登陆注册
5362800000202

第202章

The worship of Adonis was practised by the Semitic peoples of Babylonia and Syria, and the Greeks borrowed it from them as early as the seventh century before Christ. The true name of the deity was Tammuz: the appellation of Adonis is merely the Semitic Adon, lord, a title of honour by which his worshippers addressed him. But the Greeks through a misunderstanding converted the title of honour into a proper name. In the religious literature of Babylonia Tammuz appears as the youthful spouse or lover of Ishtar, the great mother goddess, the embodiment of the reproductive energies of nature. The references to their connexion with each other in myth and ritual are both fragmentary and obscure, but we gather from them that every year Tammuz was believed to die, passing away from the cheerful earth to the gloomy subterranean world, and that every year his divine mistress journeyed in quest of him to the land from which there is no returning, to the house of darkness, where dust lies on door and bolt. During her absence the passion of love ceased to operate: men and beasts alike forgot to reproduce their kinds: all life was threatened with extinction. So intimately bound up with the goddess were the sexual functions of the whole animal kingdom that without her presence they could not be discharged. A messenger of the great god Ea was accordingly despatched to rescue the goddess on whom so much depended. The stern queen of the infernal regions, Allatu or Eresh-Kigal by name, reluctantly allowed Ishtar to be sprinkled with the Water of Life and to depart, in company probably with her lover Tammuz, that the two might return together to the upper world, and that with their return all nature might revive.

Laments for the departed Tammuz are contained in several Babylonian hymns, which liken him to plants that quickly fade. He is A tamarisk that in the garden has drunk no water, Whose crown in the field has brought forth no blossom.

A willow that rejoiced not by the watercourse, A willow whose roots were torn up.

A herb that in the garden had drunk no water.

His death appears to have been annually mourned, to the shrill music of flutes, by men and women about midsummer in the month named after him, the month of Tammuz. The dirges were seemingly chanted over an effigy of the dead god, which was washed with pure water, anointed with oil, and clad in a red robe, while the fumes of incense rose into the air, as if to stir his dormant senses by their pungent fragrance and wake him from the sleep of death. In one of these dirges, inscribed Lament of the Flutes for Tammuz, we seem still to hear the voices of the singers chanting the sad refrain and to catch, like far-away music, the wailing notes of the flutes:

At his vanishing away she lifts up a lament, 'Oh my child!' at his vanishing away she lifts up a lament;

'My Damu!' at his vanishing away she lifts up a lament.

'My enchanter and priest!' at his vanishing away she lifts up a lament, At the shining cedar, rooted in a spacious place, In Eanna, above and below, she lifts up a lament.

Like the lament that a house lifts up for its master, lifts she up a lament, Like the lament that a city lifts up for its lord, lifts she up a lament.

Her lament is the lament for a herb that grows not in the bed, Her lament is the lament for the corn that grows not in the ear.

Her chamber is a possession that brings not forth a possession, A weary woman, a weary child, forspent.

Her lament is for a great river, where no willows grow, Her lament is for a field, where corn and herbs grow not.

Her lament is for a pool, where fishes grow not.

Her lament is for a thickest of reeds, where no reeds grow.

Her lament is for woods, where tamarisks grow not.

Her lament is for a wilderness where no cypresses (?) grow.

Her lament is for the depth of a garden of trees, where honey and wine grow not.

Her lament is for meadows, where no plants grow.

Her lament is for a palace, where length of life grows not.

The tragical story and the melancholy rites of Adonis are better known to us from the descriptions of Greek writers than from the fragments of Babylonian literature or the brief reference of the prophet Ezekiel, who saw the women of Jerusalem weeping for Tammuz at the north gate of the temple.

Mirrored in the glass of Greek mythology, the oriental deity appears as a comely youth beloved by Aphrodite. In his infancy the goddess hid him in a chest, which she gave in charge to Persephone, queen of the nether world. But when Persephone opened the chest and beheld the beauty of the babe, she refused to give him back to Aphrodite, though the goddess of love went down herself to hell to ransom her dear one from the power of the grave. The dispute between the two goddesses of love and death was settled by Zeus, who decreed that Adonis should abide with Persephone in the under world for one part of the year, and with Aphrodite in the upper world for another part. At last the fair youth was killed in hunting by a wild boar, or by the jealous Ares, who turned himself into the likeness of a boar in order to compass the death of his rival. Bitterly did Aphrodite lament her loved and lost Adonis.

In this form of the myth, the contest between Aphrodite and Persephone for the possession of Adonis clearly reflects the struggle between Ishtar and Allatu in the land of the dead, while the decision of Zeus that Adonis is to spend one part of the year under ground and another part above ground is merely a Greek version of the annual disappearance and reappearance of Tammuz.

同类推荐
  • 新编诸宗教藏总录

    新编诸宗教藏总录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 道德真经集注杂说

    道德真经集注杂说

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 诗义固说

    诗义固说

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佐杂谱

    佐杂谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 上清琼宫灵飞六甲左右上符

    上清琼宫灵飞六甲左右上符

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 光之法阵

    光之法阵

    能不能成为魔法师主要由魔力和精神力决定,特别是元素魔法在魔法大陆的流行,让更多的人可以成为魔法师。可是还有很多人无法成为魔法师,无法聚集魔力和精神力不足是这些人无法使用的最大原因。菲斯魔法体质中等偏下,可以凝聚魔力,但是因为精神力缘故,释放的魔法具有发散的限制,大大限制了菲斯的潜力。这是魔法师三部曲的第三部。第一部《血色法师》主要写菲斯如果利用魔法阵改变自己的弱势,变成一个普通的魔法师。第二部《我的法师》,主要写菲斯如何利用魔法阵改变大陆无法修炼魔法的弊端,一步步变成了魔法阵大师。第三部《光之法阵》,主要魔法大陆因为各种势力的争夺,已经到了危机关头,菲斯能不能整合所有力量,力挽狂澜。
  • 农门哑女

    农门哑女

    本是京城贵女,却阴差阳错成了农门媳妇。又哑又失忆的她如何在这里生活活下去?她以为自己一无是处,原来她还有一种特有的天赋。且看她在从商一路,如何风生水起?
  • 像鸽子一样飞

    像鸽子一样飞

    从市人民医院大门进来,先是五层高的第一门诊部,然后是六层高的第二门诊部。第一门诊部和第二门诊部背面,是五层高的第一住院部和九层高的第二住院部。虽然易航的妈妈童丽在第一门诊部的妇产科上班,可是易航不会去,他喜欢去第二住院部,因为那幢楼有电梯。对易航来说,坐电梯就是一种游戏。绝大多数游戏都需要多人参与,但坐电梯不一样,一个人就可以玩。易航的玩法很简单:坐着电梯从一楼到九楼,再沿着楼梯从九楼跑下一楼,周而复始。第二住院部虽然有电梯,但易航发现乘坐电梯的人很少,他想,也许他们不知道有电梯,也许他们不懂怎么坐电梯,也许他们根本就不愿意坐电梯。
  • 娇如艳阳

    娇如艳阳

    新书《小妻子不请自来》已开!欢迎各位小可爱入坑~社会我阳哥,有钱有颜常撩妻。——[文艺版小剧场]某一天。繁星闪烁,蝉鸣欢愉。林娇躺在草地上,轻轻地问了一句:“你是我的彩虹吗?应阳。”他躺在她的身侧,隽黑的眉眼弥漫开浅淡的笑意,然后在她的额头上亲了一下,低声道:“我是你的彩虹,而你,是我的小太阳。”——一句话简介:斯人若彩虹,遇上方知有。[事实证明:简介与本书成绩无关,我是佛系作者,大家佛系看书吧!]
  • 忘君九回

    忘君九回

    大昭国最受宠的鲁阳公主——楚晔瑶,在大婚当天收到一颗人头,当场晕倒,苏醒后,竟对此事全无印象。而父皇不找人为她看病,却赐给她一个身世显赫的俊逸侍卫——云南王之子穆昆。而他的真实身份竟是全家战死于凤台的定北侯之子成睿……这穆昆与她最信任的侍女串通,而且人头也是他送的……她没有想到自己竟渐渐爱上他,可当倾心后第9日一过,她却又将他忘了……而她失忆的根源似乎是父皇给她下了巫药……而那巫药最厉害的副作用是,无论她爱上谁,都只能记得爱人9天……谁也未曾想到,她会一次又一次的爱上同一个人……为何一个‘死人’要假冒别人接近她?为什么父皇对巫药之事缄口不提?如果她只能爱一个人9天,她该如何去爱?
  • 步步移情:首席放开我

    步步移情:首席放开我

    结婚多年,才发现我的婚姻就是一个巨大的骗局,而我还傻乎乎的替别人养老公和儿子。在所有人眼里,我连替那个女人提鞋都不配。可是乔迁,你忘了是谁把你从被离弃的泥潭里拉出来,是谁不分昼夜照顾你的儿子!面对咄咄逼人的婆婆和愈发嚣张的小三,我能做的就是保护好自己和女儿。即使粉身碎骨,我也不会让你们好过!为婚姻付出那么多,最后回忆起来只有满目疮痍。
  • 病友哈马阿蒂

    病友哈马阿蒂

    两个月前,王四屁股沟里莫名地长了一个红疙瘩,黄豆般大小,开始不痒不痛,只是觉得长在那里有点怪怪的。这样的事多了,不同的是,以前更多的时候是长在脸上,或者身上,那些可以堂而皇之亮出来而不觉得害羞的地方。公然长在脸上的,再早,说是青春痘,不青春后,就叫它痤疮。长在身上的,好发于手臂、胸前或肚皮上,星星点点的,有点红,有点痒,就不叫青春痘而叫它湿疹。用中医的说法,是内里湿热重了,发散出来的疹子。这些事,每个人都会有,随便弄点消炎的药搽搽,几天过后也就平复了。实在顽劣的,弄点鱼石脂敷上,就像如今给半生的水果施点催熟与膨大的药剂。
  • 强盗!放下那个包子

    强盗!放下那个包子

    作为一个受过九年义务教育,七年高等教育的新新人类,她,金宝贝,居然穿越到古代只能以乞讨为生!为了一个包子,她误惹强盗头头,被卷进一场王位争夺战。寨主,我的男神!【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 大别山传奇

    大别山传奇

    长篇红色武侠小说,讲述大别山几位英雄的传奇故事。故事以第三次国内革命战争为背景,几位英雄用自己的武功、医术等,与地痞流氓、土匪周旋,保护大别山区人民的生命、财产安全,最终迎来了刘邓大军。故事曲折离奇、惊心动魄,情节扑朔迷离,引人入胜,结构严谨,环环相扣。
  • 古龙文集:圆月弯刀(下)

    古龙文集:圆月弯刀(下)

    丁鹏凭“天外流星”剑扬名江湖,怎知被柳若松设计骗去剑谱,败于柳若松手下,并被冤枉盗窃武功。丁鹏侥幸逃命,被“狐女”青青所救,进入狐的世界,又习得青青祖父的魔刀刀法。丁鹏与青青回到人的世界,不仅大败柳若松,还设计使他的无耻嘴脸败露,柳若松而后拜丁鹏为师。丁鹏的刀法已入化境,决定前往神剑山庄挑战谢晓峰。而他也暗中发现,青青他们根本不是什么狐,而是多年前江湖人惧怕的魔教。从此,他卷入了魔教、神剑山庄、名门正派三者的争斗中去。柳若松则在暗中进行着他的阴谋……