vergil, Eclogues, x. 18; and the glossator on the same author's lEneid, v. 71). Both the father and the mother are variously connected with both Cyprus and Phenicia. The father is Agenor, or Phoinix (an evident recollection of the derivation of the cult from Phenicia), or Theias (Panyasis, fifth century B.C., cited in Apollodorus, III., xiv. 4; Athenaeus, X., Lxxxiii. 456, ed. W. Dindorf, 3 vole., Leipsic, 1827); the mother is Aoa or Metharme (in Cyprus) in place of Myrrha, or Alphesiboia (so Hesiod, ut sup.); and Adonis has as children Amymone, Golgos, Melos, Priapos, and Zariadres (Theoeritus, Idyl, xv.; glossator on Vergil's Eclogues, viii. 37; cf. SBE, xxiii. 80). The accounts of the death vary also-Ares (or Hephaestus) caused it by means of the boar, or one or the other transformed himself into that animal, or Apollo did it in revenge for the blinding of his son Erymanthos by Aphrodite when by him she was seen bathing. The place of the death was variously located in the Lebanon, at Argos in Cyprus, and at Idalim. Once more the duration of the stay of Adonis in Hades is differently given. The principal thread of the Greek myth records that on his birth Aphrodite received him and hid him in a chest which she gave to Proserpine to guard. But his beauty won the love of the latter, and she refused to give him up to Aphrodite. Appeal was then made to Zeus, who adjudged possession of him for a third of the year to Proserpine, another third to Aphrodite, while the rest of the year was at his own disposal, and he gave it to Aphrodite. Other accounts divide the year equally between the two goddesses, or give the larger part to Proserpine.
It is not at all improbable that at many places where the Adonis cult became domesticated there was already a worship not alien in character. This would prove the solution of a number of problems which arise. It is not merely probable but certain that other cults of a kind not antagonistic in idea came in upon the Adonis worship and fused with it or modified it. Thus confusion came to
ra. Identi- exist as to the particular deity in fication whose honor the rites were performed, with Other or the deities were identified. Among Deities. those with whom Adonis was either confused or identified were Apollo, Apsyrtos (O. Gruppe, ut sup., p. 576 note), Epaphos (Apollodorus, IL, ix.; Mnaseas, in R. and T. Miil ler's Fragments, iii. 155, no. 37), Phxthon ('.Cimon, in Miiller, ut sup., iv. 522, no. 3). But of especial note were Attis and Osiris. The closeness of rela tionship of these may be seen in a somewhat over emphasized form in J. G. Frazer's Adonis, Attis, and Osiris, passim (London, 1906). The connection with Osiris comes out particularly in the story of the body of Osiris, or his head, later rationalized into a letter, which was yearly committed to the sea at Alexandria and made its way to Byblus (bI. H. Ohnefalseh-Richter, Kypros, die Bibel and Homer, pp. 219-220, Berlin, 1893): The mourning of Isis for Osiris, to say nothing of that of the farmers who called on Isis as they cut the first sheaf of grain (Diodorus Siculus, L, xiv. 2), as well as the search
