Adonis

Adonis
Mortal lover of Aphrodite & Persephone
The Adonis Uffizi, made from pentelic marble, 2nd century BC, currently held in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
Symbol	anemones, as well as lettuce, fennel, and other fast-growing plants
Festivals	Adonia
Genealogy
Parents	Phoenix and Alphesiboea (by Hesiod) Cinyras and Myrrha (by Ovid)
Consort	Aphrodite, Persephone
Children	Golgos, Beroe
Equivalents
Canaanite	Adon
Mesopotamian	Dumuzid

In Greek mythology, Adonis (Ancient Greek: Ἄδωνις, romanized: Adōnis; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤃𐤍, romanized: Adón) was the mortal lover of the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone. He was famous and considered to be the ideal of male beauty in classical antiquity.

The myth goes that Adonis was gored by a wild boar during a hunting trip and died in Aphrodite's arms as she wept. His blood mingled with her tears and became the anemone flower. Aphrodite declared the Adonia festival to commemorate his tragic death, celebrated by women every year in midsummer. During this festival, Greek women would plant "gardens of Adonis", small pots containing fast-growing plants, which they would set on top of their houses in the hot sun. The plants would sprout but soon wither and die. Then, the women would mourn the death of Adonis, tearing their clothes and beating their breasts in a public display of grief.

The Greeks considered Adonis's cult to be of Near Eastern origin. Adonis's name comes from a Canaanite word meaning "lord" and most modern scholars consider the story of Aphrodite and Adonis to be derived from a Levantine version of the earlier Mesopotamian myth of Inanna (Ishtar) and Dumuzid (Tammuz).

In late 19th and early 20th century scholarship of religion, Adonis was widely seen as a prime example of the archetypal dying-and-rising god. His name is often applied in modern times to handsome youths, of whom he is considered the archetype.