'Woe for Adonis' - But in Spring, Not Summer

Abstract

The dates of many Athenian festivals are known; many others for which the exact date is unknown have at least an approximate date in modern reconstructions of the Athenian religious calendar. Other festival dates are often the subject of speculation and debate, and it is into this last category that the women's festival of the Adonia at Athens falls. For while Aristophanes in the 'Lysistrata' clearly places the Athenian celebration of Adonia in early spring, Plutarch has it in early summer. Many historians follow the latter rather than the former, placing the Adonia in the summer, but by considering the scant evidence for a specific date and the artistic evidence for the Adonia, it is nevertheless possible to conclude that Aristophanes' spring date for the Adonia is - without question - the correct one.