ADONIS is a divine name coined in Greek from the northwest Semitic exclamation ʾadōnī, "my lord," probably shortened from the dirge hōy ʾadōnī, "Woe, my lord," which is echoed in Greek by aiai, Adonin.

Origins

The Greek tradition connects Adonis with Byblos. Hence his worship must be of Byblian origin. It is unknown whether the male deity thus invoked or mourned in the first millennium BCE was initially a city god or heroic eponym, a Baal of Byblos, or a god of the countryside, as suggested by his assimilation with Tammuz and Dionysos in the Middle East, and by his characterization as a vegetation deity in later Greco-Roman tradition. The latter view is supported by Lucian's notice that Byblian women performed their mourning ritual for Adonis "through the whole countryside," and by a similar detail in the description of the Adonis festival at Seville circa...