1.
Caryatid
A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means maidens of Karyai, an ancient town of Peloponnese, the best-known and most-copied examples are those of the six figures of the Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis at Athens. One of those original six figures, removed by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century, is now in the British Museum in London, the Acropolis Museum holds the other five figures, which are replaced onsite by replicas. The five originals that are in Athens are now being exhibited in the new Acropolis Museum, the pedestal for the Caryatid removed to London remains empty. From 2011 to 2015, they were cleaned by a specially constructed laser beam, each Caryatid was cleaned in place, with a television circuit relaying the spectacle live to museum visitors. Their bulky, intricately arranged hairstyles serve the purpose of providing static support to their necks.
The Romans copied the Erechtheion caryatids, installing copies in the Forum of Augustus and the Pantheon in Rome, another Roman example, found on the Via Appia, is the Townley Caryatid. Early interior examples are the figures of Hercules and Iole carved on the jambs of a fireplace in the Sala della Jole of the Doges Palace, Venice. In the following century Jacopo Sansovino, both sculptor and architect, carved a pair of female figures supporting the shelf of a marble chimneypiece at Villa Garzoni, near Padua. No architect mentioned the device until 1615, when Palladios pupil Vincenzo Scamozzi included a chapter devoted to chimneypieces in his Idea della archittura universale. In the early 17th century, interior examples appear in Jacobean interiors in England, many caryatids lined up on the facade of the 1893 Palace of the Arts housing the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. In the arts of design, the draped figure supporting an acanthus-grown basket capital taking the form of a candlestick or a table-support is a familiar cliché of neoclassical decorative arts, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota has caryatids as a motif on its eastern facade.
Auguste Rodins 1881 sculpture Fallen Caryatid Carrying her Stone shows a fallen caryatid, robert Heinlein described this piece in Stranger in a Strange Land, Now here we have another emotional symbol. For almost three years or longer, architects have designed buildings with columns shaped as female figures. After all those centuries it took Rodin to see that this was too heavy for a girl. Here is this poor little caryatid who has tried — and failed and she didnt give up, shes still trying to lift that stone after it has crushed her. The origins of the term are unclear and it is first recorded in the Latin form caryatides by the Roman architect Vitruvius. However, Vitruvius explanation is doubtful, well before the Persian Wars, female figures were used as supports in Greece
2.
Areopagus
The Areopagus is a prominent rock outcropping located northwest of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Its English name is the form of the Greek name Areios Pagos. In classical times, it functioned as the court for trying deliberate homicide, Ares was supposed to have been tried here by the gods for the murder of Poseidons son Halirrhothius. The origin of its name is not clear, in Ancient Greek, πάγος pagos means big piece of rock. Later, the Romans referred to the hill as Mars Hill, after Mars. Near the Areopagus was constructed the basilica of Dionysius Areopagites, in pre-classical times, the Areopagus was the council of elders of the city, similar to the Roman Senate. Like the Senate, its membership was restricted to those who had high public office. In 594 BC, the Areopagus agreed to hand over its functions to Solon for reform and he instituted democratic reforms, reconstituted its membership and returned control to the organization. In 462 BC, Ephialtes put through reforms which deprived the Areopagus of almost all its functions except that of a tribunal in favour of Heliaia.
In The Eumenides of Aeschylus, the Areopagus is the site of the trial of Orestes for killing his mother and her lover, the hetaera from 4th century BC Greece and famed for her beauty, appeared before the Areopagus accused of profaning the Eleusinian mysteries. One story has her letting her cloak drop, so impressing the judges with her almost divine form that she was summarily acquitted, in an unusual development, the Areopagus acquired a new function in the 4th century BC, investigating corruption, although conviction powers remained with the Ecclesia. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth, the term Areopagus refers to the judicial body of aristocratic origin that subsequently formed the higher court of modern Greece. Areopagus sermon Areopagus of Eastern Continental Greece, a regional Greek administration during the Greek Revolution of 1821, the Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens by Gustav Gilbert Pantologia by John Mason Good, Olinthus Gregory, Newton Bosworth.
P.565 The London Encyclopaedia, Volume 2, P.647 Acts 17, 16-34 – A Biblical account of St. Paul discussing with the Areopagus the nature of the Christian God. Also referred to is the story concerning the altar to The Unknown God
3.
Dionysus
Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest and wine, of ritual madness, fertility and religious ecstasy in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. He may have been worshipped as early as c, 1500–1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks, traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms, some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, in some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner, in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, the god that comes and his festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre. The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a male and robed. He holds a staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, naked or half-naked androgynous youth, in its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized.
His procession is made up of female followers and bearded satyrs with erect penises, some are armed with the thyrsus. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers and this procession is presumed to be the cult model for the followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. He is known as Bacchus, the adopted by the Romans. His thyrsus, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. As Eleutherios, his wine and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care and those who partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself. The cult of Dionysus is a cult of the souls, his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings and he is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity, Dionysus had a strange birth that evokes the difficulty in fitting him into the Olympian pantheon.
His mother was a woman, the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes, and his father was Zeus. Zeus wife, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant, appearing as an old crone, Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semeles mind, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood
4.
Minor places in Beleriand
J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth legendarium contains many locations. Some of the places in the region of Beleriand during the First Age are described below. It is to be supposed that all of them were destroyed in the Drowning of Beleriand during the War of Wrath unless otherwise noted, Aelin-uial A marshy confluence of Aros in Sirion, held to be a part of Doriath. It was protected by the Girdle of Melian and secret ferries were maintained on the east shore. This area had a connection to Ulmo, who was able to send visions to both Finrod and Turgon bidding them to seek a place where a stronghold hidden from the eyes of Morgoth could be established. Aglon See Pass of Aglon Amon Darthir A peak in the Ered Wethrin to the south-east of Dor-lómin, the stream of Nen Lalaith sprang from its side, and after the coming of the Easterlings some outlaws of the House of Hador maintained a refuge in a cave here. Amon Ereb The broad, shallow-sided hill between Ramdal and the river Gelion that dominated the plains of East Beleriand.
The hill was called Ereb for short, Amon Ethir A hill raised artificially by the people of Finrod in the wide plain of Talath Dirnen, a league east of the Doors of Nargothrond above the river Narog. After the Sack of Nargothrond, the hill still stood, having plunged the land into a thick fog of dragon-reek, so that only the hill remained above the mists, he cast Nienor into a deep spell of darkness and forgetfulness. Amon Rûdh In the First Age, Amon Rûdh was a hill south of Brethil in West Beleriand. It had only deep red flowers called seregon stones blood growing on its top, Mîm the Petty-dwarf lived within Amon Rûdh with his two sons, Ibûn and Khîm. Mîm was captured by a group of outlaws led by Túrin Turambar and forced to reveal the location of his refuge, which was called Bar-en-Danwedh House of Ransom. When it was discovered that Khîm, who had shot at, had actually been killed, Túrin repented and offered his services to Mîm. Túrins location was discovered and orcs slew the outlaws and captured Turambar.
Amon Rûdh was lost under the sea with the destruction of Beleriand during the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age, Andram A long line of hills that ran across Beleriand, from Nargothrond and the Gates of Sirion in the west to Ramdal in the east. It marked a steep fall in the height of the land of Beleriand, at the easternmost edge stood Amon Ereb, which usually was not considered a part of the Andram. Androth A complex of caves in the Mountains of Mithrim, after Nírnaeth Arnoediad, some of the Sindar and Edain that survived the battle took refuge there. Tuor was fostered by the Elves of Androth, Annon-in-Gelydh A subterranean passage below the Ered Lómin
5.
Peplos
A peplos is a body-length garment established as typical attire for women in ancient Greece by 500 BC. It was a long, tubular cloth with the top folded down about halfway, so that what was the top of the tube was now draped below the waist. The garment was gathered about the waist and the folded top edge pinned over the shoulders. The folded-down top of the tube provided the appearance of a piece of clothing. The peplos was draped and open on one side of the body and it should not be confused with the Ionic chiton, which was a piece of fabric folded over and sewn together along the longer side to form a tube. The Classical garment is represented in Greek vase painting from the 5th century BC, spartan women continued to wear the peplos much in history than other Greek cultures, causing other Greeks to call them phainomērídes the thigh-showers. They had to weave a theme of Athenas defeat of Enkelados, the peplos of the statue was changed each year during the Plynteria. The peplos played a role in the Athenian festival of the Great Panathenaea, nine months before the festival, at the arts and crafts festival titled Chalkeia, a special peplos would begin to be woven by young women.
This peplos was placed on the statue of Athena during the festival procession, the peplos had myths and stories woven into its material and usually consisted of purple and saffron yellow cloth. Chiton Clothing in ancient Greece Clothing in the ancient world Peplos Greek Dress Peplum dresses
6.
Ionia
Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements, never a unified state, it was named after the Ionian tribe who, in the Archaic Period, settled mainly the shores and islands of the Aegean Sea. Ionian states were identified by tradition and by their use of Eastern Greek and it was bounded by Aeolia to the north, Lydia to the east and Caria to the south. The cities within the region figured large in the strife between the Persian Empire and the Greeks, according to Greek tradition, the cities of Ionia were founded by colonists from the other side of the Aegean. Their settlement was connected with the history of the Ionic people in Attica, which asserts that the colonists were led by Neleus and Androclus, sons of Codrus. So intricate is the coastline that the voyage along its shores was estimated at four times the direct distance. A great part of area was, occupied by mountains.
None of these mountains attains a height of more than 1,200 metres, the geography of Ionia placed it in a strategic position that was both advantageous and disadvantageous. Ionia was always a maritime power founded by a people who made their living by trade in peaceful times, the coast was rocky and the arable land slight. The native Luwians for the most part kept their fields further inland, the coastal cities were placed in defensible positions on islands or headlands situated so as to control inland routes up the rift valleys. The people of those valleys were of different ethnicity, the populations of the cities came from many civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean. Ancient demographics are available only from literary sources, Herodotus states that in Asia the Ionians kept the division into twelve cities that had prevailed in Ionian lands of the north Peloponnese, their former homeland, which became Achaea after they left. These Asian cities were Miletus, Priene, Colophon, Teos, Erythrae and Phocaea, together with Samos and Chios.
Smyrna, originally an Aeolic colony, was occupied by Ionians from Colophon. These cities do not match those of Achaea, the Achaea of Herodotus time spoke Doric, but in Homer it is portrayed as being in the kingdom of Mycenae, which most likely spoke Mycenaean Greek, which is not Doric. If the Ionians came from Achaea, they departed during or after the change from East Greek to West Greek there, Mycenaean continued to evolve in the mountainous region of Arcadia. Miletus and some other cities founded earlier by non-Greeks received populations of Mycenaean Greeks probably under the name of Achaeans, the tradition of Ionian colonizers from Achaea suggests that they may have been known by both names even then. In the Indian historic literary texts, the Ionians are referred to as yavanar or yona, in modern Turkish, the people of that region were called yunan and the country that is now Greece is known as Yunanistan
7.
Moirai
In Greek mythology, the Moirai or Moerae /ˈmɪrˌiː/ or /ˈmiːˌriː/, often known in English as the Fates, were the white-robed incarnations of destiny, their Roman equivalent was the Parcae. Their number became fixed at three, Clotho and Atropos and they controlled the mother thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. They were independent, at the helm of necessity, directed fate, in the Homeric poems Moira or Aisa, is related with the limit and end of life, and Zeus appears as the guider of destiny. In the Theogony of Hesiod, the three Moirai are personified, daughters of Nyx and are acting over the gods, they are daughters of Zeus and Themis, who was the embodiment of divine order and law. In Platos Republic the Three Fates are daughters of Ananke and it seems that Moira is related with Tekmor and with Ananke, who were primeval goddesses in mythical cosmogonies. The ancient Greek writers might call this power Moira or Ananke, the concept of a universal principle of natural order has been compared to similar concepts in other cultures like the Vedic Rta, the Avestan Asha and the Egyptian Maat.
In earliest Greek philosophy, the cosmogony of Anaximander is based on these mythical beliefs, the goddess Dike, keeps the order and sets a limit to any actions. Moira may mean portion or share in the distribution of booty, portion in life, destiny, portion of the distributed land. The word is used for something which is meet and right It seems that originally the word moira did not indicate destiny but included ascertainment or proof. The word daemon, which was an agent related to unexpected events, the word dike, conveyed the notion that someone should stay within his own specified boundaries, respecting the ones of his neighbour. If someone broke his boundaries, thus getting more than his ordained part, in modern Greek the word came to mean destiny. Kismet, the course of events in the Muslim traditions, seems to have a similar etymology and function, Arabic qismat lot qasama, to divide. As a loanword, qesmat fate appears in Persian, whence in Urdu language, when they were three, the three Moirai were, Clotho spun the thread of life from her Distaff onto her Spindle.
Her Roman equivalent was Nona, who was originally a goddess called upon in the month of pregnancy. Lachesis measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod, Atropos was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner of each death, and when their time was come. In the Republic of Plato, the three Moirai sing in unison with the music of the Seirenes, Lachesis sings the things that were, Clotho the things that are, and Atropos the things that are to be. Pindar in his Hymn to the Fates, holds them in high honour, send us rose-bossomed Lawfulness, and her sisters on glittering thrones and crowned Peace, and make this city forget the misfortunes which lie heavily on her heart
8.
Ariadne
Ariadne, in Greek mythology, was the daughter of Minos, King of Crete, Son of Zeus and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios. She is mostly associated with mazes and labyrinths because of her involvement in the myths of the Minotaur and her father put her in charge of the labyrinth where sacrifices were made as part of reparations, she helped Theseus overcome the Minotaur and save the potential sacrificial victims. In other stories, she became the bride of the god Dionysus, since ancient Greek myths are passed down through oral tradition, many variations of this and other myths exist. According to an Athenian version of the legend, Minos attacked Athens after his son was killed there, the Athenians asked for terms, and were required to sacrifice seven young men and seven maidens to the Minotaur every seven or nine years. One year, the party included Theseus, the son of King Aegeus. Ariadne fell in love at first sight, and helped him by giving him a sword and a ball of thread, so that he could find his way out of the Minotaurs labyrinth.
She eloped with Theseus after he achieved his goal, but according to Homer he had no joy of her, for ere that, Artemis slew her in seagirt Dia because of the witness of Dionysus. Homer does not expand on the nature of Dionysuss accusation, in Hesiod and most other accounts, Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, and Dionysus rediscovered and wedded her. The vase-painters of Athens often showed Athena leading Theseus from the sleeping Ariadne to his ship. With Dionysus, she was the mother of Oenopion, the personification of wine, Thoas, Phanus, Enyeus, Maron, Euanthes and her wedding diadem was set in the heavens as the constellation Corona Borealis. Ariadne remained faithful to Dionysus but was killed by Perseus at Argos. In other myths she hanged herself from a tree, like Erigone and the hanging Artemis, some scholars have posited, due to her thread-spinning and winding associations, that she was a weaving goddess, like Arachne, supporting this theory with the mytheme of the Hanged Nymph.
Dionysus descended into Hades and brought her and his mother Semele back and they joined the gods in Olympus. Karl Kerenyi and Robert Graves theorize that Ariadne was a Great Goddess of Crete, Kerenyi notes a Linear B inscription from Knossos, to all the gods, honey. To the mistress of the honey in equal amounts, suggesting to him that the Mistress of the Labyrinth was a Great Goddess in her own right. Professor Barry Powell has suggested she was Minoan Cretes Snake Goddess, in a kylix by the painter Aison Theseus drags the Minotaur from a temple-like labyrinth, but the goddess who attends him, in this Attic representation, is Athena. Theseus, attempting to secure the ship, was swept out to sea. The Cypriote women cared for Ariadne, who died in childbirth and was memorialized in a shrine, overcome with grief upon his return, left money for sacrifices to Ariadne and ordered two cult images, one of silver and one of bronze, set up
9.
Propylaea
A propylaea, propylea or propylaia is any monumental gateway in Greek architecture. Much the best known Greek example is the propylaea that serves as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens, the Greek Revival Brandenburg Gate of Berlin and the Propylaea in Munich both evoke the central portion of the Athens propylaea. According to Plutarch, the Propylaea was designed by the architect Mnesicles, construction began in 437 BC and was terminated in 432, when the building was still unfinished. The Propylaea was constructed of white Pentelic marble and gray Eleusinian marble or limestone, structural iron was used, though William Bell Dinsmoor analyzed the structure and concluded that the iron weakened the building. The structure consists of a building with two adjoining wings on the west side, one to the north and one to the south. The core is the building, which presents a standard six-columned Doric façade both on the West to those entering the Acropolis and on the east to those departing. The columns echo the proportions of the columns of the Parthenon, there is no surviving evidence for sculpture in the pediments.
The central building contains the gate wall, about two-thirds of the way through it, the central passageway was the culmination of the Sacred Way, which led to the Acropolis from Eleusis. Entrance into the Acropolis was controlled by the Propylaea, though it was not built as a fortified structure, it was important that people not ritually clean be denied access to the sanctuary. In addition, runaway slaves and other miscreants could not be permitted into the sanctuary where they could claim the protection of the gods, the state treasury was kept on the Acropolis, making its security important. The gate wall and the portion of the building sit at a level five steps above the western portion. The ceiling in the part of the central building was famous in antiquity. It consisted of marble blocks carved in the shape of ceiling coffers, the outer wings to the right and left of the central building stood on the same platform as the western portion of the central building but were much smaller, not only in plan but in scale.
Like the central building, the wings use Doric colonnades and Doric entablatures, the central building has an Ionic colonnade on either side of the central passageway between the western Doric colonnade and the gate wall. This is therefore the first building known to us with Doric and Ionic colonnades visible at the same time and it is the first monumental building in the classical period to be more complex than a simple rectangle or cylinder. The western wing on the north was famous in antiquity as the location of paintings of important Greek battles, Pausanias reports their presence, but few scholars believe the room was planned to hold them. Recent scholarship, following the lead of John Travlos, has taken the northern wing to have been a room for ritual dining, the evidence for that is the off-center doorway and the position near the entrance to the Acropolis. The wing on the south, though smaller, was clearly designed to make the whole structure appear to be symmetrical
10.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Assyrian and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent.
The end of the Dark Ages is dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field.
Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Demosthenes, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
11.
Acropolis
An acropolis is a settlement, especially a citadel, built upon an area of elevated ground—frequently a hill with precipitous sides, chosen for purposes of defense. An example in Ireland is the Rock of Cashel, Acropolis is the term used by archaeologists and historians for the urban Castro culture settlements located in Northwestern Iberian hilltops. The most famous example is the Acropolis of Athens, which, by reason of its historical associations, although originating in the mainland of Greece, use of the acropolis model quickly spread to Greek colonies such as the Dorian Lato on Crete during the Archaic Period. Because of its classical Hellenistic style, the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistranos Great Stone Church in California, other parts of the world developed other names for the high citadel or alcázar, which often reinforced a naturally strong site. In Central Italy, many small rural communes still cluster at the base of a fortified habitation known as La Rocca of the commune. The term acropolis is used to describe the complex of overlapping structures, such as plazas and pyramids, in many Maya cities, including Tikal
12.
Adonis
Adonis, in Greek mythology, is a central figure in various mystery religions. There has been much scholarship over the centuries concerning the roles of Adonis, if any. Modern scholarship sometimes describes him as a renewed, ever-youthful vegetation god. His name is applied in modern times to handsome youths. Syrian Adonis is Gauas or Aos, akin to Egyptian Osiris, the Semitic Tammuz and Baal Hadad, the Etruscan Atunis and the Phrygian Attis, all of whom are deities of rebirth and vegetation. Circa the sixth century BC, the appearance of the cult of Adonis is reported in Jerusalem by the biblical Book of Ezekiel, the most detailed and literary version of the story of Adonis is a late one, in Book X of Ovids Metamorphoses. The central myth in its Greek telling, daughter of Theias, king of Assyria, Theias finds out and is determined to kill her, when the gods intervene and turn her into a myrrh tree. Nine months the baby Adonis comes out of the tree, Aphrodite fell in love with the beautiful youth.
Aphrodite sheltered Adonis as a baby and entrusted him to Persephone. Persephone was taken by Adonis beauty and refused to him back to Aphrodite. The dispute between the two goddesses was settled by Zeus, Adonis was to spend one-third of every year with each goddess and he chose to spend two-thirds of the year with Aphrodite. Adonis died in Aphrodites arms, who came to him when she heard his groans, when he died she sprinkled the blood with nectar, from which sprang the short-lived anemone, which takes its name from the wind which so easily makes its petals fall. And so it is the blood of Adonis that each spring turns to red the torrential river, Afqa is the sacred source where the waters of the river emerge from a huge grotto in a cliff 200 metres high. It is there that the myth of Astarte and Adonis was born, adoniss birth is shrouded in confusion for those who require a single, authoritative version, for various peripheral stories circulated concerning Adonis parentage. The most widely accepted version is recounted in Ovids Metamorphoses, where Adonis is the son of Myrrha, Myrrha turned into a myrrh tree and Lucina helped the tree to give birth to Adonis.
The patriarchal Hellenes sought a father for the god, and found him in Byblos and Cyprus, pseudo-Apollodorus, considered Adonis to be the son of Cinyras, of Paphos on Cyprus, and Metharme. According to pseudo-Apollodorus Bibliotheke, Hesiod, in a work that does not survive, made of him the son of Phoenix. In Cyprus, the cult of Adonis gradually superseded that of Cinyras, Hesiod made him the son of Phoenix, eponym of the Phoenicians, thus a figure of Phoenician origin, his association with Cyprus is not attested before the classical era
