3i6 The Honey-Makers 



in the celebrations of the festival of the resurrection of 

 Adonis, though this festival was observed with the greatest 

 splendor at Alexandria in Egypt during the time of Greek 

 pre-eminence there, Queen Arsinoe herself giving it in 

 magnificent style. 



The lovely Adonis, dear to Aphrodite, represented the 

 living procreative form of nature, which dying in winter has 

 a glorious resurrection in spring. 



The death of Adonis was first celebrated, and lamenta- 

 tions continued for seven days. Upon the eighth he arose 

 from the dead and the people broke forth in jubilee. The 

 week of lamentation, as Brugsch points out, recalls the holy 

 week, the time of mourning for the dead Lord, which is still 

 observed in the Roman Catholic church and other 

 communions. 



At the Adonis festival the women placed about the cata- 

 falque — upon which was an image of the god — waxen 

 figures of fruit and animals, and there were also little figures 

 of the god brought out to public view. 



A most delightful account of an Adonis festival in 

 Alexandria is given by Theocritus in the fifteenth ''Idyl." 



Two women of Syracuse go together to the festival, and 

 as the translator, Andrew Lang, in the introduction truly 

 says, " Nothing can be more gay and natural than the 

 chatter of the women, which has changed no more in two 

 thousand years than the song of birds." 



Not wax images alone were used at the festival of Adonis, 

 which at its termination was a veritable outburst of gladness 

 and good clieer, but natural fruits and other objects were 

 used, some of which are enumerated in the beautiful Psalm 

 of Adonis, occurring in the " Idyl " already referred to : 



" Before him lie all ripe fruits that the tall trees' branches 

 bear, and the delicate gardens, arrayed in baskets of silver, 

 and the golden vessels are full of incense of Syria. And 



