The Adonia festivals, a sixteen day festival, spanning the full Moon, celebrated by women in ancient Greece, took place around now. The festival was to celebrate Adonis. 10 facts about him:
He was the product of an incestuous affair between Myrrha, sometimes known as Smyrna, and her father Theias, king of Syria. And no, Myrrha wasn’t a victim of abuse by Theias: she seduced him. Accounts vary as to whether Myrrha was really in lust with her dad, or if she was under a curse by Aphrodite, who was jealous of her. Either way, she disguised herself as a nurse and only revealed her identity after the act.
Myrrha was a tree when she gave birth to Adonis. Theias wasn’t best pleased when he found out he’d been tricked, and Myrrha went on the run from his wrath. She pleaded to the gods for help and they turned her into a Myrrh tree, and she was still in that form when Adonis popped out. Legend says that the aroma of the Myrrh tree is Myrrha’s tears.
Aphrodite was charmed by Adonis even when he was a baby and asked Persephone, queen of the underworld, to look after him. Persephone, in turn, was charmed by Adonis and when the time came, refused to give him back to Aphrodite. Aphrodite got Zeus involved to solve the dispute. His ruling was that Adonis should spend a third of the year with Persephone and a third with Aphrodite, and for the remaining third Adonis could do what he liked.
Adonis was a skilled hunter, and another version of the story has him killed by a wild boar. Aphrodite wept over him and her tears, mingled with his blood, became the anemone flower. In this version, too, Aphrodite pleads with Zeus to bring Adonis back and this is how the arrangement with her and the queen of the Underworld comes about.
Adonis and Aphrodite had two children, Beroe and Golgos.
The name Adonis is believed to be of Phoenician origin, meaning “lord”. Adonis has been identified with the Babylonian god Tammuz.
Every year around Midsummer Greek women would remember the death of Adonis at the Adonia festival, as instructed by Aphrodite. They would rend their garments and beat their breasts in a display of public mourning.
Adonis is said to be an ancient god of vegetation and fertility. The Adonis myth represents the decay of vegetation in winter and its re-growth in the spring. In some parts, then, the Adonia festival had the purpose of promoting the growth of vegetation and the falling of Rain.
It seems likely that Adonis batted for both teams. Legend has it that as well as being the lover of Aphrodite, he had it off with Apollo, Heracles and Dionysus as well.
Adonis was considered to be the ideal of male beauty in ancient Greece. His name is still used today to describe a beautiful young man.
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
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