 Venus
and Adonis (1729) by François Le Moyne, French Painter, 1688-1737
Adonis was the son of King Cinyras and his daughter, Smyrna. The king's wife made the mistake of comparing Smyrna's beauty to that of Aphrodite's. The Goddess of Love was enraged and caused the king to sleep with Smyrna. When Cinyras came to his senses and realized what he had done he tried to kill his daughter. Aphrodite turned her into a myrrh tree, and the king split the tree down the middle.
From the split, Adonis was born, and Aphrodite whisked him away in a chest. She took him to Persephone to be taken care of. As Adonis grew and became more handsome, it was apparant that Aphrodite would have a fight on her hands for Persephone did not want to return him. The Muse, Calliope, was sent by Zeus to decide the matter. She declared that Adonis would spend a third of the year with Aphrodite, a third of the year with Persephone, and the remaining third would be his alone.
Aphrodite wasn't pleased at all with this ruling and continued to be extremely jealous of Adonis. This, of course, upset her lover, Ares. He turned himself into a boar and killed the handsome young man. This made Aphrodite even madder because now Adonis would be spending the entire year in the underworld with Persephone.
So Zeus finally settled the quarrel once and for all...Adonis spent half his
year in Tartarus and the other half among the gods on Olympus.
Venus & Adonis Oil on Canvas, unframed, Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (1488-1576)
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