Editing Adonis (section)

== Mythology ==
=== Birth ===
While Sappho does not describe the myth of Adonis, later sources flesh out the details.{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|page=95}} According to the retelling of the story found in the poem ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' by the Roman poet [[Ovid]] (43 BC – AD 17/18), Adonis was the son of [[Myrrha]], who was cursed by Aphrodite with insatiable lust for her own father, King [[Cinyras]] of [[Cyprus]],<ref name="OvidMyrrhaAdonis">[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph10.php#anchor_Toc64105571 10.298–355]</ref>{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=75}}{{sfn|Hansen|2004|page=289}} after Myrrha's mother bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than the goddess.<ref name="OvidMyrrhaAdonis"/>{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=75}} It was to her nurse that, with much reluctance, Myrrha revealed her shameful passion.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph10.php#anchor_Toc64105572 10.356-430]</ref> Sometime later, during a festival in honour of [[Demeter]], the nurse found Cinyras half-passed out with wine and Myrrha's mother nowhere near him. Thus, she spoke to him of a girl who truly loved him and desired to sleep with him, giving her a fictitious name and simply describing her as Myrrha's age. Cinyras agreed, and the nurse was quick to bring Myrrha to him. Myrrha left her father's room impregnated.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph10.php#anchor_Toc64105573 10.431-502]</ref> After several couplings, Cinyras discovered his lover's identity and drew his sword to kill her; driven out after becoming pregnant, Myrrha was changed into a [[myrrh]] tree but still gave birth to Adonis.<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph10.php#anchor_Toc64105574 10.503]</ref>{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|pages=75–76}}{{sfn|Hansen|2004|pages=289–290}} According to classicist William F. Hansen, the story of how Adonis was conceived falls in line with the conventional ideas about sex and gender that were prevalent in the classical world, since the Greeks and Romans believed that women, such as Adonis's mother Myrrha, were less capable of controlling their primal wants and passions than men.{{sfn|Hansen|2004|page=290}}

=== Aphrodite and Persephone ===
[[File:Aphrodite Adonis Louvre MNB2109.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Attic [[Red-figure pottery|red-figure]] ''[[aryballos]]'' painting by Aison ({{circa}} 410 BC) showing Adonis consorting with [[Aphrodite]]]]

Aphrodite found the baby,{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} and took him to the underworld to be fostered by [[Persephone]].{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} She returned for him once he was grown{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} and discovered him to be strikingly handsome.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} However, Persephone too found Adonis to be exceedingly handsome<ref>Grimal, s.v. [https://archive.org/details/concisedictionar00grim/page/12/mode/2up?view=theater Adonis]; Bell, s.v. [https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/54/mode/2up?view=theater Aphrodite]; Tripp s.v [https://archive.org/details/meridianhandbook00trip/page/12/mode/2up?view=theater Adonis]</ref> and wanted to keep Adonis{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} for she too fell in love with him;<ref>[[Greek anthology]] ''Agathias Scholasticus'' [https://topostext.org/work/532#5.289 5.289]</ref><ref>[[Alciphron]], ''Letters to Courtesans'' [https://topostext.org/work/495#4.14.1 4.14.1]</ref><ref>[[Clement of Alexandria]], ''[[Protrepticus (Clement)|Exhortations]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/215#2.29 2.29]</ref> Zeus settled the dispute by decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of the year with Aphrodite, one third with Persephone, and one third with whomever he chose.<ref>[[Pseudo-Apollodorus]], ''Bibliotheca'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.14.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 3.14.4]</ref>{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} Adonis chose Aphrodite, and they remained constantly together.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} Another version states that both goddesses got to keep him for half the year each at the suggestion of the [[Muse]] [[Calliope]].<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Astronomica'' [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.7.4 2.7.4]</ref> Thus was Adonis' life divided between Aphrodite and Persephone, one goddess who loved him beneath the earth, the other above it.<ref>[[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], ''On Animals'' [http://www.attalus.org/translate/animals9.html#36 9.36]</ref> In his comical work ''[[Dialogues of the Gods]]'', the satirical author [[Lucian]] features Aphrodite in several dialogues, in one of which she complains to the [[List of lunar deities|moon goddess]] [[Selene]] that [[Eros]] made Persephone fall in love with Adonis and now she has to share him with her.<ref>[[Lucian]], ''[[Dialogues of the Gods]]'' [http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:dialogues:dialogues-of-the-gods#section11 Aphrodite and the Moon]</ref>

=== Death ===
Then, one day, while Adonis was out hunting, he was wounded by a wild boar and bled to death in Aphrodite's arms.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} In different versions of the story, the boar was either sent by Ares, who was jealous that Aphrodite was spending so much time with Adonis,{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|page=96}} by Artemis, who wanted revenge against Aphrodite for having killed her devoted follower [[Hippolytus (son of Theseus)|Hippolytus]],{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|page=96}} or by Apollo, to punish Aphrodite for blinding his son [[Erymanthus (person)|Erymanthus]].<ref>According to [[Nonnus]], ''Dionysiaca'' 42.1f. [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] on [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Eclogues]]'' x.18; ''Orphic Hymn'' lv.10; Ptolemy Hephaestionos, i.306u, all noted by Graves. Atallah (1966) fails to find any cultic or cultural connection with the boar, which he sees simply as a heroic [[Mytheme|myth-element]].</ref> The story also provides an [[etiology]] for Aphrodite's associations with certain flowers.{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|page=96}} Reportedly, as she mourned Adonis's death, she caused [[anemone]]s to grow wherever his blood fell,{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}}{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|page=96}} and declared a festival on the anniversary of his death.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} In one late account, his blood transformed into [[rose]]s instead.<ref name="10.18">[[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] ''Commentary on Virgil's Eclogues'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Serv.+Ecl.+10.18&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0091 10.18]</ref>

In a very different version from the standard, surviving in the works of fifth century AD grammarian [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] and perhaps originating from the island of [[Cyprus]], Adonis was made to fall in love with a mortal girl named [[Erinoma]] by Aphrodite herself at the command of [[Hera]]. Erinoma, a virgin girl favoured by [[Artemis]] and [[Athena]], rejected his advances, so Adonis crept up stealthily in her bedroom and raped her. Adonis then fled and went into a cave to hide from Zeus, who also loved Erinoma and would surely avenge the violence done against her. [[Hermes]], however, lured him with a trick, as [[Ares]] wounded him mortally in the form of a boar. Adonis died, but was eventually restored to life after Aphrodite begged Zeus. Erinoma bore him a son named Taleus.<ref name="10.18"/>{{sfn|Fontenrose|1981|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tD4lJxC95mEC&pg=PA171 171]}}

=== Other loves ===
Adonis was also said to have been loved by other gods such as [[Apollo]], [[Heracles]] and [[Dionysus]]. He was described as [[Androgyny|androgynous]], for he acted like a man in his affections for Aphrodite but as a woman for [[Apollo]].<ref>''Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 5'' (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190).</ref> "Androgynous" here means that Adonis took on a [[Gay sex roles#Bottom|receptive role]] during sex with Apollo, which was interpreted in classical Greece to be the feminine position.

[[Heracles]]' love of Adonis is mentioned in passing by Ptolemy Hephaestion. The text states that due to his love of Adonis, Aphrodite taught [[Nessus (mythology)|Nessos]] the [[centaur]] the trap to ensnare him.<ref>''Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Book 2'' (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190).</ref>

Another tradition states that [[Dionysus]], the Greek god of wine and madness, carried off Adonis.<ref>Phanocles ap.</ref><ref>Plut. Sumpos. iv. 5.</ref>

=== Other versions ===
[[File:Nahr Ibrahim, river in Lebanon 2011 - P1060155 r1.jpg|thumb|left|The Adonis River (now known as the [[Abraham River]]) in [[Lebanon]] was said to run red with blood each year during the festival of Adonis.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}}]]

In ''Idyll'' 15 by the early third-century BC Greek [[bucolic]] poet [[Theocritus]], Adonis is described as still an adolescent with down on his cheeks at the time of his love affair with Aphrodite, in contrast to Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'', in which he is portrayed as a fully mature man.{{sfn|Hull|2010|page=7}} Pseudo-Apollodorus (''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]]'', 3.182) describes Adonis as the son of [[Cinyras]], of [[Paphos]] on Cyprus, and [[Metharme]]. According to Pseudo-Apollodorus's ''Bibliotheke'', [[Hesiod]], in an unknown work that does not survive, made of him the son of [[Phoenix (son of Agenor)|Phoenix]] and the otherwise unidentified [[Alphesiboea]].<ref>Ps.-Apollodorus, iii.14.4.1.</ref>

In one version of the story, Aphrodite injured herself on a [[Thorns, spines, and prickles|thorn]] from a [[rose]] bush{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|page=96}} and the rose, which had previously been white, was stained red by her blood.{{sfn|Cyrino|2010|page=96}} In another version, an anemone flower grew on the spot where Adonis died, and a red rose where Aphrodite's tears fell.<ref>Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC|Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology.|page=11}}</ref> The third century BC poet [[Euphorion of Chalcis]] remarked in his ''[[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinth]]'' that "Only [[Cocytus]] washed the wounds of Adonis".<ref>Remarked upon in passing by [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]], ''Biblioteca'' 190 ([http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/photius_copyright/photius_05bibliotheca.htm on-line translation]).</ref> According to [[Lucian]]'s ''[[De Dea Syria]]'',{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=279}} each year during the festival of Adonis, the Adonis River in [[Lebanon]] (now known as the [[Abraham River]]) ran red with blood.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}}