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22 ADONIRAM ADONIS
household of King Rehoboam, the successor
of Solomon . Forty-seven years after he is
first mentioned in the Book of Samuel, he is
stated under the name of Adoram (1 Kings
xii . 18), or Hadoram (2 Chron . x. 18) to have
been stoned to death, while in the discharge
of his duty, by the people, who were justly
indignant at the oppressions of his master .
Although commentators have been at a loss
to determine whether the tax-receiver under
David, under Solomon and under Rehoboam
was the same person, there seems to be no reason
to doubt it ; for, as Kitto says, " It appears
very unlikely that even two persons of
the same name should successively bear the
same office, in an age when no example occurs
of the father's game being given to his son .
We find, also, that not more than forty-seven
years elapse between the first and last mention
of the Adoniram who was `over the tribute'
; and as this, although a long term of
service, is not too long for one life, and as the
person who held the office in the beginning of
Rehoboam's rei gn had served in it long enough
to make himself odious to the people, it appears,
on the whole, most probable that one
and the same person is intended throughout ."
(Encyc . Bib . Lit.)
Adoniram plays an important r6le in the
Masonic system, especially in the hi gh degrees,
but the time of action in which he appears
is confined to the period occupied in the
construction of the Temple . The legends
and traditions which connect him with that
edifice derive their support from a single passage
in the 1st Book of Kings (v. 14), where it
is said that Solomon made a levy of thirty
thousand workmen from among the Israelites ;
that he sent these in courses of ten thousand a
month to labor on Mount Lebanon, and that
he placed Adoniram over these as their superintendent
. From this brief statement the
Adoniramite Masons have deduced the theory,
as may be seen in the preceding article, that
Adoniram was the architect of the Temple ;
while the Hiramites, assi gning this important
office to Hiram Abif, still believe that Adoniram
occupied an important part in the construction
of that edifice . He has been called
" the first of the Fellow Crafts" ; is said in one
tradition to have been the brother-in-law of
Hiram Abif, the latter having demanded of
Solomon the hand of Adoniram's sister in
marriage ; and that the nuptials were honored
by the kings of Israel and Tyre with a public
celebration ; and another tradition, preserved
in the Royal Master's degree, informs us that
he was the one to whom the three Grand Masters
had intended first to communicate that
knowledge which they had reserved as a fitting
reward to be bestowed upon all meritorious
craftsmen at the completion of the Temple .
It is scarcely necessary to say that these and
many other Adoniramic legends, often fanciful,
and without any historical authority,
are but the outward clothing of abstruse sym- self and Venus .
Adoniram, in Hebrew, compounded
of j1K, ADON,Lord, and C1M, HiRaM, altitude,
signifies the Lord of altitude. It is a word of
great importance, and frequently used among
the sacred words of the high degrees in all the
Rites .
Adoniramite Masonry . See Adonhiramite
Masonry .
Adonis, Mysteries of. An investigation
of the mysteries of Adonis peculiarly claims the
attention of the Masonic student : first, because,
in their symbolism and in their esoteric
doctrine, the religious object for which they
were instituted, and the mode in which that
object is attained, the y bear a nearer analogical
resemblance to the Institution of Freemasonry
than do any of the other mysteries or
systems of initiation of the ancient world ; and,
secondly, because their chief locality brings
them into a very close connection with the
early history and reputed origin of Freemasonry.
For they were principally celebrated
at Byblos, a city of Phoenicia, whose
Scriptural name was Gebal, and whose inhabitants
were the Giblites or Gebalites, who are
referred to in the 1st Book of Kin,§s (chap . v .
18) as being the" stone-squarers' employed
by King Solomon in buildin g the Tem ple . See
Gebal and Giblim . Hence there must have evidently
been a very intimate connection, or at
least certainly a very frequent intercommunication,
between the workmen of the first Temple
and the inhabitants of Byblos the seat of
the Adonisian mysteries, and the pace whence
the worshipers of that rite were disseminated
over other regions of country .
These historical circumstances invite us to
an examination of the system of initiation
which was practised at Byblos, because we
may find in it something that was probably
suggestive of the sy mbolic system of instruction
which was subseq uently so prominent a
feature in the system of Freemasonry .
Let us first examine the myth on which the
Adonisiac initiation was founded . The mythological
legend of Adonis is, that he was the
son of Myrrha and Cinyras, King of Cyprus .
Adonis was possessed of such surpassing
beauty, that Venus became enamored of him,
and adopted him as her favorite . Subsequently
Adonis, who was a great hunter, died
from a wound inflicted by a wild boar on
Mount Lebanon. Venus flew to the succor of
her favorite, but she came too late . Adonis
was dead . On his descent to the infernal
regions, Proserpine became, like Venus, so attracted
by his beauty, that notwithstanding
the entreaties of the goddess of love, she
refused to restore him to earth . At length
the prayers of the desponding Venus were
listened to with favor by Jupiter, who reconciled
the dispute between the two goddesses,
and by whose decree Proserpine was compelled
to consent that Adonis should spend
six months of each year alternately with her-
bola, some of which have been preserved, and This is the story on which the Greek poet
others lost in the lapse of time and the igno-', Bion founded his exquisite idyll entitled the
ranoe and corruptions of modern ritualists . 1 Epitaph of Adonis, the beginning of which has