Adonis, according to some authors, the son of Theias, king of Assyria, and his daughter Smyrna [Myrrha], was the favourite of Venus. He was fond of hunting; and Venus often warned him not to attack the larger wild beasts; but neglecting the advice, he was killed by a wild boar he had rashly wounded. Venus was incon solable, and turned him into a flower of a blood colour, supposed by some to be an anemone. Adonis had to spend half the year in the lower regions, but during the other half he was permitted to revisit the upper world, and pass the time with Venus. No grief was ever more celebrated than that of Venus for Adonis, most nations round the Mediterranean having perpetuated the memory of it by anniversary ceremonies. "The tale of Adonis (Keightley's Mythology) is evidently an eastern myth. His own name and those of his parents refer to that part of the world. He appears to be the same with the Thammuz mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel (viii. 14), and to be a Phoenician personification of the sun, who during part of the year is absent, or, as the legend expresses it, with the goddess of the under world; during the remainder with Astarte, the regent of heaven." Among the Egyptians, Adonis is supposed to have been adored under the name of Osiris, the husband of Isis; but he was sometimes called by the name of Ammuz or Thammuz, the concealed, to denote probably his death or burial. It has been thought it is he the Hebrews call the dead (Ps. cvi. 28, and Lev. xix. 28), because his worshippers wept for him, and represented him as one dead; and at other times they call him the image of jealousy (Ezek. viii. 3, 5), because he was an object of jealousy to other gods. The Syrians, Phœnicians, and Cyprians worshipped Adonis; and Calmet was of opinion that this worship may be identified with that of the Moabitish Baal-peor. Modern critics plausibly connect the divine honours paid to Adonis with the mysterious rites of phallic worship, which, in some shape or other, prevailed so extensively in the ancient world.
Adonis, in Ancient Geography, a small river rising in Mount Lebanon, and falling into the sea at Byblus. When in flood its waters exhibit a deep red tinge; hence the legend that connects it with the wound of Adonis.
Ran purple to the sea, suppos'd with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded."—Milton.
Adonis, a genus of ranunculaceous plants, known commonly by the names of Pheasant's Eye and Flos Adonis. There are ten or twelve species given by authors, but they may be probably reduced to three or four. There are two indigenous species, Adonis autumnalis and Adonis æstivalis. They are commonly cultivated. An early flowering species, Adonis vernalis, is well worthy of cultivation.
Adoptian Controversy, a controversy relating to the sonship of Christ, raised in Spain by Elipandus, archbishop of Toledo, and Felix, bishop of Urgel, towards the close of the 8th century. By a modification of the doctrine of Nestorius they maintained that Christ was really the Son of God in his divine nature alone, and that in his human nature he was only the Son of God by adoption. It was hoped that this view would prove more acceptable to the Mahometans than the orthodox doctrine, and Elipandus especially was very diligent in propagating it. Felix was instrumental in introducing it into that part of Spain which belonged to the Franks, and Charlemagne thought it necessary to assemble a synod at Ratisbon (792), before which the bishop was summoned to explain and justify the new doctrine. Instead of this he renounced it, and confirmed his renunciation by a solemn oath to Pope Adrian, to whom the synod sent him. The recantation was probably insincere, for on returning to his diocese he taught adoptianism as before. Another synod was held at Frankfort in 794, by which the new doctrine was again formally condemned, though neither Felix nor any of his followers appeared. A friendly letter from Alcuin, and a controversial pamphlet, to which Felix replied, were followed by the sending of several commissions of clergy to Spain to endeavour to put down the heresy. Archbishop Leidrad of Lyons being on one of these commissions, persuaded Felix to appear before a synod at Aix-la-Chapelle in 799. There, after six days' disputing with Alcuin, he again recanted his heresy. The rest of his life was spent under the supervision of the archbishop at Lyons, where he died in 816. Elipandus, secure in his see at Toledo, never swerved from the adoptian views, which, however, were almost universally abandoned after the two leaders died. The controversy was revived by solitary advo cates of the heretical opinions more than once during the Middle Ages, and the questions on which it turns have, in one form or another, been the subject of frequent discussion.
Adoption, the act by which the relations of paternity and filiation are recognised as legally existing between persons not so related by nature. Cases of adoption were very frequent among the Greeks and Romans, and the custom was accordingly very strictly regiilated in their laws. In Athens the power of adoption was allowed to all citizens who were of sound mind, and who possessed no male off spring of their own, and it could be exercised either during lifetime or by testament. The person adopted, who required to be himself a citizen, was enrolled in the family and demus of the adoptive father, whose name, however, he did not necessarily assume. In the interest of the next of kin, whose rights were affected by a case of adoption, it was provided that the registration should be attended with certain formalities, and that it should take place at a fixed time—the festival of the Thargelia. The rights and duties of adopted children were almost identical with those of natural offspring, and could not be renounced except in the case of one who had begotten children to take his place in the family of his adoptive father. Adopted into another family, children ceased to have any claim of kindred or inheritance through their natural father, though any rights they might have through their mother were not similarly affected. Among the Romans the existence of the patria potestas gave a peculiar significance to the custom of adoption. The motive to the act was not so generally childlessness, or the gratification of affection, as the desire to acquire those civil and agnate rights which were founded on the patria potestas. It was necessary, however, that the adopter should have no children of his own, and that he should be of such an age as to preclude reasonable expectation of any being born to him. Another limitation as to age was imposed by the maxim adoptio imitatur naturam, which required the adoptive father to be at least eighteen years older than the adopted children. According to the same maxim eunuchs were not permitted to adopt, as being impotent to beget children for themselves. Adoption was of two kinds according to the state of the person adopted, who might be either still under the patria potestas (alieni juris), or his own master (sui juris). In the former case the act was one of adoption proper, in the latter case it was styled adrogation, though the term adoption was also used in a general sense to describe both species. In adoption proper the natural father publicly sold his child to tho adoptive father, and the sale being thrice repeated, the maxim of the Twelve Tables took effect, Si pater filium ter venunduit, filius a patre liber esto. The process was ratified and completed by a fictitious action of recovery brought by the adoptive father against the natural parent, which the latter did not defend, and which was therefore known as the cessio in jure. Adrogation could be accomplished origin ally only by the authority of the people assembled in the
