Roman/Greek
Venus=Aphrodite
Mars=Ares
Cupid=Eros
Venus=Aphrodite
Mars=Ares
Cupid=Eros
The Greeks adopted the story of Adonis from the Semites around the 8th
century B.C.
Cupid punished Princess Smyrna (Adonis’s mother) by instilling her with a passion for her own father (King Cinyras of Cyprus). She attempted to commit suicide to avoid becoming the incestuous lover of her own father, but she was discovered by her nurse before she was able to take her life, and this nurse promised her to help her.
So one dark night, when the nurse noticed that the king was drunk with wine, she told him of one who loved him truly, and later she guided Smyrna to her father's bedroom. The scene repeated several nights until the king became curious concerning the identity of the young girl.
When he learned that he had been deceived by his daughter, he pursued her with the idea of killing her and, being overtaken, she prayed to the gods that she might be invisible (another story is she prayed to the gods to be refused both life and death) so the gods in compassion turned her into the tree called smyrna (myrrh). Ten months afterwards the tree burst and Adonis was born.
Many years later, Venus, playing with her son Cupid, accidentally pricked herself with one of his arrows. She pushed him away, but the wound was deeper than she thought. Before it healed she beheld Adonis, and was captivated with him.
Venus, in her swan-drawn chariot, had not yet reached Cyprus, when she heard coming up through mid-air the groans of her beloved, and turned the swans back to earth. She drew near and saw his body bathed in blood. She went to him and he died in her arms. After he died, Venus in her grief thereupon sprinkled the blood with nectar, transforming it into an anemone, a beautiful red flower which lives for a short time. It is said that the wind blows the blossoms open, and afterwards blows the petals away. The anemone is known as ‘windflower’ or ‘flower of the wind.’
After his death, Persephone claimed possession of Adonis, who had traveled to the Underworld (Persephone is the Queen of the Underworld).
The swans that pulled the chariot in which Venus had departed and returned are in the right background.
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