The Gardens of Adonis
by Marcel Détienne
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Description
Rich with implications for the history of sexuality, gender issues, and patterns of Hellenic literary imagining, Marcel Detienne's landmark book recasts long-standing ideas about the fertility myth of Adonis. The author challenges Sir James Frazer's thesis that the vegetation god Adonis-- whose premature death was mourned by women and whose resurrection marked a joyous occasion--represented the annual cycle of growth and decay in agriculture. Using the analytic tools of structuralism, show more Detienne shows instead that the festivals of Adonis depict a seductive but impotent and fruitless deity--whose physical ineptitude led to his death in a boar hunt, after which his body was found in a lettuce patch. Contrasting the festivals of Adonis with the solemn ones dedicated to Demeter, the goddess of grain, he reveals the former as a parody and negation of the institution of marriage. Detienne considers the short-lived gardens that Athenian women planted in mockery for Adonis's festival, and explores the function of such vegetal matter as spices, mint, myrrh, cereal, and wet plants in religious practice and in a wide selection of myths. His inquiry exposes, among many things, attitudes toward sexual activities ranging from "perverse" acts to marital relations. show lessTags
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Books in the Bibliography of The Dawn of Everything by Graeber & Wengrow
478 works; 2 members
Author Information
Marcel Detienne is Basil L. Gildersleeve Professor of Classics at Johns Hopkins University
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Les jardins d'Adonis
- Original title
- Les jardins d'Adonis. La mythologie des aromates en Grèce
- Original publication date
- 1972 (1e édition originale française ∙ Bibliothèque des Histoires ∙ Gallimard) (1e édition originale française ∙ Bibliothèque des Histoires ∙ Gallimard)
- Original language*
- Français
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Anthropology, History, General Nonfiction, Sexuality and Gender Studies
- DDC/MDS
- 292.1 — Religion Other religions Greek & Roman Mythology Religious mythology, general classes of religion, interreligious relations and attitudes, social theology
- LCC
- BL795 .A7 .D4713 — Philosophy, Psychology and Religion Religions. Mythology. Rationalism Religions. Mythology. Rationalism History and principles of religions European. Occidental Classical (Etruscan, Greek, Roman)
- BISAC
Statistics
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- 95
- Popularity
- 337,269
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- 5 — English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 1
