At Alexandria images of Aphrodite and Adonis were
displayed on two couches; beside them were set ripe fruits of all
kinds, cakes, plants growing in flower-pots, and green bowers twined
with anise. The marriage of the lovers was celebrated one day, and
on the morrow women attired as mourners, with streaming hair and
bared breasts, bore the image of the dead Adonis to the sea-shore
and committed it to the waves. Yet they sorrowed not without hope,
for they sang that the lost one would come back again. The date at
which this Alexandrian ceremony was observed is not expressly
stated; but from the mention of the ripe fruits it has been inferred
that it took place in late summer. In the great Phoenician sanctuary
of Astarte at Byblus the death of Adonis was annually mourned, to
the shrill wailing notes of the flute, with weeping, lamentation,
and beating of the breast; but next day he was believed to come to
life again and ascend up to heaven in the presence of his
worshippers. The disconsolate believers, left behind on earth,
shaved their heads as the Egyptians did on the death of the divine
bull Apis; women who could not bring themselves to sacrifice their
beautiful tresses had to give themselves up to strangers on a
certain day of the festival, and to dedicate to Astarte the wages of
their shame.
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