Lore[]
His mortal desire for women turned to an immortal desire for power. The more he desired power, the more he was visited by demons who came to lend him their dark energy. Unsatisfied, Adonis eventually slayed the demons and took their powers outright, as he strove to achieve supremacy over all those around him.
Name Origin[]
Adonis, in Greek mythology, the god of beauty and desire, is a figure with Northwest Semitic antecedents, where he is a central figure in various mystery religions. His religion belonged to women: the dying of Adonis was fully developed in the circle of young girls around the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos, about 600 BCE, as revealed in a fragment of Sappho's surviving poetry1.
Adonis is one of the most complex figures in classical times. He has had multiple roles, and there has been much scholarship over the centuries concerning his meaning and purpose in Greek religious beliefs. He is an annually-renewed, ever-youthful vegetation god, a life-death-rebirth deity whose nature is tied to the calendar. His name is often applied in modern times to handsome youths, of whom he is the archetype. Adonis is often referred to as the mortal god of Beauty.
Additional Info[]
Artwork by Choi Yongjae.