ADO 



ADO 



phus, who exprcfsly fays, that it was not lawful for liiiii to 

 fpeak of the name by which God had ivvealed hiiiifelf to 

 Mofes. See Geddcs's Critical Rcmark<, vol. i. p. 167. 



ADONEA, in Mythology, the name of a divinity wliieh 

 prcfided over voyages. 



ADONI, in Gngrnphy, a diftrid of Kiadollan, in the 

 country of Golconda. It is alfo the name of a town in 

 this diftrift, about 188 miles north of Seringapatam. 

 E. long. 77"' 18'. N. lat. 14" ;o'. 



ADONIA, ill AiiUqii'ity, folcinn fcafts in honour of 

 Venus, and in raemor)- of her beloved Adonis, who is fup- 

 pofed to liave been killed by a wild boar in the fcreft of 

 mount Libanus, from which the river Adonis delcends. 

 Blfhop Patrick (Com. in Exod. xii. 30.) afcribes the origin 

 of thefe fealls among the Egyptians to the (laughter of the 

 fnft-born in the time of Mofes ; and he, adopting the con- 

 jeftureof Schaccus, an ancient writer, inclines to the opinion, 

 that Pharaoh's eldeft fon, who was now flain, had tlie name 

 of Ohris ; and that his fudden death on this occafion was 

 lamented by all pollerity in one night of tlie year, at the 

 time of full moon. Dr. Spencer, (De leg. Heb. 1. ii. c. 37. 

 ^ I. vol. i. p. 575.) conjectures, that thele feafts bad their 

 origin with the Egyptians; but that the death of Ofiris or 

 Adonis, generally uuderftood to be the fun, being the god 

 that prefidtd over the fruits of the earth, or ufcd iymboli- 

 caily for the fruits themfelves, denoted their being cut off 

 er fepai"ated from the earth in the time of harveft ; which 

 event was celebrated «4th mourning and lamentation : and 

 as the Egyptians gath-ered the firft fruits of the earth with 

 this kind of unreafonable and excefiive forrow, he thus ac- 

 counts for the inftruftion recorded in Dcut. xxvi. 14. To 

 thefe feafts the prophet Ezekiel is fuppofed to refer," ch. viii. 

 14 ; and if Tammuz or Thamuz be the fame with Ofiris or 

 Adonis, as learned men generally fuppofc, the circnmilance 

 above-mentioned accounts for this folemnity being kept in 

 the month of Tammuz, anfwering to part of our June and 

 July, becaufe the harveft was finiflied in thofe hot countries 

 by or before that time. Sec Lowth's Com. in loe. 



This idolatry, derived from the Egyptians, was aftenvards 

 adopted by other nations, as the Phoenicians, Lycians, 

 Syrians and Greeks, and improved bv the addition of a new 

 fable, viz. Venus's mourning for the death of Adonis. 

 The fcene of Adonis's hiftoi-y is faid to be at Cyblos in 

 Phanicia ; and the fignal for celebrating the Adonia was the 

 change of the water of the river Adonis into blood, which 

 liappened once a year. Lucian (De Syria Dea, apud oper, 

 torn. iii. p. 454. Ed. Reitzii) gives the following account of 

 thefe feafts. The Syrians affirm, that \\-hat the Ixiar is re- 

 ported to have done againft Adonis was tranfafted in their 

 country ; and, in remembrance of this calamity, they annu- 

 ally beat themfelvcs and wail, and celebrate frantic rites, and 

 great lamentations arc inllitutcd through the v.hole countiy. 

 W hen they have had enough of lamentation and tears, they 

 tirft perform funeral obfequles to Adonis, as to one that is 

 dead : and afterwards, on a following day, they feign that 

 he is ahve, and al'cendcd into the air or heaven, and fliave their 

 heads as the Egyptians do, on occafion of the death of 

 their apis. If any women will not confent to be ftiaved, 

 they are obliged to proftitute themfclves once to ftrangei-s, 

 and the money they thus earn is confecrated to Venus. 

 Some of the Byblians, continues Lucian, are of opinion, 

 that thefe orgies are performed in honour of Ofiris, the 

 Egyptian deity, and not of Adonis. The Egyptians, at 

 the time of thia feall, are faid to convey a box made of rufties 

 or papyrus, with an inclofed letter, informing the inha- 

 bitants of Byblos, about feven days journey from the coafts 

 cf Egypt, that thvir god Adonis, whom they apprehended 



to be loft, is difcovercd. The veflel always arrives £ift? at 

 Byblos at the end of feven days. Lucian fays, he was a 

 witncfs of this event. The women, who are the priucipaE 

 adors on this occafion, expeft the arrival of the veifel with 

 impatience, and are frantic with joy when it arrives. Ac- 

 cording to Mei'.rhu;-., the two oflices of lamentation and 

 rejoicing made two diftinCt feafts, which were held at dif- 

 feren{ times of the year, the one fix months after the other ; 

 Adonis being fuppofed to pafs luJf the year with I'roferpliie, 

 and the other half with Venus. The lamentation they 

 called a*KviT/io?, or difappearance, and the rejoicing 'f'n.r, or 

 return. Thelc feaft:-. were obfer\-ed at Alexandria in tlie 

 time of St. Cyril, and at Anticch in the time of Julian the 

 apoftatc, who happened to enter the city during the folem- 

 nity, which was inteipreted as an ill omen. 



Ovid refers to the Adonia in his Metamorph. (1. iv. v. 72?,. 

 toin. 2. p. 740. Ed. Burman). 



" lufl'js m.onumenta manebunt. 



Semper, Adoni, mei ; repctitaque mortis imago 

 Annua plangoris peraget fimulatnina nuibi. 



At cruor in ftorem muCabitur.- 



Procopius, St. Cyril, and lome other learned men are of- 

 opinion, tliat Ifaiah (ch.xviii. 2.) refers to the circumftance 

 abovemenlioncd of fending a letter by fea to communicate 

 the news of Adonis's refurreiSion ; whilft others, trandatinir- 

 the Hebrew t-zirim, ulvls, fuppofe that the paliage refers to- 

 the images of Ifis, which the Egyptians carried from place to 

 place in a fort of paper-vefTel, or ark of bulrufties. The rites 

 praftifed in the Adonia refcmble thofe of the Orphic Ar- 

 G0N'.tuTic.\, and probably have the fame origin and end» 

 Bryant. Mythol. vol. i. p. 3:71. 



The Adonia were otherwife called Salambo. The Abbii 

 Banier has a memoir on the hiftory of the Adonia. Mem. 

 Acad. Infcript. torn. iv. 



ADONIEUS, a name given by the Arabs to the fun, 

 under which appellation they worftiipped him, by daily 

 offering to him incenfe and perfumes.. This was alfo a name 

 given to Bacchus. 



ADONIC, in Poetry, denotes a fhort kind of verfe, con- 

 fifting of a daftyl and a fpondee, or a trochee : as raraju- 

 •ven'.us. It takes its name from Adonis ; as- having been- 

 originally ufcd in the Threnre, or lamentations for that fa- 

 vourite. The chief ufe of the adonic verfe is at the end of 

 each ilroplie of fapphic verfe ; or among Ariftophanic 

 Anapifts in the ancient tragedy. But we meet with ado. 

 nics by themfclves without fapphics, as alfo fapphics with- 

 out adonics. Sec an inltauce of adonic verfes in Bocthius, 

 de Confol. Philof. lib. i. p. 24. Ed. Amftcl,. " Gaudia 

 pelle," &c. 



ADONIDES, in Botany, are thofe writers, who have 

 given- hiftories, or catalogues of the plants cultivated in fome 

 particular place. 



ADONION, a fpecies of fouthernr\'ood, according to 

 Gornrus, which ufed to be let in pots, and ferved as an 

 oi'nament for garden'^. 



ADONIS, in Antiquity, a dance of the ancient Greeks^ 

 which was a kind of ballet, in which a pantomime imitated 

 Adonis, and bewailed his misfortime. 



Adon'is, jios Adonis, or PheafanCs Eye, in Botany, a. 

 genus oi \.\\t polyaiulr'ui polygynia clafs and order, and of the 

 natural order of mnlt'ijtliqu£ and the ranuncvlace£ of Juffieu. 

 Its charafters are, that the calyx is a five-leaved penauthium, 

 and the leaflets are obtufe, concave, a httle coloured and 

 deciduous ; the corolla has from five to fifteen, but moll 

 commonly eight, oblong, obtufe, (hining petals : the ftamina 

 confilt of very fliort, fubulate filaments, and the anthene 

 are oblong and infie;t ; the pillillum has numerous germs 



collcdcj 



