The whole neighbourhood of Byblos, and that part of Mount Lebanon in which it lies, were steeped in memories of this legend from the very earliest times. We know the precise spot where the goddess first caught sight of her lover, where she unveiled herself before him, and where at the last she buried his mutilated body, and chanted her lament for the dead. A river which flows southward not far off was called the Adonis, and the valley watered by it was supposed to have been the scene of this tragic idyll. The Adonis rises near Aphaka,* at the base of a narrow amphitheatre, issuing from the entrance of an irregular grotto, the natural shape of which had, at some remote period, been altered by the hand of man; in three cascades it bounds into a sort of circular basin, where it gathers to itself the waters of the neighbouring springs, then it dashes onwards under the single arch of a Roman bridge, and descends in a series of waterfalls to the level of the valley below.
* Aphaka means “spring” in Syriac. The site of the temple and
town of Aphaka, where a temple of Aphroditê and Adonis still
stood in the time of the Emperor Julian, had long been
identified either with Fakra, or with El-Yamuni. Seetzen was
the first to place it at El-Afka, and his proposed
identification has been amply confirmed by the researches of
Penan.
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
The temple rises opposite the source of the stream on an artificial mound, a meteorite fallen from heaven having attracted the attention of the faithful to the spot. The mountain falls abruptly away, its summit presenting a red and bare appearance, owing to the alternate action of summer sun and winter frost. As the slopes approach the valley they become clothed with a garb of wild vegetation, which bursts forth from every fissure, and finds a foothold on every projecting rock: the base of the mountain is hidden in a tangled mass of glowing green, which the moist yet sunny Spring calls forth in abundance whenever the slopes are not too steep to retain a shallow layer of nourishing mould. It would be hard to find, even among the most picturesque spots of Europe, a landscape in which wildness and beauty are more happily combined, or where the mildness of the air and sparkling coolness of the streams offer a more perfect setting for the ceremonies attending the worship of Astartê.*
* The temple had been rebuilt during the Roman period, as
were nearly all the temples of this region, upon the site of
a more ancient structure; this was probably the edifice
which the author of De Deâ Syrâ considered to be the
temple of Venus, built by Kinyras within a day’s journey of
Byblos in the Lebanon.