Eshmun

The Birth of Adonis

Victor Haddad (C)

The Birth of Adonis (126cm x 96cm) Mythology

Adonis was the son of Myrrha. Born from incestuous loves of this princess with King Cyniras, her father, he was as handsome as a God and a hunter. Venus fell in love with him and begged him not to hunt but defenseless animals.

However, one day, in the mountains of Lebanon, he chased a wild boar; this later by turning back, tore him with his fangs, injuring him to death.

Goddess Ashtarout shall vainly wait for the one who will never come back. Driven by her divine instinct, she thinks about an imminent misfortune. Sitting by her window, she looks worriedly her sight lost in the distance.

Suddenly the horizon is torn by the silhouette of a peasant hurrying up. Out of breath, he announces in a broken voice: "A wild boar has injured Adonis to death. His divine blood has been shed impregnating the soft ground. The water of the river that gets lost in the remotest sea, has been oozing with it."

Ashtarout, waking up from her blackout, laments and goes into the morning of her beloved. Driven by her love, stronger than death, she forces her way to sheol, penetrates in the world of Raphaims, meets the divine Mot and with the persuasion force given by love, snatches Adonis from the laws of sheol, out of the jealous desires of the keen of darkness and brings him back on earth, alive, resurrected. It was the third day.

A spring sun was dancing with the river water, going down in floods, from on rock to another, towards the sea, carrying to the Gebeal people, the good news: "Adonis is alive".

Unknown flowers until then spread their red petals, facing the sky similar to children mouths longing for a motherly kiss. Every drop of the blood shed by Adonis God has flourished in an anemone. Since that time, every year, anemone flowers cover the Lebanese countryside, paying homage to the young God of Afka.