Adonis

Adonis, in Greek Mythology, a youth of marvellous beauty, beloved by Aphrodite. He was killed by a boar while hunting, and the goddess, coming too late to his rescue, changed his blood into flowers.—A yearly festival was celebrated in honour of Adonis, and consisted of two parts—a mourning for his departure to the under world, and a rejoicing for his return to Aphrodite. This festival, widely spread among the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, was celebrated with peculiar pomp at Byblus and Alexandria. Before the festival, wheat, fennel, and lettuce were sown in earthen and even in silver pots, and forced by heat; intended to indicate, doubtless, by their brief bloom, the transitoriness of earthly joy. The myths connected with Adonis belong originally to the East. They display a worship of the powers of nature conjoined with that of the heavenly bodies, and Adonis himself appears to be the god of the solar year. The similarity of the name to the Phœnician Adon, which signified 'lord,' is unmistakable; and this word Adon was specially applied to the king of heaven, the sun.