XX.-SOME GENERAL SYMBOLS AND SYMBOLIC FIGURES FOUND IN EARLY ART
Acacia. A mystical symbol remarkable for its reproductive powers and used by the Egyptians in their capitals and thence borrowed by the Greeks. Adonis. The mother of Adonis was fabled to have been changed into a tree which at the end of nine months burst, and Adonis was born. The story of his being found as an infant by Aphrodite and concealed in a chest which the goddess gave to Persephone who refused to give him up until Zeus, appealed to by Aphrodite commanded that Adonis spend six months with each, is simply a variant of the Babylonian myth of Ishtar and Tammuz. Adonis grows up into a beautiful youth, is the beloved of Aphrodite who shares with him the pleasures of the chase. One legend relates that Ares (Mars) jealous of Aphrodite's love for him transformed himself into a wild boar and killed him. Others represent Adonis as being carried off by Dionysos. Another tells of Aphrodite rushing to the spot where her lover was wounded and sprinkling his blood with nectar from which flowers sprang up. In one myth Aphrodite changes him into a flower. Scarlet anemones were said to have sprung from the blood of Adonis. One of the loveliest myths is that the red rose owes its hue to the death of Adonis. Aphrodite hastening to her wounded lover trod on a bush of white roses. The thorns tore her tender flesh and stained the roses forever red. Worship of Adonis is thought to have originated in Phrenicia spreading from there to Assyria, Egypt, Greece and Italy. In the Asiatic cults Aphrodite is the fructifying principle in nature and Adonis the twice-born god who dies in winter and is revived in the spring. The festivals of Adonis were celebrated in Athens, Alexandria, Byblus and many other places.
