At last the fair
youth was killed in hunting by a wild boar, or by the jealous Ares,
who turned himself into the likeness of a boar in order to compass
the death of his rival. Bitterly did Aphrodite lament her loved and
lost Adonis. In this form of the myth, the contest between Aphrodite
and Persephone for the possession of Adonis clearly reflects the
struggle between Ishtar and Allatu in the land of the dead, while
the decision of Zeus that Adonis is to spend one part of the year
under ground and another part above ground is merely a Greek version
of the annual disappearance and reappearance of Tammuz.
XXX. Adonis in Syria
THE MYTH of Adonis was localised and his rites celebrated with much
solemnity at two places in Western Asia. One of these was Byblus on
the coast of Syria, the other was Paphos in Cyprus. Both were great
seats of the worship of Aphrodite, or rather of her Semitic
counterpart, Astarte; and of both, if we accept the legends,
Cinyras, the father of Adonis, was king. Of the two cities Byblus
was the more ancient; indeed it claimed to be the oldest city in
Phoenicia, and to have been founded in the early ages of the world
by the great god El, whom Greeks and Romans identified with Cronus
and Saturn respectively.
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