Adonica

This name derives from the Hebrew and Greek “adōn > ‘ădônây” (Greek: Ádōnis Ἄδωνῐς). In Greek mythology, Adonis is the god of beauty and desire and is a central figure in various mystery religions. His religion belonged to women: the dying of Adonis was fully developed in the circle of young girls around the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos, about 600 BC, as revealed in a fragment of Sappho’s surviving poetry. The Greek Adōnis was a borrowing from the Semitic word “ʼadōn,” meaning “lord,” which is related to Adonai, one of the names used to refer to the God (Adon) in the Hebrew Bible and still used in Judaism to the present day. Adonis Viennensis († 875), archbishop of Vienne in Lotharingia, belonged to a famous Frankish house and spent much of his middle life in Italy. He held his archiepiscopal seat from 850 till his death on 16 December 874.