Adonis
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Adonis. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
son of Myrrha, daughter of Cinyras, King of Cyprus, was born in Arabia. Before the birth of her son she was transformed into the tree which produces the fragrant gum, called by her name; this, however, did not hinder his being brought into the world in due season; he grew up a model of manly beauty, and was passionately beloved by Aphrodite (Venus), who quitted Olympus to dwell with him. Hunting was his favorite pursuit, until, having gone to the chase against the entreaties of his mistress, he was mortally wounded in the thigh by a wild boar. Venus, coming too late to his rescue, changed his blood into flowers. After de death, he was said to stand as high in the favor of Persephone (Proserpine) as before in that of Aphrodite; but, the latter being inconsolable, her rival generously consented that Adonis should spend half the year with his celestial, half with his infernal, mistress.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a-do'nis, in Greek mythology, a beautiful boy beloved by Venus (Aphrodite). He was slain by a wild boar. Venus sprinkled nectar upon his blood, and therefrom sprang the anemone, or wind flower. At the request of Venus, Zeus decreed that Adonis should spend half the year in the upper and half in the lower world. His death was celebrated by an autumnal, his resurrection by a spring, festival. Adonis is an oriental deity of nature, a type of the decay of nature in autumn and its revival in spring. "Beautiful as Adonis," is a common expression. See Anemone
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
Son of Cinyras and Myrrha, was a favorite of Venus . He was killed while hunting a wild boar, and, according to Ovid, his blood produced the anemone. Venus was inconsolable at his loss, and at last obtained from Proserpina that Adonis should spend six months on earth with her and six months among the shades. His death and return to the earth were celebrated in annual festivals (Adonia) at Alexandria, Athens , and other places.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The story itself is exactly as Ovid left it, and the three accounts here still retell it accurately. What has moved is the interpretation. Aiton's confident 1910 statement that Adonis was "an oriental deity of nature" whose "resurrection" was marked by a spring festival reflects the fashion of Frazer's Golden Bough; since the 1980s, notably in Jonathan Z. Smith's critique, scholars have pointed out that no source before the Christian era describes Adonis rising again, and that the Adonia the women of Athens kept was a festival of mourning and withered pots, not of revival. The Semitic root of the name (adon, "lord") is now firmly connected to the Mesopotamian Dumuzi/Tammuz, whose own myths were only read in full after the Sumerian tablets and the Ugaritic archive at Ras Shamra (found 1929) were deciphered in the twentieth century.
Written for this edition, 2026.