La grotte d’Adonis à Afka au Liban et l’ensemble « grotte-aire sacrificielle » sur l’acropole d’Amathonte à Chypre

There is the conviction that the cradle of the lover’s couple Aphrodite and Adonis was to be placed at Byblos, both in the city and at the springs of the river Nahr Ibrahim – Adonis, where the late tradition locates the «tomb of Adonis » in the cave of Afka or the place of the hierogamia of Aphrodite with Adonis. However, the Latin authors insist on Adonis and Aphrodite being in the sanctuaries of Cyprus. We can state that the Cypriot identity of Adonis goes back to the Ptolemaic era. We have two mythological nuclei in two distinct geographical areas that require the verification through the archaeological evidence. Two testimonia claim that the cult of Adonis was a proper feature of the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Amathus, where he might have had the priority. His presence is hinted at by the main testimonium on the cults on the acropolis of Amathus : Ovidius mentions in the Metamorphoses an altar of Juppiter Hospes, «at the entry of the householdings » of the Amathusians, called Cerastes. Then he explains the aition of the sacred prostitution at Amathus, to be acknowledged on the destiny of the girls called Propetidae. Venus punished both the Cerastes for the human sacrifices, turning them into bulls, and the Propetidae for their impudence, transforming them into «rocks » . The Roman Temple of Aphrodite Amathusia (100 A. D.) does not have an altar. Instead, in the place of the altar there is an underground cavity with a chamber, with some twenty circular holes on the surface. This must be the «tomb of Adonis » beneath the «Gardens of Adonis», whereas the «fondation en équerre » must correspond to the precinct of Juppiter Hospes, perhaps «accompanied » in a yet undefined place by the Propetidae. Ovidius did not mention Adonis in that context. He closes the whole excursus with the love of Venus for Adonis, followed by his death and the mourning of Venus for him. Since the Propetidae, identified in the form of stelae chalcosmaragdae, are to be recognized at the entrance of the Gate North (Building 16 during the Ptolemaic era and Building 17 in Imperial Times), we may wonder whether there was a literary cognition of a double archaeological structure or simply a topographical fusion, reproduced by the three complementary testimonia.Mavrojannis Theodoros. La grotte d’Adonis à Afka au Liban et l’ensemble « grotte-aire sacrificielle » sur l’acropole d’Amathonte à Chypre. In: Cahiers du Centre d'Etudes Chypriotes. Volume 45, 2015. Hommage à Jacqueline Karageorghis. pp. 119-138