Myrrha, daughter of the King of Syria made a grave mistake in her youth, she did not honour the goddess Achtarout. The girl would later fall in love although in a sinful manner. Her father was the bearer of her affection which soon brought her despair. With the aid of a maid they tricked him amidst festivities to sleep with her while concealed by the night. She was discovered in the morning and fled as her father looked to erase his sin by her death. Far away she went and once she could run no more she plead to the gods who in their pity decided to turn her into a tree: The Myrrh, whose drops that pearl on the trunk represent the tears of Myrrha. It is from this same tree that her son Adonis was then born.

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   Achtarout hides the child in a chest and then entrusts him to Persephone, the goddess of the underworld. But Persephone, faced by the great beauty of Adonis, fell madly in love with him and refused to return him to Achtarout when the time came. It is said that the Myrrh tree’s pungent essence that enveloped Adonis had them bewitched and triggered desire.

Jupiter himself was forced to intervene in order to settle the conflict. Adonis was to be taken care of for four months by Persephone, four months by Achtarout and for four months his own will would decide. He then chooses Achtarout again. The goddess would follow him like a young maiden through the woods where he devoted himself to hunting, his greatest passion.

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   Mars, Achtarout's lover, found himself mad with jealously and decided to take revenge on the young man. He metamorphosed into a boar and during a day of hunting meant to be ordinary, Adonis was seriously injured in the groin by the fierce animal who immediately fled. Despite the strength of Achtarout's love, Adonis succumbed to his wounds. He died in front of the wild gorges of the sources of the river "Nahr el Ibrahim" in Lebanon. The blood of the beautiful hunter spread on the grass and gave birth to wild anemones that cover the slopes of the mountain with primroses and cyclamen: the flowers that first announce spring.

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   From then on, each year as the season of renewal approaches, the waters of the river are tinged with a red colour that allow the anemones to come out of the earth, in memory of the blood shed by the young man and all the love that existed between these two beings... in memory of the tragic passion that even the goddess of love was branded by.

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*Achtarout: Venus/Aphrodite

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