ADONIS . The phrase rendered by EV [Note: English Version.] ‘pleasant plants,’ and by RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘plantings of Adonis’ ( Isaiah 17:10 ), alludes to the miniature gardens whose rapid decline symbolized the death of this god, or rather the spring verdure of which he is a personification. This phase of the myth, which the Greeks obtained from the Semitic Tammuz cult, through the PhÅ“nicians, where the god was worshipped under the title of Adon (‘lord’), is used by Isaiah to depict the fading hope of Israel. See Tammuz.

N. Koenig.