Click here for our opening notes and disclaimers, here for a warning about the footnotes, or here if you'd like to read this story without the footnotes.
Our story begins in excessive familial love 1. Myrrha, The daughter of a king, had been much much blessed by Aphrodite. Not the least of her blessings had been her very existence, for her father was the son of Pygmalian and Galatea (whom the goddess had bestowed life on, out of compassion for her creator). But she did not think to express her appreciation. Angered by the lack of respect, the goddess corrupted her, 1a, turning a daughter's natural love for her father into something less wholesome.
Presented with a long line of suitors, she was asked by her father what sort of man she would desire. To this, she said, why one like you. And he smiled, not understanding. That night, tormented by her lust, she sought in her mind to make the wrong seem right, but could not. Her nurse found her hanging herself, and viewed the satisfaction of Myrhha's desires, as the least of the evils presented to her.
For nine long nights, the queen was away at a festival of Demeter, forbidden her husband's company during it. Drunk with wine, the king eagerly received the nurse as she told him of of a young woman who had come to warm his cold and empty bed. In the dark, she was brought to him, and they began to make love, until illness struck the king. In shame, Myrrha rose to leave, but her father wished to see the face of his young love. He brought a burning taper before him, and in its dim red light saw the truth revealed.
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He pursued his daughter, with sword in hand. She prayed for help, but could bear the thought of neither life nor death, and so was granted neither, being transformed into a tree, with the scarcely formed child of her illicit union concealed within a "wooden womb".
The child grew until he was ready to be born, his cries heard by none save the empty forest and the gods. When the day appointed for his birth arrived, Aphrodite passed the loom of the fates, gazing upon the slender thread that issued forth from the daughter's cord, only to see another thread brought beside it. Seeing her shock, fate asked her if she would have them leave a cut thread unbound 2.
Feeling sorrow for the victims of a careless impiety, Aphrodite rushed to earth, to find a boar ripping the tree open 3, its tusks growing ever closer to the child within. As the newborn Adonis first tasted the outside air, Aphrodite snatched him away, sending him away away to be raised by Persephone, entrusting him to Death herself 4, in order to save him from it. He grew to manhood, and true to her word, Persephone released him into the world, knowing that one day, fate would return him to her 5.
Time passed, and lives changed, but the memories remained.
The goddess knew that fate would not give up so easily, and watched over her victim's child. Fate, in its turn, was watching her, from motives far less kind. As she played with her son Eros, one day, he wounded her with one of his arrows 6. She pushed him away, before he could shoot again, but her wound was deep 7. Before she healed, she saw Adonis.
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From that moment on she was drawn to him, forgetting all else. The sound of her voice was no longer heard on Olympus, for she had no desire to be, where he could not go. She who used to love to rest in the shade, pursuing no quarry save the hearts of those about her, soon wandered through the wilderness, dressed as if she was Artemis 8, herself, hunting by the side of the one she loved.
But she to whom the young Adonis was once given, was loath to return him. Persephone loved Adonis as greatly as Aphrodite, though perhaps not as well, and desired to make him her own, regardless of Aphrodite's wishes, and even those of Adonis himself. The opportunity to make those desires felt was close at hand.
As Aphrodite wandered the forest beside her chosen mate, she sought to insure that he would not become the hunted. As she called her dogs, she would seek gentler prey, always being careful to avoid those creatures to whom nature had given weapons of their own, urging Adonis to do likewise. "Please do not trade your life and my happiness for your glory", she said, warning him that his charm would not touch the hearts of such creatures. And so, as he rode beside her, his heart would always pound, but never from the hunt.
As the sun began to set, and the ashes were not yet cold upon the hearth, the goddess felt a longing to return to her home, where some say that she once rose from the sea 9. Adonis went with her, spear in hand, and she felt a twinge of fear. Again, she asked him to be careful. And away she drove, hoping that he had listened. But neither fate nor Persephone would be denied.
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Adonis hungered for richer game to place upon his fire 10. If it was true that the gods, and Aphrodite herself, could see all, perhaps just this once, they would fail to look 11. And his dogs had already picked up the trail. Adonis was quick to follow. They had driven an ancient wild boar from its lair 12. He threw his spear and wounded the animal. But he could not kill it. The beast drew out the weapon with its jaws and overtook him as he fled. It buried its tusks in his side, leaving him for death to find. And upon a loom, a thread was bound and cut 13.
Aphrodite had not yet reached Cyprus when she heard him groaning in pain. She rushed back, only to find the blood pouring from his lifeless body. Mourning him, she cursed the fates by name, though only two were guilty of the crime 14. She vowed that their victory would be a partial one, at best. Determined that the memorials of her grief 14a would endure and that neither his life nor his death would ever be forgotten, she sprinkled the nectar of the gods on his blood 15.
As each drop struck the dust, it became a flower of bloody hue. One which blooms to this day, but only lives briefly, as did the man it serves to commemorate. It is said that that the wind which blows the blossoms open, will soon afterwards blow the petals away; so it is called the Anemone, or Wind Flower, for that which brings forth its life, ends it.
Fate and Persephone, perhaps, would have had the story end there, but Aphrodite would not. She to whom all hearts were open 15a, knew where to find her rival.
Down to the realm from which none return, the kingdom of Hades and his stolen queen, Aphrodite directed her thoughts 15b. Into a darkness which the day had never banished were lost the fading echos of her footsteps as she entered, her rage her only companion. Cerberus, the guardian, stepped aside as she passed, not knowing whether to feel delight or fear. And down she continued until she waited beside the nameless shades, waiting for passage across the Acheron, the river of woe.
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As Charon, the ferryman, approached the shore, he stopped and stared at the goddess in cold silence and then astonishment, as she raised a sword and threatened to break the gates of Hell until the dead should outnumber the living under the light of the sun 15c, if he whould not let her enter. Over the silent waters Charon fled, to bring the warning to his king and queen.
Charon entered the palace of Hades, begging his leave, to announce the goddess' arrival and relay her message to Persephone. At this, the Queen of the Underworld turned pale with anger at this violation of the sovereignty of her domain. "Is it not decreed", she asked, "that all that passes within these Halls becomes forever ours? Shall I now become be a caring friend to the dead as I share a draught from the Lethe 15d, toasting the health of each? Shall I mourn the mates of all who are left widowed as she would have me mourn her own? Shall I sit beside the mother as she cries for the dead child in her arms? Shall we weep for the maidens who were torn from those who loved them? 15e. Welcome her, ferryman, and show her the usual tender courtesies."
Across the rivers and through seven gates was Aphrodite lead by the ferryman who welcomed her to the realm below, with Persephone's kind greetings and offers of peace. At each gate, she was asked to surrender another adornment to the guardian's safekeeping as the price of passage, to that place where worldly goods can not follow, until having surrendered all in her possession and entirely unclad, she was brought before the queen, having yielded even her sword. Without a thought, Persephone exploded in fury. She called on her servants to bind the goddess in Tartarus, and release upon her every plague and misery that had ever brought the mortal into her presence. But, even as her broken body was consumed, immortality denying her even the release of death, the goddess would not yield and she made her demand again, more loudly than before 15f. Persephone welcomed her to eternity 15g.
In the world above, Aphrodite had made herself felt by her absence. Man forgot woman, and goddess payed no attention to god. The sounds of the newborn faded from the air and even the beasts no longer sought to continue their kind. And still the argument in the realm below raged, until it echoed throughout all of existence, to the top of Olympus and Zeus, himself. Reality presented itself to Hades, in the form of his brother 15h. The lord of the dead had no illusion of being able to hold either Aphrodite or Adonis in his realm by force of arms. But there was a matter of honor, as his wife had pointed out, for Zeus himself had promised to Hades all that she had said was decreed. And yet, had she also not promised to protect Adonis, and what had become of this promise?
To end the dispute, Zeus decreed a compromise, after securing Aphrodite's release and having her healed. During each year, Adonis would remain with Persephone during the Winter, a gift given to a gift 16. His summers would be given to Aphrodite. The remnant of the year was his to spend as he pleased and always it pleased him to spend it with she who had cared for him most, in the sunlight and the open air. As certainly as Winter would come, though, each year would come the time when Adonis would have to rejoin Persephone, dying again as she departed beneath the earth to be with Hades, who had first taken her to his realm below. And so, each year, as the anemones bloom for the last time, the world remembers the death of Adonis, and looks forward to the time when life and warmth shall return.
Returning, now to the subject of Aphrodite ..., or to the broader subject of mythology, and the mention of a few webrings. Unless you haven't examined the notes below, yet, and would like to, that is. Or would simply like to return to the main page for the Almond Jar. If you'd like to link to this article, the link below is provided for your convenience. Bookmark it, and then cut and paste.
The Death of Adonis
Note : this material, written by Antistoicus, is copyrighted 1999. See notice.
Footnotes ....
1. See Ovid, for source material on Myrrha.
1a. "twisted her soul"
The introduction of incestuous urges by Aphrodite is mentioned by Panyasis, as we are told in the Pseudo-Apollodorus Library, vol. 2.87 (Loeb). (Or at least we were, until the Loeb references were taken out. Sigh).
Note : Some secondary amateur sources make reference to the father having boasted that his daughter was more beautiful than Aphrodite. It would make for a nice plot twist, Aphrodite deciding to give him the love of the one he has so highly praised the desirability of, but I've found no reference or hint to this in the descriptions of primary sources I've looked at, in this admittedly brief time, so, I don't know if I could use that detail with a clear conscience, here.
2. "Would you have us leave a cut thread unbound ?
A gentle mocking, devoid of humor. Each of the threads on the loom of the fates represents a life in the world. Aphrodite is being asked if she would have Adonis die without a cause being present - namely, the boar of the upcoming passage, whose thread is being brought beside that of Adonis. This passage is absent in the original, but the plot detail seems to be suggested when it is mentioned that "Aphrodite cursed fate" ... almost as if she had seen the death coming, and had been trying to avert it. So, here, we have her doing just that. Especially since the incident of the boar opening the tree (which is present in the original material) so clearly implies a danger to the child inside. It seems more logical in this context, too, as the gods would hardly needed the help of a woodland creature to open a tree to extract the child.
The plot device of having a god view the loom of the fates, and decide to intervene, is far from unprecedented in the original material, hence the extrapolation.
3. In nature, boars will seek trees to grind down their tusks on. This is necessary, as the tusks never stop growing and will render the unimal incapable of consuming food, if they grow too long. This process can be quite destructive for the tree.
4. "gave him to Death, herself, in order to protect him from it" : Persephone, the wife of Hades, is the Queen of the Underworld and one of the goddesses of death by implication. A strange choice, it might seem, but Death itself had to answer to her, so she would be more capable of defending someone from it than anyone save Hades himself. Having originally come from the world above, she might be suspected as being more sympathetic than her husband as she indeed is, when Orpheus arrives looking for Eurydice.
5."knowing that, one day, fate would return him to her."
A reference to his mortality. Persephone does not expect to be giving him up, forever.
6. The legend holds that one who is wounded by one of Eros' arrows, will fall in love with the next member of the opposite sex she sees.
7. She pushes Eros away ... she doesn't want this to happen. The wound is deep ... and so will be her feelings for the person she is about the lay eyes on. It is almost as if fate is seeking to punish her for resisting it.
8. Artemis is the goddess of the moon and the hunt. Why not? When else would hunters have hunted at night (when the animals were not as alert), back during antiquity, than when the moon was out?
One might well ask what Artemis, who was not noted for her good nature, would have thought of all of this. Perhaps, it depends on whose vision of Aphrodite one considers. If it is the more timid version Homer presents us with, who runs when wounded, then we would guess, annoyance. However, if it is Aphrodite the Warrior, occasionally referred to a transitional form between Astarte/Ishtar and the classical Aphrodite, which is seen early on in the history of her cult, the reception might be more pleasant. Though her mothering of Adonis might strike the huntress as distasteful. Artemis (to whom human sacrifices were offered, a custom later replaced in some places with the annual whipping of young boys) wasn't noted for her compassion, either.
What would truly offend the virgin goddess, though, would be the notion of someone being mistaken for her as she pursued a romantic interest - she was known for killing her followers for doing just that. This could lead to antagonism on her part toward Adonis, who, unlike Aphrodite, could be killed. Indeed, Apollodorus, on the authority of Panyasis, indicates that the wrath of Artemis was the proximate cause of Adonis' death, according to the Pseudo-Apollodorus Library, vol. 2.87 (Loeb). Of course, this would not eliminate the presence of other motives of Artemis' part (such as the desire to help Persephone) or the fates making use of Artemis' anger as the tool by which their plans are realised.
If this is the case, then Aphrodite's anguish will be given a new dimension, as will her feelings of remorse and anger - it would be her very stay with Adonis that brought about his demise. Something that she will decide to do something about in a very determined fashion.
Incidentally, our own notion of Aphrodite, is closer to that of the latter vision - that of the warrior. And, as you may have guessed, Artemis is not our favorite deity.
9. "where some say she once rose from the sea"
Bleh. One version of the birth of Aphrodite (which we're NOT including in our myth cycle) started as a joke, we suspect. It holds that after Ouranos was castrated by his son Cronos, his severed penis was thrown into the sea and Aphrodite rose out of the foam created by the debris.
Uh, yeah. Apparently, in Ancient Greek, the words for "foam born", sound a lot like the goddess' name and so a pun arose, one theory goes. This strikes us as being far more plausible, than believing that the ancients would ascribe the birth of the most beautiful of the goddesses, to the presence of rotting testicle scrapnel upon salt water.
More extrapolations ... the fire going out. Pretty much, a given. If Adonis is dying, in the late fall, it will be cold. Thus, a fire. If he is leaving his home, the fire will be out. To leave for a nighttime hunt, when some day remained, would make tracking easier. But, it would be the larger game one sought at night, the smaller creatures tending to be night dwellers and thus both at their most alert, and hardest to see, when dark. Aphrodite's apprehension is understandable, if Adonis is greeting the setting sun, fully armed.
On a non-reconstructive level, this passage offers, us a metaphor for the end of Adonis' life, without our even having been required to specifically seek one. A myth, like any other tradition, takes on a life of its own, and on occasion, it almost seems to try to rewrite itself, waiting impatiently for the writer to follow.
10. "richer game upon his fire ..." Venison is a bland meat, unless hung for a long time - which, in the wilderness, if one is living in a crude shelter, means leaving it for the scavengers. Hare is dry. These gentle prey, unless prepared by a knowledgeable cook, with facilities somebody living in a lean-to will lack, make for poor eating. Unromantic, but true.
On the other hand, a roast boar's head, is, apparently, fine eating, though, in the case of the rest of an old boar, the rest is too tough to be enjoyed.
The game he seeks is richer, not merely in the sense of being more flavorful, but as a source of the experience of the Hunt, in the course being pursued.
11. "perhaps, just this once, they would fail to look". Specifically, that Aphrodite wouldn't be looking.
He knows that Aphrodite would not be pleased. Yes, another extrapolation, but a logical one - note that she seems unaware of his choice, until its consequences follow. He's hiding this from her, or at least not volunteering it.
12. "had driven an ancient boar from its lair"
Ah, our friend is back. Lachesis, in the stories, always was a stubborn old girl, and this is in keeping with that tradition. The source material has a boar tearing the tree open, in a fashion that would clearly endanger the infant Adonis, and a boar tearing Adonis himself open, at the end. The notion that Lachesis will have her will, her way, in the end, is most easily realised by making the two boars be one and the same.
13. "and a thread was bound and cut"
Fate has completed its course. The thread is bound (ie. the boar attacks Adonis, tying its life to his in the fabric of life, then this attack ends his life, cutting its thread).
We see that our decision to equate the two boars, has added an element of irony. A hunter's shelter in the wilderness - especially in a place whose climate is as mild as that of Greece - will be a temporary structure, frequently relocated. So, where Adonis was, as he stepped outside his home, for the last time, would be a reflection of where his wanderings - with Aphrodite - had taken him. In the very process of trying to help him evade his fate, she eventually lead him into it. This, in Greek drama, seems to be a common event. Consider, for example, the plot of Oedipus Rex.
14. "She cursed the fates by name, though only two were guilty of the crime."
Lachesis, the spinner of men's destiny, we've already met. Atropos, who cuts the thread of existence at death, would also have played a role. But Clothos, who spins the thread for a new life, would, of course, be in no way responsible for Adonis' misfortune.
14a. "the memorials of her grief would endure"
Some would say that we see that even the Olympians are subject to the cycle of punishment and redemption. Having dealt cruelly with Myrrha, beyond reason, and without moderation, her actions have now lead the goddess into sorrow. Let us note that a modern might even see in this story a semblance of the old sequence of ate (blindness sent from above), hubris (excessive pride, leading to an act which will be punished) and nemesis (retribution for the sin committed in a spirit of pride).
Here, "above" would be fate itself, which even the gods are powerless before. The hubris, would lie in the excessive punishment meted out to the daughter for her carelessness, and the cruel misuse of her father, who has been tricked into the commission of this loathsome act. The nemesis would be represented by Aphrodite's later sufferings, so strangely reminiscent of Myrrha's. It is significant that the very child created as a result of Aphrodite's vengeance, in his death becomes the source of her sorrow.
An ancient would probably recoil in shocked horror from this observation, though. The sequence, I would say, is there, merely subconscious, as one would expect from those who had too little faith in the mercy of the gods, to be able to view of the thought of criticising them without terror. But even a suppressed awareness remains, and will find its expression, in some form or another.
Let us note that as great as Aphrodite's anger in these stories is, her remorse, and the kindness that comes from it, is always greater, when it doesn't come too late. Here, Myrrha can no longer be helped, but her child can, and help is given. In this effort is found both her punishment and her redemption, in the compassion she shows to her victim's child. But the harm can not wholly be undone, and so, some might say, there is a karmic price to be paid, which the goddess, being immortal, can only pay in this life. There is no other way for her to fully make amends, and, perhaps, no way for her even to heal her own soul. Remorse, too easily accepted, is too easily forgotten.
One point that will bother some of us, and should bother more, is the fact that an innocent (Adonis) suffers in the course of being so used, if such a karmic backlash is occuring. But, an ancient might counter that this innocent owed his very existence, to that backlash, and so had nothing to complain about. As mentioned elsewhere on this site, in Plato's Apology, the absolute power of the father over his children, even to the point of life and death was defended by Socrates on a very similar basis (the children owe their existence, to his actions, so by what right do they protest if he takes from them what he has given), a principle that was to be enacted in Roman Law as the paterfamilias. So, if an instinctual awareness of the wrongness of this position was present at all, it was buried quite deeply, in all likelihood.
The gods growing in understanding, and character?
To those who view the gods as living in time, this is no surprise. The very concept of goodness that some would condemn them under, is a thing that must be found, not something that is simply a given, and so the gods themselves are both in need of, and capable of, growth. Aphrodite, perhaps most of all, among the Olympians, for she is capable of accepting the reality of her own imperfections, and thus of working to overcome them. Fate, in its own cruel way, has helped her to do so, by teaching her well, what despair is.
It is in keeping with our view, that the gods, themselves, seek salvation, and in honoring them, we open ourselves up to the assistance of those who have walked so much further down the road of salvation than we have. But, let us never lose sight of the fact that every road has a beginning, and, poetically, these stories, in all of their harshness, speak to us of those beginnings. What is relevant to us, as Pagans, in understanding our gods, is not the static reality of the fictive moment, but the process of development that unfolds.
15. Regarding the sprinkling of nectar on Adonis' blood ...
Ambrosia and nectar are the food and drink of the gods. Aphrodite is giving immortality to the one part of Adonis that is left to her at this point. His blood. In Eastern Mediterranean traditions, the blood is often considered to contain the life of the creature it comes from. Hence, for example, the biblical injunction against consuming blood (Deuteronomy 12:23-25), binding on Israel.
This may be significant. When, after the fall of Cronos (Zeus' father) from power, Zeus and his two brothers, Hades and Poseidon, cast lots for their division of creation, the underworld became Hades' portion. Seeing how crestfallen his eldest brother was over the outcome, Zeus consoled him, by telling him that all would eventually come within his domain. Thus, in the purely Hellenic tradition, the injunction against raising the dead - it is a denial of that promised to Hades by Zeus. But, by keeping a portion of Adonis' life alive, and thus in this world, this action makes it possible for Zeus to allow a partial return of Adonis to this world, without breaking his word.
So, perhaps, the "version" ending with the creation of the anenomne, and that ending with Adonis' partial resurrection, aren't separate stories at all, but different parts of one story, whose significance is lost of those coming from a tradition, where blood is not given the same metaphysical significance.
15a."she to whom all hearts were open, knew where to find her rival"
Aphrodite is the goddess of love. Persephone can not hide her desire for Adonis from her. Also, depending on the mythic tradition, there might have been other reasons for suspicion. Artemis, as the goddess of the hunt, could easily have turned Adonis' spear aside at the critical moment, or sent him an animal he couldn't slay. Some traditions identify her with Hecate, an underworld divinity. Others make her the daughter of Persephone (though most make her the twin sister of Apollo, and thus the daughter of Leto). In either case, she would be a close associate of Persephone's, and a plausible suspect if a death should suit Persephone's desires.
15b. Aphrodite descends into the underworld ...
This portion of the account is derived directly from the story of the Descent of Ishtar to the Netherworld, the original source material for the story of Aphrodite and Adonis, much as the concept of Ishtar, herself, served as inspiration for the concept of Aphrodite.
15c. Aphrodite raising her sword, and threatening to break the gates of hell.
Lest this strike the reader as being an Assyro-Babylonian intrusion into Greek myth, let us remember that the Spartans, in classical times, did worship the figure of "Aphrodite the Warrior". The Homerian conception of Aphrodite as a timid, albeit noble, deity, was not universal. One might ask, if Homer has taken poetic license, in order to make the unwitting instigator of the war his protagonists fight in, less of a sympathetic figure, in the eyes of his warlike audience?
15d. "as I share a draught from the Lethe, toasting the health of each"
The Lethe was a river the dead drank from, whose waters washed away their memories.
15e."shall we weep for the maidens who were torn from those who loved them"
Persephone, herself, was just such a maiden, forcibly brought to the underworld by Hades, with little sign of objection by any on Olympus save her mother, Demeter.
Notice how quickly the speech ends, after she says that. If the reader somehow manages to stage this (not that I recommend that he try to do so, given the great expanses of both time and space the action is spread over) he should make sure that Hades manages a quizzical look at the offering of this line, at the very least.
15f. "... and she made her demand again, more loudly than before ..."
A compromise between the two primary sources we draw on, original Babylonian, and derivative Greek. Ishtar dies, and is left, broken and bleeding, upon a meathook, in the Babylonian account. Aphrodite, in the Greek account, remains quite loud, and obviously awake. The change is inevitable, in part, because the Greeks imagined their deities to be immortal, ruling out Aphrodite's death. However, they were not invulnerable, nor was Persephone noted for her compassion, and thus the vengeful response, which Hades would have more than enough power to enforce.
Aphrodite isn't foolish, here, merely desperate.
15g. "Persephone welcomed her to eternity". As is mentioned in Cults of the Greek City States (*), vol. II, p.651, in Cyprus, an early point of entry of the worship of Aphrodite into the Greek speaking world, the grave of Aphrodite was shown to visitors. This suggests some survival of a portion of the story of the descent of Ishtar, some time after the myth of Ishtar and Tammuz had been transmitted and Hellenized.
The fate implied by this reference, reduced in severity by the later conception of the goddess' immortality, would seem to justify this plot detail. As in the story of the descent of Ishtar, we have the goddess of the underworld decide that her visitor is not going to leave. A significant difference, here, is the greater power of Aphrodite's advocate (Zeus), as compared to that of Ishtar, who must resort to diplomacy, rather than decree.
15h. Zeus visiting Hades. In the story of Ishtar's descent into the Underworld, it is not Ea (Zeus' closest counterpart, in the Assyro-Babylonian mythos) who arrives before Ereshkigal (the Queen of the Underworld), but rather Asushu-Namir, a eunuch, apparently, created by Ea to speak on his behalf. The Hellenic source material, however, quite clearly states that Zeus spoke for himself.
Hades is almost never seen leaving his realm (the Rape of Persephone is the only episode that leaps readily to mind, though there was one more obscure episode where he left to be cured of a wound inflicted by Heracles (Hercules, in Latin). Zeus, however, travels frequently, and widely. It would seem likelier that Zeus would pay a visit to Hades than the reverse, and far likelier that he would do so, than attempt the disrespectful act of summoning Hades into his presence, given that Hades is, in principle, his equal, and a fellow king, reigning over the realm below.
16. "a gift given to a gift" : Much as Zeus is giving Adonis to Persephone in order to please her, without seeking the consent of the given, so, previously, he had given Hades permission to seize her, and make her his wife, in order to please him. It is almost as if he is seeking to make amends, for this past transgression, which so angered her mother Demeter, that she left the world barren until Zeus agreed to relent, and only to the extent that he would do so.
Now, let's move on ...
A comment about links...
If we weren't opposed to the death penalty, we'd advocate making the unjustified deletion or moving of webpage files a capital offense. Yes, we know the books say that one should do that a lot to keep people coming back to one's site.
The books are wrong. Links to one's page keep people coming back, and to invalidate those links is to break faith with those who set them up. Eventually, people will get tired of this.
At a number of points, while writing these articles up, we linked to articles on other pages, by way of documentation and reference. Imagine how little amusement we felt when we went back to look at those pages, and found that our links were either broken, or were now to material having nothing to do with what had previously been there. (Tufts University, shame on you).
The whole point of having the web is that people will link to each other's pages. But maintaining those links is going to be an overwhelming task when people start moving material around, just for the sake of moving it around, and there's just no point in the case of text. 1 Meg is what? Over 700 pages of text. Even personal computer hard disks have memory capacity in the thousands of megabytes. 700,000 pages of text is an awful lot of text. Point being, there is plenty of room on the web for everything that we have ever written, and far, far more.
In the meanwhile, people continue to be inconsiderate online, and popular authors continue to make big bucks telling them how sensible they are being as they do so. The links in this article to other sites were made in good faith and are mostly worthless, now. That's unfortunate, but we just don't have the time to fix the problem right now, especially given how short-lived the solution is likely to be.
Here's to hoping that by the time we start work in earnest again on this site, that a better notion of ettiquette on the web will have arisen. We regret the inconvenience, but leave the apologies to those whose continued thoughtlessness, makes problems like this one arise.
(*) Lewis Richard Farnell (of Oxford), (c) 1971 Aegean Press