AGAIN IN THE SPRING

"APRIL is the cruelest month," T.S. Eliot wrote famously in The Waste Land! However, he was referring to the devastation of World War I, and not to a general aversion to the second month of spring!

In the Olympian religion, spring was a central time for festivals and celebrations! It was when Aphrodite celebrated the return from the Underworld of her lover Adonis. Adonis, from Paphos, Cyprus, was a young man of extreme beauty, whom Aphrodite took to her bed. Some other lover (the War God Ares/Mars, I think) got jealous and killed Adonis. Aphrodite was so sad, that Zeus allowed Adonis to come back from the Underworld each year in the spring, and be again with Aphrodite. 

The return of Adonis from the Underworld was a great event in the Ancient Greek calendar, and was celebrated grandly in Paphos, Cyprus (in a series of festivities called the Adonia, τα Αδώνεια). Paphos was an important part of the Ancient Greek World, because it is the birthplace of Aphrodite. Flocks of visitors came to Paphos each year to see the beach where Aphrodite came out from the sea, and visit the famous temples and baths.

Another great event celebrated in the Spring was the return of Persephone, the goddess Demeter's daughter, also from the Underworld. Afterall, this is why the earth turns green and fertile again in the spring -- it is Demeter celebrating.

Have a great start to the month! xxx