Adonia

A New Latin Dictionary by Charlton T. Lewis Ph.D. and Charles Short, LL. D.

Ădōnĭa, ōrum, n., τὰ Ἀδώνια,

the festival of Adonis. It returned annually in June, about the time of the summer solstice, and was celebrated (even in Rome; cf. Manso, Essays on Myth.) with alternate lamentations and exultations, on account of the death of Adonis, Amm. 22, 9. This festival was a symbol of the dying and reviving again of nature; cf. Hier. ad Ez. 8; Creuz. Symb. 2, 86; Böttig. Sab. 1, 261 sq.