ABSTRACT
In the ancient cult of Adonis, the death of the young vegetation god was ritually mourned in late summer at the so-called Adonia; urns of rapidly blossoming and wilting flowers or herbs, known as gardens of Adonis, were placed on his shrine. These became a proverbial expression for any rapid growth (and decay). Plato uses them as a symbol of the frivolity of those who write down their ideas and opposes them to the serious cultivation of philosophy by those who engage in spoken dialogue (Phaedrus 276-7). Pliny the Elder’s remark that the gardens of kings Adonis and Alcinous were celebrated in antiquity led to the idea that there was an actual Garden of Adonis (Natural History 19.19).
