Today's story is another one of those classic "guy dies horribly and turns into a pretty flower" myth that we have seen in last week's myth of Narcissus. So yeah it is one of those tragic myths, but when was Greek Mythology ever cheery and happy? (And believe me, probably every flower the Ancient Greeks picked up, they somehow derived into a story of a youth dying and metamorphosis story {you don't want to know how Orchids formed, poor bastard got castrated and burned alive}[okay I lied :P])
This is a story of what happens to a man when two hot goddesses fall in love with him, as you might have guessed it doesn't end well for the man. Now I must first of course introduce our main man Adonis, who as with most people in Greek Mythology had a pretty weird origin story. Before I begin this little tale within a tale I must point out that I am taking the most famous story of Adonis' birth, which of course is from our friend Ovid and his masterpiece Metamorphoses.
Good thing that baby didn't get any splinters on the way out
In Ovid's interpretation of the birth of Adonis, he was the son of Myrrh (or Smyrna) and Theias (King of Assyria), but wait it gets better. You see Myrrh fell in love with Theias because of one love goddess, Aphrodite, (this was because Myrrh claimed her daughter was more beautiful than Aphrodite, always a smart move for a mortal to do in a world filled with petty beings with infinite power) however what I didn't tell you was the relationship with Myrrh and Theias prior to Aphrodite's meddling. She was his DAUGHTER, that's right, Aphrodite used her love mumbo jumbo to make Myrrh to commit incest with her own FATHER.
Naturally, after getting it on with her daddy, she ran away fearing his wrath (wrath? you could have stopped her from having sex with you!) Eventually after running to a random clearing in a meadow, she got turned into a tree that we now call a myrrh tree (So this family has a history of turning into plants)
Nine months later, Theias finally found his former daughter now tree and decided, "Well bitch deserves to get shot" and shot an arrow into her trunk. Suddenly, after the impact of the arrow hit the tree trunk, it burst open and out plopped baby Adonis, whereupon he was sheltered by Aphrodite herself.
So basically caused a daughter to commit incest with her father, inadvertently causing said daughter to turn into a tree, and hoping that if her father ever found a tree that he assumed was his daughter would shoot an arrow AND hope that the impact would cause the trunk to burst AND then hope that Myrrh had been impregnanted AND hope that after her metamorphosis that her baby was able to survive in a tree for nine months AND all this because Myrrh said her daughter was prettier than her?
He's mine, no he's mine!
So what did Aphrodite do when she saw the baby Adonis? She placed him into a box, went down to Hades, and gave the box to Persephone so that she could take care of the baby. (Damn she is a lazy surrogate mother) Persephone was cool with this and agreed to take care of the baby boy, but something would happen that would change Adonis' relationship with both goddesses.
For when he reached young adulthood, it turned out that Adonis grew up to be a very handsome young man, so much so that Aphrodite returned to the Underworld and demanded the youth, but Persephone had also fallen in love with the youth that she wished he stayed with her in the underworld. Their quarrel was so great that Zeus himself had to interfere.
Zeus decreed that Adonis had to spend a third of the year with Aphrodite, a third of the year with Persephone, and a third of the year with whomever he chooses. Not wanting to be pent up in the land of the dead for most of the year, so he chose to stay with Aphrodite.
Thus Adonis began his first year on Earth since he was a tree baby with Aphrodite. Quickly he gained a huge passion for hunting and while she was no Artemis, Aphrodite would take up the sport just to be with her boytoy. They spent every walking hour with her, but soon she got worried about neglecting her duties (she had more lives to ruin with her lust and whore powers)
She gave Adonis one caveat "Do not hunt an animal who shows no fear" Adonis agreed to her advice and the goddess departed to god knows where. Adonis thus returned to his hunting, forgetting what Aphrodite told him because hey, he was the real hunter and she couldn't hunt a lobotomized cow with three legs. (Let's see how this bites him in the ass, or rather gore him in the ass)
Ow it looked like there was fear in it's eyes!
Not long after she left him, Adonis came across a giant boar (not Calydonian or Erymanthian boar sized, but still a pretty big boar) Despite the fact that boars are very dangerous when provoked, Adonis continued to ignore Aphrodite's advice and pursued the beast. However, what Adonis didn't know was that this boar was either three things, all divine and all ready to bring the hurt to him.
The most widely accepted story was that it was the war god and Aphrodite's lover Ares in the guise of a giant boar who was jealous at Adonis for getting Aphrodite's attention all the time. Another story said it was Artemis, who had since became jealous at Adonis' hunting skills. Finally, one story said it was Apollo, who sent the boar to kill him as revenge at Aphrodite for blinding his son, Erymanthus. Whatever the cause of the giant boar it fucked Adonis up pretty badly.
The beast soon turned the tables and began pursuing the fleeing Adonis until it finally caught up to him and gored him. The monstrous boar rammed its tusks into Adonis' belly and soon he was disemboweled with blood flowing liberally onto the meadow floor. Also to add insult to injury, the boar castrated him (way to beat a man when he is down) When Aphrodite found him, Adonis was dying of blood loss and it reminded me of a particular scene in a musical.
Hey there are flowers in the song and someone is dying it counts!
Aphrodite tried to save him, but it was too late. Adonis died in Aphrodite's arms and this brings us to flowers that came because of this extremely violent and tragic scene.
There's a reason why they are so red
Aphrodite was so sad that her lovely youth had been taken away from her that she decided to immortalize him in a way. She sprinkled nectar on the blood that was splattered on the ground and out popped out the short lived Anemone flower which petals were blood red and easily blown away by the wind. The rest of the blood of Adonis flowed into a torrential river that would soon be dubbed the Adonis River (now the modern Nahr Ibrahim in Lebanon) that each Spring would turn red with the blood of Adonis.
The reason because of this river turning blood red is because of the Apheca (which means the source) the grotto which has a waterfall that flows into the River Adonis. It is said that Adonis was born and died near the foot of the falls (sort a funny coincidence don't you think?) Anyway in the early Spring, the snow starts melting and the red mud finds its way into the water and turns the river red, gee Geology is fun! (sorry just wanted to explain that now back to mythology)
Being dead, guess where Adonis ended up, that's right back in Hades and back with Persephone who now had him forever. Needless to say Aphrodite wasn't pleased with this so the quarrel they had before renewed, but once again Zeus came to the rescue and decreed that Adonis spend six months with Persephone and six months with Aphrodite. (So Persephone had to wait six months to be with Adonis and six months to be with her mother) Nevertheless everyone lived happily ever after.
I just realized there is one other flower myth in Greek Mythology and that is the story of Hyacinthus, Apollo, the West Wind, and a discus.
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