Each year in Athens women from across all levels of society would climb ladders and make their way onto rooftops for the Adonia. This was a festival mourning the death of Adonis, a mortal beloved by Aphrodite. The grief of the goddess was so heavy that it led to a separate ritual for those suffering heartbreak which might cost you your life (read about it here). Despite the element of mourning involved it was a loud and bombastic affair, it also featured non-Greek elements. I’ll start with the person at the heart of it all.
Adonis.
Possibly of of the most famous names in Greek myth here was a mortal who caught the eye, and heart, of Aphrodite. Like many Greek myths there are different version, however, they all lead to the same place. Whilst out hunting Adonis is gored by a boar and killed, leaving Aphrodite heartbroken.
Aphrodite and Adonis Attic red-figure squat lekythos, ca. 410 BC.
Eastern origins.
Though Adonis may be a famous Greek character his origins can be found to the east of Greece and in the lands of Mesopotamia. We have a hint of this in the myth in the form of his father, Cinyras. He was an Assyrian King. There’s also a link in the name of Adonis as this doesn’t seem to have been a Greek name. Instead it’s been suggested that it came from a semitic word meaning ‘Lord’.
The link can be explored further through the myth of Inanna and Dumuzid. This itself is a series of complex variations of a myth involving Inanna, an Mesopotamian goddess and Dumuzid who was her lover. In some versions Dumuzid (also known as Tammuz) is a deity, a shepherd or just the consort of Inanna. Though these accounts vary the central motif is that Dumuzid dies and is mourned by Inanna and this itself forms the central part of his worship. It’s here that laments would have been made, possibly using the semitic word for lord which was ‘Adon’.
What strengthens the link with Mesopotamia is the involvement of Inanna. She is seen as a forerunner of the Greek goddess Aphrodite (read here for more). As such the myth of Dumuzid followed her into the Greek pantheon and took the form of Adonis and his tragic death. It’s not just the theoretical which offers a link with Mesopotamian culture, the location of the festival is a link in itself. Rooftop rituals were not something common in ancient Greece, yet these were in place in the various religions of Mesopotamia. In the Old Testament the Canaanites seem to have done exactly this.
“The Babylonians who are attacking this city will come in and set it on fire; they will burn it down, along with the houses where the people aroused my anger by burning incense on the roofs to Baal and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods”. Jeremiah 32:39.
In case you are wondering the Book of Jeremiah covers the period of the late 7th and early 6 centuries BC and specifically to a dramatic event. In 586 BC the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II sacked the city, removing many of its inhabitants to Babylon. As a wider point it’s thought that this period of exile (otherwise known as the Babylonian Captivity) had a significant influence on Jewish culture. For the purposes of this piece it also underlines that the account of rooftop worship can be taken as accurate.
Adonia in the sources.
In fragement of Sappho the poetess refers to central elements of the Adonia.
“Pretty Adonis is dying, Kytherea
What are we to do?
Beat your breasts, girls, and rip your clothes” Sappho. F168
Here we have not only the drama but the role of women as mourning him and doing so physically. This was certainly a feature of the Adonia, as you will read. Our earliest Athenian reference to this comes in a very different context. In 411 BC Aristophanes staged his play Lysistrata and in this a magistrate complains about women on roofs shouting out ‘Woe for Adonis’. Not just that, he also notes their shrieking, dancing and being drunk (not the safest of festivals then). In Plutarch’s Alcibiades there is more detail in that the women mimic burial rites as well as singing and beating their breasts. Finally the Greek comic playwright Menander has the women carrying their tray gardens up to the roof, dancing and making a real noise of it.
Celebrating on the rooftops.
The exact ritual itself isn’t made clear by any source. Instead it’s the tried and tested method of combining comments, observations and know Greek rituals to create a would-be scenario. We know of the key elements: that it was restricted to women, that there was lamentation and singing. Oh, and drinking with dancing all on rooftops – not a mixture you would advise anyone to undertake.
There are other elements which we can use to pad this out. The first of these are straw dolls or dolls of some type which were taken to the rooftops. These represented Adonis and also feed into the mimicking of funeral rites mentioned by Plutarch. Perhaps we should swap ‘mimic’ for ‘mirroring’ as this activity, the laying out of the body (or prosthesis) was something women would do at funerals. It wasn’t just the dolls which were taken up, potsherds carrying seedlings of lettuce and fennel were also laid on the rooftops (this was what Menander was referring to in his comment about tray gardens).
There has been much debate as to the symbolism here. These seedlings may represent the bed of lettuce which Aphrodite laid out the body of Adonis on. They might be part of a wider agricultural reference (as Dumuzid in the form of a god was associated with agriculture). That said the intention of the seedlings wasn’t for them to grow but to whither and die. This itself has been debated, one argument being that these seedlings were destined to die young, as Adonis was. By the time the Greeks were celebrating this ritual the chances are that the original symbolism had been lost in amidst various reworkings and adaptations. A scholion in Plato’s Phaedra did note that the term ‘Gardens of Adonis’ (which is what these seedlings were sometimes referred as) became a saying for anything which was short lived.
In art we have some examples of women climbing ladders and these are said to represent the Adonia. A lekythos in the form of an acorn (above) has Eros on the ladder holding a thymiaterion (a type of incense burner). Eros was one of the companions of Aphrodite (read more about them here) and was associated with the myth of Adonis. The above image featured on a lekythos which was a type of pottery often found in tombs and gravesides. Perhaps this was relevant in some way for this specific instance – the gift for a deceased lover?
The below image comes from a hydria (water jar) with a woman this time on the ladder holding her hand down to the thymiaterion. The commentary on the image states that the women here are a mixture of slave women and courtesans which underlines that this festival (not a state sponsored one by the way) was for all women. The women either side of the ladder dance, with the winged figure of Eros playing the flute. A surprising element is Pan, shown on the upper left. He holds out a nebris or fawn skin and both these elements are associated with Dionysius. Perhaps we have the other aspect of the festival alluded to here – drinking wine.
Adonia on a hydria, Attica, circa 350 BC
Women only festivals in ancient Greece weren’t unusual, there was the Thesmophoria and Haloa as examples. However, in both those instance there was a priestess overseeing it all. The Adonia was a much looser affair, this wasn’t a state festival with a priestess overseeing it all. Exactly when it took place is debated with early Spring or early Summer as the leading contenders. Perhaps it shifted each year, or changed over time?
In any case it must have been a fascinating experience to either be in, or if you were a man observe (and complain about the noise keeping you awake!).
Adonia – further reading:
Burkert, W. Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual
Dillon, M. ‘Woes for Adonis’ – but is spring not summer.
Neils, J. Adonia to Thesmophoria-Women’s Roles in Attic Festivals.
Simms, R. Mourning and Community at the Athenian Adonia.
