Research Catalog

Title

The gardens of Adonis : spices in Greek mythology / Marcel Detienne ; translated from the French by Janet Lloyd ; with an introduction by J.-P. Vernant.

Author

Detienne, Marcel.

Publication

Princeton, New Jersey. : Princeton University Press, [1994]

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Details

Description

xli, 199 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

"Rich with implications for the history of sexuality, gender issues, and patterns of hellenic literary imagining, Marcel Detienne's landmark book, first published in 1972, recast 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, 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, the way sin which women of various martial statuses were regarded and attitudes toward sexual activity ranging from "perverse" acts to marital relations."--Jacket.

Series Statement

• European philosophy and the human sciences
• Mythos : the Princeton/Bollingen series in world mythology

Uniform Title

• Jardins d'Adonis. English
• European philosophy and the human sciences
• Mythos (Princeton, N.J.)

Alternative Title

Jardins d'Adonis.

Subject

• Adonis (Greek deity)
• Adonis (Greek deity) > Cult
• Adonis (divinité grecque) > Culte > Grèce
• Aromatic plants > Mythology
• Mythology, Greek
• Mythologie
• Parfüm
• Adonis
• Adonistuintjes
• Parfums > Antiquité
• Plantes aromatiques > Aspect symbolique
• Mythologie grecque
• Griechenland Altertum

Note

• Originally published: Hassocks : Harvester Press, 1977.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction / Jean-Pierre Vernant -- Ch. 1. The Perfumes of Arabia -- Ch. 2. The Spice Ox -- Ch. 3. From Myrrh to Lettuce -- Ch. 4. The Misfortunes of Mint -- Ch. 5. The Seed of Adonis -- Ch. 6. The Lettuce of Pythagoras.

ISBN

• 0691001049
• 9780691001043

LCCN

93005590

OCLC

• ocm28421571
• 28421571
• SCSB-2011925

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library