Chapter 33. The Gardens of Adonis.
PERHAPS the best proof that Adonis was a deity of vegetation, and
especially of the corn, is furnished by the gardens of Adonis, as
they were called. These were baskets or pots filled with earth, in
which wheat, barley, lettuces, fennel, and various kinds of flowers
were sown and tended for eight days, chiefly or exclusively by
women. Fostered by the sun's heat, the plants shot up rapidly, but
having no root they withered as rapidly away, and at the end of
eight days were carried out with the images of the dead Adonis,
and flung with them into the sea or into springs. 1
These gardens of Adonis are most naturally interpreted as
representatives of Adonis or manifestations of his power; they
represented him, true to his original nature, in vegetable form, while
the images of him, with which they were carried out and cast into
the water, portrayed him in his later human shape. All these Adonis
ceremonies, if I am right, were originally intended as charms to
promote the growth or revival of vegetation; and the principle by
which they were supposed to produce this effect was
homoeopathic or imitative magic. For ignorant people suppose that
by mimicking the effect which they desire to produce they actually
help to produce it; thus by sprinkling water they make rain, by
lighting a fire they make sunshine, and so on. Similarly, by
mimicking the growth of crops they hope to ensure a good harvest.
The rapid growth of the wheat and barley in the gardens of Adonis
was intended to make the corn shoot up; and the throwing of the
gardens and of the images into the water was a charm to secure a
due supply of fertilising rain. The same, I take it, was the object of
throwing the effigies of Death and the Carnival into water in the
corresponding ceremonies of modern Europe. Certainly the custom
of drenching with water a leaf-clad person, who undoubtedly
personifies vegetation, is still resorted to in Europe for the express
purpose of producing rain. Similarly the custom of throwing water
on the last corn cut at harvest, or on the person who brings it home
(a custom observed in Germany and France, and till lately in
England and Scotland), is in some places practised with the
avowed intent to procure rain for the next year's crops. Thus in
Wallachia and amongst the Roumanians in Transylvania, when a
girl is bringing home a crown made of the last ears of corn cut at
harvest, all who meet her hasten to throw water on her, and two
farm-servants are placed at the door for the purpose; for they
believe that if this were not done, the crops next year would perish
from drought. At the spring ploughing in Prussia, when the
ploughmen and sowers returned in the evening from their work in
the fields, the farmer's wife and the servants used to splash water
over them. The ploughmen and sowers retorted by seizing every
one, throwing them into the pond, and ducking them under the
water. The farmer's wife might claim exemption on payment of a
forfeit, but every one else had to be ducked. By observing this
custom they hoped to ensure a due supply of rain for the seed. 2
The opinion that the gardens of Adonis are essentially charms to
promote the growth of vegetation, especially of the crops, and that
they belong to the same class of customs as those spring and
mid-summer folk-customs of modern Europe which I have
described else-where, does not rest for its evidence merely on the
intrinsic probability of the case. Fortunately we are able to show
that gardens of Adonis (if we may use the expression in a general
sense) are still planted, first, by a primitive race at their sowing
season, and, second, by European peasants at midsummer.
Amongst the Oraons and Mundas of Bengal, when the time comes
for planting out the rice which has been grown in seed-beds, a
party of young people of both sexes go to the forest and cut a
young Karma-tree, or the branch of one. Bearing it in triumph they
return dancing, singing, and beating drums, and plant it in the
middle of the village dancing-ground. A sacrifice is offered to the
tree; and next morning the youth of both sexes, linked arm-in-arm,
dance in a great circle round the Karma-tree, which is decked with
strips of coloured cloth and sham bracelets and necklets of plaited
straw. As a preparation for the festival, the daughters of the
headman of the village cultivate blades of barley in a peculiar way.
The seed is sown in moist, sandy soil, mixed with turmeric, and the
blades sprout and unfold of a pale-yellow or primrose colour. On
the day of the festival the girls take up these blades and carry them
in baskets to the dancing-ground, where, prostrating themselves
reverentially, they place some of the plants before the Karma-tree.
Finally, the Karma-tree is taken away and thrown into a stream or
tank. The meaning of planting these barley blades and then
presenting them to the Karma-tree is hardly open to question. Trees
are supposed to exercise a quickening influence upon the growth
of crops, and amongst the very people in question-the Mundas or
Mundaris-"the grove deities are held responsible for the crops."
Therefore, when at the season for planting out the rice the Mundas
bring in a tree and treat it with so much respect, their object can
only be to foster thereby the growth of the rice which is about to be
planted out; and the custom of causing barley blades to sprout
rapidly and then presenting them to the tree must be intended to
subserve the same purpose, perhaps by reminding the tree-spirit of
his duty towards the crops, and stimulating his activity by this
visible example of rapid vegetable growth. The throwing of the
Karma-tree into the water is to be interpreted as a rain-charm.
Whether the barley blades are also thrown into the water is not
said; but if my interpretation of the custom is right, probably they
are so. A distinction between this Bengal custom and the Greek
rites of Adonis is that in the former the tree-spirit appears in his
original form as a tree; whereas in the Adonis worship he appears
in human form, represented as a dead man, though his vegetable
nature is indicated by the gardens of Adonis, which are, so to say,
a secondary manifestation of his original power as a tree-spirit. 3
Gardens of Adonis are cultivated also by the Hindoos, with the
intention apparently of ensuring the fertility both of the earth and of
mankind. Thus at Oodeypoor in Rajputana a festival is held in
honour of Gouri, or Isani, the goddess of abundance. The rites
begin when the sun enters the sign of the Ram, the opening of the
Hindoo year. An image of the goddess Gouri is made of earth, and
a smaller one of her husband Iswara, and the two are placed
together. A small trench is next dug, barley is sown in it, and the
ground watered and heated artificially till the grain sprouts, when
the women dance round it hand in hand, invoking the blessing of
Gouri on their husbands. After that the young corn is taken up and
distributed by the women to the men, who wear it in their turbans. In
these rites the distribution of the barley shoots to the men, and the
invocation of a blessing on their husbands by the wives, point
clearly to the desire of offspring as one motive for observing the
custom. The same motive probably explains the use of gardens of
Adonis at the marriage of Brahmans in the Madras Presidency.
Seeds of five or nine sorts are mixed and sown in earthen pots,
which are made specially for the purpose and are filled with earth.
Bride and bridegroom water the seeds both morning and evening
for four days; and on the fifth day the seedlings are thrown, like the
real gardens of Adonis, into a tank or river. 4
In Sardinia the gardens of Adonis are still planted in connexion
with the great midsummer festival which bears the name of St. John.
At the end of March or on the first of April a young man of the
village presents himself to a girl, and asks her to be his comare
(gossip or sweetheart), offering to be her compare. The invitation is
considered as an honour by the girl's family, and is gladly
accepted. At the end of May the girl makes a pot of the bark of the
cork-tree, fills it with earth, and sows a handful of wheat and
barley in it. The pot being placed in the sun and often watered, the
corn sprouts rapidly and has a good head by Midsummer Eve (St.
John's Eve, the twenty-third of June). The pot is then called Erme
or Nenneri. On St. John's Day the young man and the girl, dressed
in their best, accompanied by a long retinue and preceded by
children gambolling and frolicking, move in procession to a church
outside the village. Here they break the pot by throwing it against
the door of the church. Then they sit down in a ring on the grass
and eat eggs and herbs to the music of flutes. Wine is mixed in a
cup and passed round, each one drinking as it passes. Then they
join hands and sing "Sweethearts of St. John" (Compare e comare
di San Giovanni) over and over again, the flutes playing the while.
When they tire of singing they stand up and dance gaily in a ring
till evening. This is the general Sardinian custom. As practised at
Ozieri it has some special features. In May the pots are made of
cork-bark and planted with corn, as already described. Then on
the Eve of St. John the window-sills are draped with rich cloths, on
which the pots are placed, adorned with crimson and blue silk and
ribbons of various colours. On each of the pots they used formerly
to place a statuette or cloth doll dressed as a woman, or a
Priapus-like figure made of paste; but this custom, rigorously
forbidden by the Church, has fallen into disuse. The village swains
go about in a troop to look at the pots and their decorations and to
wait for the girls, who assemble on the public square to celebrate
the festival. Here a great bonfire is kindled, round which they
dance and make merry. Those who wish to be "Sweethearts of St.
John" act as follows. The young man stands on one side of the
bonfire and the girl on the other, and they, in a manner, join hands
by each grasping one end of a long stick, which they pass three
times backwards and forwards across the fire, thus thrusting their
hands thrice rapidly into the flames. This seals their relationship to
each other. Dancing and music go on till late at night. The
correspondence of these Sardinian pots of grain to the gardens of
Adonis seems complete, and the images formerly placed in them
answer to the images of Adonis which accompanied his
gardens. 5
Customs of the same sort are observed at the same season in
Sicily. Pairs of boys and girls become gossips of St. John on St.
John's Day by drawing each a hair from his or her head and
performing various ceremonies over them. Thus they tie the hairs
together and throw them up in the air, or exchange them over a
potsherd, which they afterwards break in two, preserving each a
fragment with pious care. The tie formed in the latter way is
supposed to last for life. In some parts of Sicily the gossips of St.
John present each other with plates of sprouting corn, lentils, and
canary seed, which have been planted forty days before the
festival. The one who receives the plate pulls a stalk of the young
plants, binds it with a ribbon, and preserves it among his or her
greatest treasures, restoring the platter to the giver. At Catania the
gossips exchange pots of basil and great cucumbers; the girls tend
the basil, and the thicker it grows the more it is prized. 6
In these midsummer customs of Sardinia and Sicily it is possible
that, as Mr. R. Wünsch supposes, St. John has replaced Adonis.
We have seen that the rites of Tammuz or Adonis were commonly
celebrated about midsummer; according to Jerome, their date was
June. 7
In Sicily gardens of Adonis are still sown in spring as well as in
summer, from which we may perhaps infer that Sicily as well as
Syria celebrated of old a vernal festival of the dead and risen god.
At the approach of Easter, Sicilian women sow wheat, lentils, and
canaryseed in plates, which they keep in the dark and water every
two days. The plants soon shoot up; the stalks are tied together with
red ribbons, and the plates containing them are placed on the
sepulchres which, with the effigies of the dead Christ, are made up
in Catholic and Greek churches on Good Friday, just as the
gardens of Adonis were placed on the grave of the dead Adonis.
The practice is not confined to Sicily, for it is observed also at
Cosenza in Calabria, and perhaps in other places. The whole
custom-sepulchres as well as plates of sprouting grain-may be
nothing but a continuation, under a different name, of the worship
of Adonis. 8
Nor are these Sicilian and Calabrian customs the only Easter
ceremonies which resemble the rites of Adonis. "During the whole
of Good Friday a waxen effigy of the dead Christ is exposed to
view in the middle of the Greek churches and is covered with
fervent kisses by the thronging crowd, while the whole church rings
with melancholy, monotonous dirges. Late in the evening, when it
has grown quite dark, this waxen image is carried by the priests
into the street on a bier adorned with lemons, roses, jessamine, and
other flowers, and there begins a grand procession of the multitude,
who move in serried ranks, with slow and solemn step, through the
whole town. Every man carries his taper and breaks out into doleful
lamentation. At all the houses which the procession passes there
are seated women with censers to fumigate the marching host. Thus
the community solemnly buries its Christ as if he had just died. At
last the waxen image is again deposited in the church, and the
same lugubrious chants echo anew. These lamentations,
accompanied by a strict fast, continue till midnight on Saturday. As
the clock strikes twelve, the bishop appears and announces the
glad tidings that `Christ is risen,' to which the crowd replies, `He is
risen indeed,' and at once the whole city bursts into an uproar of
joy, which finds vent in shrieks and shouts, in the endless
discharge of carronades and muskets, and the explosion of
fire-works of every sort. In the very same hour people plunge from
the extremity of the fast into the enjoyment of the Easter lamb and
neat wine." 9
In like manner the Catholic Church has been accustomed to bring
before its followers in a visible form the death and resurrection of
the Redeemer. Such sacred dramas are well fitted to impress the
lively imagination and to stir the warm feelings of a susceptible
southern race, to whom the pomp and pageantry of Catholicism are
more congenial than to the colder temperament of the Teutonic
peoples. 10
When we reflect how often the Church has skilfully contrived to
plant the seeds of the new faith on the old stock of paganism, we
may surmise that the Easter celebration of the dead and risen Christ
was grafted upon a similar celebration of the dead and risen
Adonis, which, as we have seen reason to believe, was celebrated
in Syria at the same season. The type, created by Greek artists, of
the sorrowful goddess with her dying lover in her arms, resembles
and may have been the model of the Pietà of Christian art, the
Virgin with the dead body of her divine Son in her lap, of which the
most celebrated example is the one by Michael Angelo in St.
Peters. That noble group, in which the living sorrow of the mother
contrasts so wonderfully with the languor of death in the son, is one
of the finest compositions in marble. Ancient Greek art has
bequeathed to us few works so beautiful, and none so
pathetic. 11
In this connexion a well-known statement of Jerome may not be
without significance. He tells us that Bethlehem, the traditionary
birthplace of the Lord, was shaded by a grove of that still older
Syrian Lord, Adonis, and that where the infant Jesus had wept, the
lover of Venus was bewailed. Though he does not expressly say
so, Jerome seems to have thought that the grove of Adonis had
been planted by the heathen after the birth of Christ for the purpose
of defiling the sacred spot. In this he may have been mistaken. If
Adonis was indeed, as I have argued, the spirit of the corn, a more
suitable name for his dwelling-place could hardly be found than
Bethlehem, "the House of Bread," and he may well have been
worshipped there at his House of Bread long ages before the birth
of Him who said, "I am the bread of life." Even on the hypothesis
that Adonis followed rather than preceded Christ at Bethlehem, the
choice of his sad figure to divert the allegiance of Christians from
their Lord cannot but strike us as eminently appropriate when we
remember the similarity of the rites which commemorated the death
and resurrection of the two. One of the earliest seats of the worship
of the new god was Antioch, and at Antioch, as we have seen, the
death of the old god was annually celebrated with great solemnity.
A circumstance which attended the entrance of Julian into the city
at the time of the Adonis festival may perhaps throw some light on
the date of its celebration. When the emperor drew near to the city
he was received with public prayers as if he had been a god, and
he marvelled at the voices of a great multitude who cried that the
Star of Salvation had dawned upon them in the East. This may
doubtless have been no more than a fulsome compliment paid by
an obsequious Oriental crowd to the Roman emperor. But it is also
possible that the rising of a bright star regularly gave the signal for
the festival, and that as chance would have it the star emerged
above the rim of the eastern horizon at the very moment of the
emperor's approach. The coincidence, if it happened, could hardly
fail to strike the imagination of a superstitious and excited multitude,
who might thereupon hail the great man as the deity whose coming
was announced by the sign in the heavens. Or the emperor may
have mistaken for a greeting to himself the shouts which were
addressed to the star. Now Astarte, the divine mistress of Adonis,
was identified with the planet Venus, and her changes from a
morning to an evening star were carefully noted by the Babylonian
astronomers, who drew omens from her alternate appearance and
disappearance. Hence we may conjecture that the festival of
Adonis was regularly timed to coincide with the appearance of
Venus as the Morning or Evening Star. But the star which the
people of Antioch saluted at the festival was seen in the East;
therefore, if it was indeed Venus, it can only have been the
Morning Star. At Aphaca in Syria, where there was a famous
temple of Astarte, the signal for the celebration of the rites was
apparently given by the flashing of a meteor, which on a certain
day fell like a star from the top of Mount Lebanon into the river
Adonis. The meteor was thought to be Astarte herself, and its flight
through the air might naturally be interpreted as the descent of the
amorous goddess to the arms of her lover. At Antioch and
elsewhere the appearance of the Morning Star on the day of the
festival may in like manner have been hailed as the coming of the
goddess of love to wake her dead leman from his earthy bed. If that
were so, we may surmise that it was the Morning Star which guided
the wise men of the East to Bethlehem, the hallowed spot which
heard, in the language of Jerome, the weeping of the infant Christ
and the lament for Adonis. 12
