Gardens of Adonis
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During the ancient Greek festival for Adonis, young women, particularly those of questionable character, would plant disposable Gardens of Adonis in baskets and pots of wheat, barley, lettuces, fennel, and various kinds of flowers. The plants grew rapidily, but also died quickly due to their shallow root systems, and were discarded at the end of eight days, oftentimes with other images of the god.
The phrase has come to mean anything disposable or short-lived.
[edit] History
from Waverly Fitzgerald's site www.schooloftheseasons.com
July 19 is the fixed date for the start of the Greek festival of Adonia, sixteen days of celebration of the short but lusty life of Adonis. Originally it was tied to the cycle of the moon-beginning on the ninth day of Hecatombion (July 7, this year) and spanning that beautiful full moon we just enjoyed on July 13.
During this festival, women, especially loose women, prostitutes and mistresses, entertained their lovers on rooftops, burning spices in honor of Adonis and Aphrodite, dancing, feasting, drinking and singing.
One of the features of the holiday was the creation of Gardens of Adonis, by sowing seeds of wheat, barley, lettuce, fennel and sometimes flowers in shallow silver baskets, bowls or even shards of clay. Tended by the women, who watered them daily, the plants grew rapidly but had shallow root systems. Images on Greek vases show the women carrying these little gardens up ladders to the rooftops for the Adonia celebration. At the end of eight days the pots of greenery were thrown into the ocean or a stream, sometimes along with an image of the dead Adonis.
Sir James Frazer, the great folklorist, believed that Gardens of Adonis symbolized fertility and growth. But, Marcel Detienne, the author of Gardens of Adonis, a structuralist analysis of the practice, has a different view. He points out that the plants in a Garden of Adonis quickly wither under the heat of the sun. The Greeks have a proverb--"You are more sterile than the gardens of Adonis"-and also use the phrase to indicate something superficial, immature or lightweight. In fact, Plato in Phaedrus contrasts the sensible farmer, who would sow his seeds when it is suitable and be content to wait eight months for them to mature, with a person who sows plants during the summer in a Garden of Adonis. One is a serious act, the other playful; one will come to maturity, the other is strictly for transitory amusement.
[edit] External links
- Fraser on the gardens and the agricultural mythology of Adonis. (From The Golden Bough)
- Make your own Garden plus more history at School of the Seasons. This is an excellent, short discussion of the Gardens and their history.
[edit] References
- Detienne, Marcel, The Gardens of Adonis, translated by Janet Lloyd, Harvester Press 1977
- Frazer, Sir James, The New Golden Bough, abridged by Theodor H Gaster, New American Library 1959
