Adonis

Beautiful youth beloved of Aphrodite.  His mother, Myrrh, was changed into a tree.  He was slain by the jealous Ares who was temporarily changed into a wild boar.  Because of Aphrodite’s grief the gods required him to spend only half the year in Hades.  At the midsummer Festival of Adonis, lament over his death merged into rejoicing over his resurrection.  Quick-growing potted plants were tended for eight days, then allowed to wither and were flung into the sea.  The Greek goddess Aphrodite represented the cosmic power of love and the reproductive forces of Nature; hence the myth symbolizes the annual recurrence and decay of vegetation, and the life cycle of growth, maturity, senescence and death.