ADONIS. According to the Vulgate, Ezek. viii. 14 imports that this prophet saw women sitting in the temple, weeping for Adonis ; but the Hebrew reads, for Tammuz, or, the hidden one. Among the Egyptians, Adonis was adored under the name of Osiris, husband of Isis. The Greeks worshipped Isis and Osiris under other names, as that of Bacchus ; and the Arabians, under that of Adonis:





But he was sometimes called Ammuz, or Tammuz, the concealed, to denote, probably, the manner of his death, or the place of his burial. (Vide Plu tarch de Defectu Oracul.) The Syrians, Phoenicians, and Cyprians called him Adonis. The He brew women, therefore, of whom Ezekiel is speaking, celebrated the feasts of Tammuz, or Adonis, in Jerusalem; and God showed the prophet these women weeping, even in his own sacred temple, for the supposed death of this infamous god.

supposed death of this infamous god. The Rabbins tell us, that Tammuz was an idolatrous prophet, who having been put to death by the king of Babylon, all the idols of the country flocked together about a statue of the sun, which this prophet, who was a magician, had suspended between heaven and earth: there they began altogether to deplore the prophet's death ; for which reason a festival was instituted every year, to renew the memory of this ceremony, at the beginning of the month Tammuz, which answers pretty nearly to our June. In this temple was a statue, representing Tammuz. It was hollow, the eyes were of lead, and a gentle fire being kindled below, which insensibly heated the statue, and melted the lead, the deluded people believed that the idol wept. All this time the Babylonish women, in the temple, were shrieking, and making strange lamentations. But this story requires proofs.

The scene of Adonis's history is said to have been at Byblos, in Phoenicia; and this pretended deity is supposed to have been killed by a wild boar in the mountains of Libanus, whence the river Adonis descends, (Lucian de Dea Syra,) the waters of which, at a certain time of the year, change color, and appear as red as blood. (See Maundrell, March 17.) This was the signal for celebrating their Adonia, or feasts of Adonis, the observance of which it was not lawful to omit.

The common people were persuaded to believe, that, at this feast, the Egyptians sent by sea a box made of rushes, or of Egyptian papyrus, in the form of a human head, in which a letter was enclosed, acquainting the inhabitants of Byblos, a city above seven days' journey from the coast of Egypt, that their god Adonis, whom they apprehended to be lost, had been discovered. The vessel which carried this letter arrived always safe at Byblos, at the end of seven days. Lucian tells us he was a witness of this event. Procopius, Cyril of Alexandria, (on Isaiah xviii.) and other learned men, are of opinion, that Isaiah alludes to this superstitious custom, when he says, "Wo to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the river of Ethiopia ; that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even vessels of bulrushes upon the waters." Some, as Bochart, (Phalcg. lib. iv. cap. 2.) translate — "that sendeth images, or idols — by sea." But the Hebrew signifies, properly, ambassa dors — deputed thither by sea, to carry the news of Adonis's resurrection. [The passage, however, has no reference to Adonis See Gesemus, Commentar. in loc.

From these remarks we are naturally led to inquire into the nature of the ceremonious worship of Adonis, as well as the object to which they referred. We have already stated that the worship of Adonis was celebrated at Byblos, in Phoenicia ; the following is Lucian's account of the abominations : " The Syrians affirm, that what the boar is reported to have done against Adonis, was transacted in their country ; and in memory of this accident they every year beat themselves, and lament, and celebrate frantic rites ; and great wailings are appointed throughout the country. After they have beaten themselves and lamented, they first perform funeral obsequies to Adonis, as to one dead ; and afterwards, on a following day, they feign that he is alive, and ascended into the air, [or heaven,] and shave their heads, as the Egyptians do at the death of Apis ; and whatever women will not consent to be shaved, are obliged, by way of punishment, to prostitute themselves once to strangers, and the money they thus earn is consecrated to Venus." (See Succoth Benoth.) We may now discern the flagrant iniquity committed, and that which was further to be expected, among the Jewish women who sat weeping for Tammuz, that is, Adonis.

The fable of Adonis among the Greeks assumed a somewhat different form from that which it bore in the East. Among the Phoenicians the festival of Adonis took place in June, (hence called the month Tammuz,) and was partly a season of lamentation, and partly of rejoicing; see above. (Lucian de Dea Syra, C. seq.) In the former, the women gave them selves up to the most extravagant wailings for the departed god, cut off their hair, or offered up their chastity as a sacrifice in his temple. The solemn burial of the idol, with all the usual ceremonies, concluded the days of mourning. To these succeeded, without any intermission, several days of feasting and rejoicing, on account of the returning god. — The meaning of this worship seems plainly to be symbolical of the course of the sun and his influence on the earth. In winter, the sun, as it were, does not act ; for the inhabitants of the earth, he is in a measure lost, and all vegetation is dead ; but in the summer months he diffuses every where life and joy, and has, as it were, himself returned to life. See Creuzer's Syinholik, ii. 91. Ed. 2. Hug's Unter- such. iib. d. Mvth. 83 seq.