#adonis greek myth

[melancholypancakes]

This is about Aphrodite telling Morpheus off and why they stopped being friends all those centuries ago.

Aphrodite:….

Dream:….

Aphrodite: Oneiros.

Dream: Aphrodite…I

Aphrodite: No, I don’t want to hear your excuses. You are going to hear me now.

Aphrodite: first, it was Nada a defenseless princess who fell in love with you, and when the sun punished her for being with you and killed her kingdom. She killed herself and when she refuse becoming Queen of the dreaming you banished her to hell?!

Dream: I-

Aphrodite: Then calliope! You two were great for each other! She made a child for you and her! When Orpheus beg you for help you denied him and left him for dead! He never forgave you! You drove calliope away, she was heartbroken!

Aphrodite: Titania, Alianora and Thessaly. Those women you abandon them when your “love” faded Thessaly saw through your lies and façade!

Dream: Aphrodite, you don’t-

Aphrodite: No! I’m not finished Oneiros. Our friendship, You never let me express my feelings! That is why we stopped being friends!

Dream:…I thought we stopped being friends because I said humanity is selfish and cruel.

Aphrodite: sure, that was bad but it was mostly because you were a shitty friend!

Aphrodite: Oneiros, you are so shallow, selfish, sexist, deceitful and you don’t know what love is!

Aphrodite: I always listen to you going on and on how you hated your siblings and how humanity was so selfish.

Aphrodite: But for a second when I express how I was unhappy in my marriage with Hephaestus, my relationship with my sons, Ares Arrogant, selfish attitude and Adonis death which shattered my heart.

Aphrodite breathes out on the verge of tears. Just thinking about Adonis and all her sins.

Aphrodite: you always cut me off and threw off it like it was nothing! I tried to help you with your happiness, love and friendship I have given you! But it was never enough.

Aphrodite: You treated me like dirt! Like I was nothing to you, I was your only friend and I stood up for you against your family and the gods!

Aphrodite: Its no wonder your family doesn’t like you! Or you don’t have any friends!

Aphrodite: at least, I acknowledge I was awful parent, lover, wife and goddess but you. Pretend it’s everyone else’s fault and not yours!

Dream, looks at Aphrodite with his glossy eyes as he tried to keep his composure.

Aphrodite: What makes this mortal witch, Y/n L/n any different?… all you’re going to do is break her apart like the others.

Aphrodite: What makes you think you’re worthy of love?

Dream:…Because I’m trying to be better. Aphrodite, listen more and ask for help more and that’s all thank to her.

Aphrodite:….

Dream: she accepts me for who I am. She doesn’t change me nor ask me of my past, she show me how humanity isn’t always cruel. She showed me ways to be better.

Dream: She’s different and…I deeply love her as she loves me, I’ve never felt this way about a mortal woman like her before.

Aphrodite looks at Oneiros for the first time in centuries with pity and forgiveness. Maybe they could put all this anger, sadness and betrayal behind them?

[gotstabbedbyapen]

[h0bg0blin-meat]

"Have you ever met someone that was sunshine in human form?"

Cyrene: I mean.... :)

Adonis: Literally? Figuratively? Both? Yes :3

Hyacinthus: Welp- :3

Daphne: Yes, and I'm not very proud of it-

Bolina: I don't wanna talk about it.

Admetus: Erm-...

Nerites: Can we PLEASE change the topic?

Icarus: I mean... I wanted to-

[paradisechid800]

Au where Dite and Perse raised Adonis together

Hestia: Adonis bit a kid at school today.

Persephone: *gasp*

Aphrodite: What!?

Hestia: I know this is hard to hear, bu-

Persephone: How dare you!?!?

Aphrodite: Our son is a saint!

Hestia:???

Baby Adonis: *running with a flame thrower burning everything he sees*

Hestia:!?!?

Hestia: Are you seeing this!

Aphrodite: Of course we are.

Persephone: Who do you think gave that to him!?

*

Baby Adonis: *holding a giant battleaxe*

Demeter: Little boy, where do you think you're going with that?

Baby Adonis: Um...

Demeter: Give it too me.

Baby Adonis: *Hands to her*

Demeter: Thank you. *hands him a bigger, sharper one* this cuts much more proficiently.

Baby Adonis: Thank u, uwu *starts chasing people*

Aphrodite: That's my boy.

*

Zeus: *Bouncing baby Adonis on his knee* What an adorable little scamp.

Hera: Careful, we don't want him developing a bad vocabulary.

Zeus: Don't be silly. Perse's the one raising him, this is the most innocent thing in the world.

Baby Adonis: *Points at Zeus* Slut!

Zeus: ...

Zeus: Well he isn't wrong.

[medusaspeach]

A short comic based on a section of Ovid's "Metamorphoses", translated by Arthur Golding, about the love story of Adonis and Aphrodite. Content Warning: blood and character death

[gingermintpepper]

This morning at like 4 am I said I'd post about Hyapollo when I woke up and I'm awake now so:

Here is a list of very specific headcanons about how Hyacinthus and Apollo's first meeting goes (this is, in fact, specific to the retelling that is living rent-free in my mind)

Apollo goes to Amyclae because he's looking for Clio. She's been missing for quite some time and the other Muses have done a wonderful job covering for her (read: hiding the reason she's MIA so Apollo doesn't get into a tiff with Aphrodite when he's already very stressed) but Apollo's gotten suspicious and none of his girls will give him a straight answer so fine, he'll find her himself.

Slips into mortal guise as a huntsman named Agreus (He's very stressed okay, don't critique his naming sense) and makes an exchange with Hermes for some information so he at least has a lead on where to start looking.

Hears from Hermes that she may or may not be in Lapith which is great, actually, Apollo hasn't checked in on how those particular descendants have been doing in quite some time so really, it's all working out.

Decides to make something of a trip out of it - he hasn't assumed mortal guise in a long time and it'll be longer still before he gets to wear it again. Goes to Amyclae so he can take the ship from there to Lapith, gets stopped by some men returning from a hunt of their own.

"Foreigner, what business do you have in our fair city?" "Merely passing through, to Lapith." "To Lapith? Where is your pass?" "My what?"

Gets arrested :(

His case gets processed fairly quickly actually - he only spends a few hours in merchant jail before he's taken to plea his case with one of the princes of Amyclae

The prince is actually one of the hunters that had him arrested. Lovely. His hair keeps catching Apollo's eyes though, thick and bright red. Almost familiarly so...

"Pardon me - " "No" "- but I can't help but notice your hair milord. Is the current queen Thracian?" "You claim to want passage to Lapith but know nothing of its affairs? The current queen is the lady of Lapith, Diomede."

Apollo hasn't been keeping much of an eye on Lapith, but as far as he knows, there hasn't been a prominent Diomede since the days of Lapithes. And she was his daughter.

It kind of clicks then - Aphrodite punishing Clio with the same fate she scolded her for, to fall in love with a mortal and experience the pain she felt for Adonis. Diomede is the kind of clever, obscure name Clio would pick, which makes this very grumpy prince in front of him both her son and a part of that punishment. Wonderful.

(The prince's name is apparently Hyacinthus. Apollo manages to convince him to let him free since he's clearly not been to Lapith in quite some time and has not kept up to date with its legislation. He pays his fine and is out of the holding cells by nightfall.)

[sarafangirlart]

I like how everyone ignores the fact that Persephone (and also kinda Aphrodite) groomed Adonis. Let’s keep it that way.

[theoihalioistuff]

Natural 'Love Remedies' in the lanscapes of ancient greek myths. Part I: The White Rock

Sorry for the long post in advance, there are too many references and too much scholarly discussion to make a short snappy post. I abridged as much as I could :)

The White Rock is first mentioned in passing in the Odyssey, as part of the westward journey that the shades of the suitors undertake as they're led to to the underworld:

And they passed by the streams of Okeanos and the White Rock [Λευκάδα πέτρην] and past the Gates of the Sun and the District of Dreams. (Od. 24. 11-12)

This passage has at first glance little thematic relevance to the rest of the attestations to come (if you're interested in theories see further reading below), but I'd be remiss not to mention this first source for a "White Rock". The rest or these sources refer specifically to the White Rock of the island of Leukas (the Leukadian Rock), which was said to have the property of relieving the lovesick from their passion. According to Menander (in Fragment 258 quoted in Stabo's Geography):

It contains the temple of Apollo Leucatas, and also the 'Leap', which was believed to put an end to the longings of love. As Menander says, "Where Sappho is said to have been the first, when through frantic longing she was chasing the haughty Phaon, to fling herself with a leap from the far-seen rock, calling upon thee in prayer, O lord and master". Now although Menander says that Sappho was the first to take the leap, those who are better versed than he in antiquities say that it was Cephalus, the son of Deïoneus, who was in love with Pterelas. (Strab. 10.2.9)

Strabo is presumably quoting Menander's lost play The Leukadia. Unrelated to love but still interesting, Strabo continues:

It was an ancestral custom among the Leucadians, every year at the sacrifice performed in honor of Apollo, for some criminal to be flung from this rocky look-out for the sake of averting evil, wings and birds of all kinds being fastened to him, since by their fluttering they could lighten the leap, and also for a number of men, stationed all round below the rock in small fishing-boats, to take the victim in, and, when he had been taken on board* (alternatively: resuscitated), to do all in their power to get him safely outside their borders. (Strab. 10.2.9 continued) ~~ This might be seen as somewhat paralleling Pausanias 10.32.6 for those who are curious.

According to Wilamowitz 1913 (again see further reading below), Menander chose for his play a setting that was known for its exotic cult practice involving a white rock, and conflated it in the quoted passage with a literary theme likewise involving a white rock. There are two surviving attestations of this theme, in which falling off the white rock is apparently a metaphor for fainting (due to lust and wine respectively):

One more time taking off in the air, down from the White Rock into the dark waves do I dive, intoxicated with lust. (Anacreon PMG 370)

I would be crazy not to give all the herds of the Cyclopes in return for drinking one cup [of that wine] and throw myself from the White Rock into the brine, once I am intoxicated, with eyebrows relaxed. Whoever is not happy when he drinks is crazy. (Euripides Cyclops 163-168)

Sappho's legendary (and unfortunately fatal) leap off the Leucadian Rock to relieve herself of her love for the handsome Phaon (a figure that deserves a post of their own) is found also in Ovid's Heroines:

Here, when, weeping, I laid down my weary limbs, a Naiad stood before my eyes. She stood there and said: ‘Since you burn with the fires of injustice, Ambracia’s the land to be sought by you. Apollo on the heights watches the open sea: summoning the people of Actium and Leucadia. Here Deucalion, fired by love of Pyrrha, cast himself down and struck the sea without harming his body. Without delay love turned and fled from his slowly sinking breast: Deucalion was eased of his passion. The place obeys that law. Seek out the Leucadian height right away, and don’t be afraid to leap from the rock! (Ov. Her. 15. 165–220)

Finally, according to the mythographer Ptolemy Chennos (know for his bizarre stories) as quoted by Photius in his Library:

Those who leapt off the cliff are said to have freed themselves from erotic desire. And this is the story that lies behind it: it is said that, after the death of Adonis, Aphrodite wandered about in search of him until she found him in the city of Argos in Cyprus in the sanctuary of Apollo Erithios. She carried him away [for a funeral], having told Apollo about her love for Adonis. Apollo took her to the Leucadic Rock and ordered her to jump off the cliff. As she leapt, she freed herself of her love. They say that when she inquired about the reason, Apollo replied that as a seer he knew that whenever Zeus felt desire for Hera, he would come to the rock, sit there and free himself from the desire. Many other men and women who suffered from lovesickness got rid of it when they jumped off that cliff. (Photius��Bibliotheca. 152-153. Bekker)

What follows is a long list of people who are said to have jumped off said cliff, some surviving while others not (in any case, quite darkly, all were relieved of their passions). Notably Sappho, the most celebrated leaper, is not mentioned.

The fact that Zeus is mentioned as only sitting on the rock and not hurling himself from it is interesting. Nagy 1990 (see below) notes the similarities between the Leucadic Rock and the "proverbially white" Thoríkios pétros ‘Leap Rock’ of Attic Kolonos (Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus). He also notes the double etymology of "Thoríkios" as derivable from the noun thorós ‘semen’ (e.g. Herodotus 2.93.1) as well as of the verb thrṓiskō ‘leap’ (which can also have the side-meaning ‘mount, fecundate’ e.g. Aeschylus Eumenides 600), and connects it with one of the myths that is said to have taken place on this mountain:

Others say that, in the vicinity of the rocks at Athenian Kolonos, he [Poseidon], falling asleep, had an emission of semen, and a horse Skúphios came out, who is also called Skīrōnítēs. (Scholia to Lycophron 766)

Poseidon Petraîos [= of the rocks] has a cult among the Thessalians … because he, having fallen asleep at some rock, had an emission of semen; and the earth, receiving the semen, produced the first horse, whom they called Skúphios. (Scholia tο Pindar Pythian 4.246)

According to Bednarek 2019 (see below), in view of Ptolemy’s humorous intentions in his collection of weird narratives, the story becomes a sort of "sophomoric riddle": What cure does Zeus have to administer "repeatedly" (εὶ ἐρῶν … ἐκαθέζετο καὶ ἀνεπαύετο), while sitting down, presumably alone and in secrecy, that clearly only provides a temporary relief, and provides an aitiological name for the White Rock, to free himself from his desire?

All this long-winded post just to make a fucking joke about Zeus having a wank. Worth it.

~~ Cape Lefkatas

Secondary Sources and Futher Reading (these are only the ones I mentioned in this post, apparently there's a lot to say on the subject):

Greek Mythology and Poetics, Gregory Nagy 1990. Ch. 9. Phaethon, Sappho’s Phaon, and the White Rock of Leukas: “Reading” the Symbols of Greek Lyric. https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/chapter-9-phaethon-sapphos-phaon-and-the-white-rock-of-leukas-reading-the-symbols-of-greek-lyric-pp-223-262/

Levaniouk, Olga. 2011. Eve of the Festival: Making Myth in Odyssey 19. Hellenic Studies Series 46. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/17-penelope-and-the-penelops/

Bednarek, Bartłomiej. “Zeus on the Leucadic Rock. White magic of an obscene passage in Ptolemy Chennos.” Acta Classica 62 (2019): 219–27. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26945053.

Sappho und Simonides, Untersuchungen über griechische Lyriker by Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, 1913

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

Apollo: Okay, from now on we'll be using codenames. You may address me as "Eagle One".

Apollo: Coronis is "Been There Done That"

Apollo: Hyacinthus is "Currently Doing That"

Apollo: Cyparissus, "It Happened Once In A Dream"

Apollo: Cyrene, "If I Picked A Girl"

Apollo: Adonis is "I'd Be Lying If I Said I Hadn't Thought About It"

Apollo: Commodus is "A Bad Influence, We Were"

Apollo: and Artemis is "Eagle Two"

Artemis: Thank the fucking gods.

[arthyritis]

If I could give three ocs three different iterations of the same name without feeling an ounce of shame, there's no reason I should be fighting myself to name a character what I want 🤨

[hyac1nthus]

I love my flower princes (Hyacinthus & Adonis)

[noctilionoidea]

Spring in Aphaca

I read that one part of De Dea Syria about Aphrodite and Adonis in Afqa (though some of the Adonis stuff is actually sometimes for Osiris) so this combines a lot of elements of that. Also more work with stylization of water. Now obviously a lot of syncretism is definitely at play but that’s really just par for the course whenever if comes to Adonis. Or an account of the region in classical antiquity.

There’s one part about the river adonis turning red with blood and how it’s actually just the depositing of red soil. Still really cool and utilized in the drawing. I really like Adonis (I’m oddly fond of ancient examples of cultural diffusion) so I like reading about different traditions surrounding him and what he was drawn from.

[mythical-art]

The Garden of Adonis- Amoretta and Time, 1887 by John Dickson Batten

[hecatesdelights]

Adonis and Aphrodite

[littlesparklight]

Ok so, this is mostly going to talk about my own setup for my fics, though it's rooted in the fact that the possible children one can give Hades and/or Persephone aren't very wide-spread/firmly rooted in any (ancient) mainstream of Greek myth.

Which means that in general they're childless.

Which, when you do interpret Adonis and Persephone's relationship as purely adopted mother and son, as I do for my ficverse, means Hades has to grapple with being the sole caretaker of a little child for long stretches each year before Adonis gets older.

(Yeah, for me, I've added Makaria, but again, in my ficverse Leuke was always there at that point, which makes that situation slightly different.)

Yes, it's easy for Hades to set up nurses/babysitters while he's alone with little Adonis in summer-autumn. But I don't imagine he wouldn't eventually bond, and the more Adonis himself becomes certain his mother's husband is ok with him... the more he'll seek him out. The less Hades can easily delegate to others.

The more he has to accept that he is, actually, A Father here, and maybe, maybe, he likes it. :)

[ctl-yuejie]

Hidden Agenda is moving very quickly -last week Zo had to get persuaded to ask for Joke's help and this week he already realises that he's catching feelings for Joke -

too fast? maybe. but I think that's the point:

Admittedly Joke is hot, suave and has shown to be kind since from Zo's perspective he's helping him on a self-admittedly ludicrous mission (getting tutored by the ex) after getting bad-mouthed by his friends. However, Zo had a bad impression of Joke beforehand and has liked Nita for a long time.

So why the sudden change?

I have to rewatch ep. 1-2 but Zo seems lonely? He has of course his club and friends but his family seems a bit absent. And even knowing he has friends still doesn't make it impossible for him to be lonely. The initial teaser mentioned that he wants to be in love.

So why Joke?

I think that puzzle can be solved by asking: why Nita?

She's hot, popular and most importantly nice to Zo. He is extremely awkward around her (and ripped her bag strap!) but she's been friendly throughout.

I think Zo is craving that. His crush on Nita is legitimate (at least I want to think it is), but he is more into the idea of her. He doesn't actually know her (my man only now scrolled through her instagram to see what she likes).

And like Joke accurately observes: he doesn't know himself and dislikes to try new things out so he's stuck not getting to know himself better, which also means: we can't be too sure he knows what he wants and likes romantically.

This is the first time he spends a lot of time with a new person trying new things. And it is intimate: they touch, mess around and have a good time together.

Or like Joke poses, and Zo repeats in his head: 1. Passion 2. Initimacy 3. Committment. I don't think his perception of what love is changes after Joke's triangle of love but someone put finally into words what love is to Zo. And intimacy seems to be a big thing for him (be it physical touch or the feeling of not being alone).

And when Joke -after Zo reads the story of Aphrodite and Adonis to him- says were he Aphrodite "he wouldn't have left Adonis alone in the first place" and their electrifying pinky touch, it becomes clear that this is is what Zo is looking for. Not only someone nice, but someone who won't make him feel alone. (That's why the date with Nita went perfectly well - it's fine to interpret stories differently and they got talking about it - but he didn't feel a spark)

Which will complicate things in the future. Not only the possible betrayal he feels when he learns of Joke's hidden agenda, but in the preview it looks like we get the first kiss. And it's initiated by Zo.

The chemistry he feels is definitely true. But can Joke believe that Zo has caught feelings when he is still on the way to getting to know himself better and seemingly craving for a romantic connection to someone ?

I don't know how to tie this back into the theme of "hidden agenda" but it is at least the reason why I see conflict on the horizon and don't believe the show is moving too fast.

Upon re-reading I might have idea, which isn't that clean but maybe workable in the future: hidden agenda also means you are not true to someone else. Zo has changed who he is for Nita, even agreeing with her reading on his favourite bed time story because he thinks that what she wants to see him romantically. But we know that what Zo wants is to be wanted in a way that - according to Joke - goes beyond what even Aphrodite felt for Adonis. And in front of Joke he is very honest, even down to admitting feeling confused about his heart not racing when he got close to Nita. Which in turn can led to more conflict, because he was so honest in front of Joke while Joke hides his motivations.

In even better news: it means I am getting the ultimate trope of them dating while thinking the other isn't into them.