Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
3,896,611,935 visitors served.
forum Join the Word of the Day Mailing List For webmasters
?
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

Adonis
(redirected from Aspirin Dose Optimized in Non-Cardioembolic Ischemic Stroke)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.

Adonis, in Greek mythology

Adonis (ədō`nĭs, ədŏn`ĭs), in Greek mythology, beautiful youth beloved by Aphrodite Aphrodite , in Greek religion and mythology, goddess of fertility, love, and beauty. Homer designated her the child of Zeus and Dione. Hesiod's account of her birth is more popular: she supposedly rose from the foam of the sea where Uranus' genitals had fallen after
..... Click the link for more information.
 and Persephone Persephone or Proserpine , in Greek and Roman religion and mythology, goddess of fertility and queen of the underworld. She was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter.
..... Click the link for more information.
. He was born of the incestuous union of Myrrha (or Smyrna) and Cinyras, king of Cyprus. Aphrodite left Adonis in the care of Persephone, who raised him and made him her lover. Aphrodite later demanded the youth for herself, but Persephone was unwilling to relinquish him. When Adonis was gored to death by a boar, both Persephone and Aphrodite claimed him. Zeus settled the dispute by arranging for Adonis to spend half the year (the summer months) above the ground with Aphrodite and the other half in the underworld with Persephone. Adonis' death and resurrection, symbolic of the yearly cycle of vegetation, were widely celebrated in ancient Greece in the midsummer festival Adonia. The worship of Adonis corresponds to the cults of the Phrygian Attis Attis or Atys , in Phrygian religion, vegetation god. When Nana ate the fruit of the almond tree, which had been generated by the blood of either Agdistis or of Cybele, she conceived Attis.
..... Click the link for more information.
 and the Babylonian Tammuz Tammuz , ancient nature deity worshiped in Babylonia. A god of agriculture and flocks, he personified the creative powers of spring. He was loved by the fertility goddess Ishtar, who, according to one legend, was so grief-stricken at his death that she contrived to
..... Click the link for more information.
.

Bibliography

See Sir J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris (1907, new ed. 1961).


Adonis, Syrian poet

Adonis or Adunis, pen name of Ali Ahmad Said, 1930–, Syrian poet and essayist, generally considered the Arab world's greatest living poet. He began writing poetry in the 1950s. After being jailed (1955) for antigovernment activities, he moved (1956) to Beirut, where he cofounded (1957) the journal Shi'r [poetry] and founded (1968) the avant-garde cultural magazine Mawaqif [positions]. He has lived in Paris since the early 1980s and has taught at several universities. Writing in Arabic for a mainly Arab audience, Adonis is a key figure in Arab modernism. His more than 20 books include the poetry of Aghani Mihyar ad-Dimashqi [song of Mihyar the Damascene] (1961). Highly experimental, visionary, and often obscure, his verse mingles political concerns with surreal symbolism and a mysticism related to that of classical Sufi poetry (see Sufism Sufism , an umbrella term for the ascetic and mystical movements within Islam. While Sufism is said to have incorporated elements of Christian monasticism, gnosticism, and Indian mysticism, its origins are traced to forms of devotion and groups of penitents (
..... Click the link for more information.
). Themes of exile and sensuality recur in his verse, as do images of cities, seas, and mirrors. Some of his poems have appeared in English translation, e.g., The Blood of Adonis (1971) and The Pages of Day and Night (1994). He has also written studies of Arab history, culture, and literature, such as An Introduction to Arab Poetics (tr. 1990) and Sufism and Surrealism (1992, tr. 2005). Adonis has frequently provoked controversy as a critic of Arab society, an exponent of secular democracy, and a foe of both materialism and organized religion.

Adonis

In Greek mythology, a youth of remarkable beauty, the favorite of Aphrodite. As a child he was put in the care of Persephone, who refused to allow him to return from the underworld. Zeus ruled that he should spend a third of the year with Persephone, a third with Aphrodite, and a third on his own. He became a hunter and was killed by a boar. In answer to Aphrodite's pleas, Zeus allowed him to spend half the year with her and half in the underworld. Mythically, Adonis represents the cycle of death and resurrection in winter and spring. He is identified with the Babylonian god Tammuz.


Adonis
Greek myth a handsome youth loved by Aphrodite. Killed by a wild boar, he was believed to spend part of the year in the underworld and part on earth, symbolizing the vegetative cycle

Adonis [ə′dän·əs]
(astronomy)
An asteroid with an orbital eccentricity of 0.779 and a perihelion well inside the orbit of Venus that passed about 1 × 106miles (1.6 × 106kilometers) from earth in 1936.

Adonis
beautiful youth. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 11]

Adonis
beautiful youth beloved by Venus, killed by a boar. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 10]

Adonis
vegetation god, reborn each spring. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 10]

Adonis
killed by a boar, he was changed into an anemone by Venus. [Gk. Lit.: Metamorphoses]

Adonis 

an asteroid discovered in 1936 by the Belgian astronomer E. Delport. At its perihelion, its distance from the sun is 0.435 astronomical units and at its aphelion, 3.50 astronomical units. It may approach within 2 million km of the earth.


Adonis 

a genus of annual or perennial herbaceous plants of the family Ranunculaceae. The leaves are highly incised, and the flowers solitary and large. There are about 20 species, which grow wild in Central and Southern Europe, Siberia, and Eastern Asia. About 15 species are found in the USSR. Spring adonis (Adonis vernalis), the most widespread species, is a perennial with a short rhizome and large yellow flowers; it grows in the forest-steppe and steppe zones of the European USSR, Siberia, and Western Europe. Since the herbage contains cardiac glycosides, it is used in medicine, as are some other species of adonis (A. amurensis, A. turkestanicus, and so on). There are weeds (for example, the annual species A. flammeus). A. vernalis, propagated by seeds and rhizomes, is cultivated in the USSR. An aqueous infusion of the herbage and flowers of A. vernalis (adoniside) is used on a doctor’s prescription for chronic cardiac insufficiency and cardiovascular neuroses. Adonis must not be used when there are sharp organic changes in the heart and blood vessels.

REFERENCE

Atlas lekarstvennykh rastenii SSSR. Moscow, 1962.


Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
Feedback
Mentioned in?   Encyclopedia browser?   Full browser?
No references found
 
 
 
Encyclopedia
?

Terms of Use | Privacy policy | Feedback | Advertise with Us | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc.
Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.