ADONIS

According to Apollodorus a son of Cinyras and Medarme, according to Hesiod (ap. Apoilod. iii. 14. § 4) a son of Phoenix and Alphesiboea, and according to the cyclic poet Panyasis, a son of Tlieias, king of Assyria, who begot him by his own daughter Smyrna. (Myrrha.)

[ See: The Story of of Cinyras and Myrrha ]

The ancient story ran thus: Smyrna had neglected the worship of Aphrodite, and was punished by the goddess with an unnatural love for her father. With the assistance of her nurse she contrived to share her father's bed without being known to him. When he discovered the crime he wished to kill her; but she fled, and on being nearly overtaken, prayed to the gods to make her invisible. They were moved to pity and changed her into a tree. After the lapse of nine months the tree burst, and Adonis was born. Aphrodite was so much charmed with the beauty of the infant, that she concealed it in a chest which she entrusted to Persephone; but when the latter discovered the treasure she had in her keeping, she refused to give it up. The case was brought before Zeus, who decided the dispute by declaring that during four months of every year Adonis should be left to himself, during four months he should belong to Persephone, and during the remaining four to Aphrodite.

Adonis however preferring to live with Aphrodite, also spent with her the four months over which he had control. Afterwards Adonis died of a wound which he received from a boar during the chase. Thus far the story of Adonis was related by Panyasis. Later writers furnish various alterations and additions to it.

According to Hyginus Smyrna was punished with the love for her father, because her mother Cenchreis had provoked the anger of Aphrodite by extolling the beauty of her daughter above that of the goddess. Smyrna after the discovery of her crime fled into a forest, where she was changed into a tree from which Adonis came forth, when her father split it with his sword.

The dispute between Aphrodite and Persephone was according to some accounts settled by Calliope, whom Zeus appointed as mediator between them. Ovid (Metamorphoses X) adds the following features: Myrrha's love of her father was excited by the furies; Lucina assisted her when she gave birth to Adonis, and the Naiads anointed him with the tears of his mother, i. e. with the fluid which trickled from the tree.

Adonis grew up a most beautiful youth, and Venus loved him and shared with him the pleasures of the chase, though she' always cautioned him against the wild beasts. At last he wounded a boar which killed him in its fury. According to some traditions Ares or, according to others, Apollo assumed the form of a boar and thus killed Adonis.

A third story related that Dionysus carried off Adonis.