The Angel of Death, Adonis and Anemones
Awakening Adonis by John William Waterhouse. Venus awakens her lover, surrounded by anemones, which will later be dyed red by his blood.
Fresh green ripples across the land; the garden is filled with bird song. Yet Easter is a festival of death.
Christ’s Last Supper was Seder, the annual dinner party at which Jewish people all over the world commemorate the Exodus. Jews remember the Angel of Death passing over their houses before they followed Moses into the desert, hence the name Passover.
Some of us may now fear the thrum of those angel’s wings on this bright spring air.
Jesus went from that table of shared bread and salt and wine and tribal remembrance to sweat blood in the garden, knowing he would be betrayed, humiliated and crucified. His death harks back to earlier Near Eastern stories, specifically the death of Adonis, lover of Aphrodite, in Lebanon and the death of Tammuz or Dumuzid, lover of Innana, in Mesopotamia. The goddess’ lover is sacrificed to ensure that the land remains productive.
Easter is also a festival of resurrection. Christ rose again after three days. The blood of Adonis turned into wildflowers, and Tammuz was allowed to spend half the year in the Underworld and half above ground. Life is short; life eternally renews itself.
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Buona pasqua, Christina.
Italians also celebrate the following Monday called Pasquetta or Lunedì dell’Angelo: The Angel’s Monday. It focuses on the women (if I understand correctly, Mary Magdalene especially) that came to find an empty sepulcher, and the Angel that comforts them.