adonis

Pronunciation pronunciation key
ădōnis

Definition 
An exceptionally handsome young man. According to Greek mythology, Adonis was a beautiful youth who attracted the amorous attentions of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. When he was killed while hunting a boar (possibly the jealous god of war, Ares, in disguise), he was brought back to life by Persephone. The flower called the anemone sprang up where his blood had spilled. Spending part of the year in the underworld with Persephone and part on earth with Aphrodite, Adonis was worshiped as a nature god, and his absence in the underworld accounted, in myth, for the dormancy of nature in winter. His name came from the Phoenician adoni (meaning "my lord"), a title borne by the god Tammuz. "'I really can't see any resemblance between you, with your rugged strong face and your coal-black hair, and this young Adonis, who looks as if he was made out of ivory and rose-leaves'" (Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891).