Aphrodite and Adonis
In this week’s sixth post leading up to Valentine’s Day, we thought we would share a story about the goddess of love herself. Aphrodite appears in many stories in which she falls in love, either with a god or with a mortal.
Adonis is one such mortal man who was said to be so handsome as to charm the goddess very early on in his life. In fact, being born from the Myrrh tree, Adonis was taken as a baby by Aphrodite who was so struck by the child’s beauty that she hid him in a box away from the other gods.
She entrusted him to Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, but when the time came for the latter to release the now grown Adonis, she did not want to let him go having herself fallen in love with him.
And so thus it was, as some of the ancient poets say, that the mortal young man Adonis was adored by two of the most formidable goddesses in the entire Greek pantheon. The love of Aphrodite for him is especially poignant, seeing as he is the result of one of her plans of vengeance.
The Myrrh tree and princess Smyrna
Indeed, as was stated above, Adonis was born of the myrrh tree, but in reality, his mother Smyrna was turned into the Smyrna tree (or myrrh tree) on account of her desperation after being afflicted by Eros.
You see early in her life she had neglected to worship Aphrodite who in retaliation made her fall in love with her own father.So struck by passion was Smyrna that she conspired with her nurse in order to find a way to lay with her father Kinyras, the king of Paphos on Cyprus.
She was successful but was ultimately found out by her enraged father who picked up his sword intent on killing his daughter for the impious act in which she had seduced him to partake.
In desperation Smyrna fled and begged the gods to make her disappear from amongst the living as well as the dead, not wanting to even wander the shades of Hades in her disgrace.
The gods took pity on her and turned her into the Myrrh tree which to this day secretes an essence, the myrrh, which, pleasantly fragrant, does not betray the dark story of its mythical creation.
Some say the essence which comes from the tree are the tears of Smyrna which continue to flow for all eternity, a testament to the power of Aphrodite’s wrath.
Yet still, nine months later after Smyrna was turned into a tree, the bark opened, and the baby Adonis was born. This story is a perfect maelstrom of the potency of eros and what it can do to those afflicted by it
Adonis: the love of two powerful goddesses
Eros works in mysterious and unexpected ways; the goddess Aphrodite herself had to contend with the consequences of her own wrath, because then Persephone too fought fiercely to be able to keep Adonis forever with her.
In the end, Zeus intervened in order to give an end to the fight between the two powerful goddesses.
He decreed that Adonis was to keep four months of the year for himself, four in Hades next to Persephone, and four with Aphrodite, although some poets mention that he preferred to spend his own time with Aphrodite.
And so it appeared that the story would have a happy ending.
Unfortunately, however, the happy arrangement was short lived. For as mortals do, Adonis eventually had to succumb to his fate, earlier rather than later.
As he liked to hunt, one day Adonis was struck fatally by a boar’s tusk and lay bleeding on the earth. Aphrodite was quick to hear his cry of pain and rush to his side, but not as quick as fate.
By the time the goddess reached the dying youth, Adonis had nearly bled out. She only had enough time to say goodbye before she lost Adonis forever. The poet Bion records one of the more heartbreaking scenes of the last meeting of the two lovers.
Adonis and Aphrodite
In his poem, Aphrodite is shown in an uncharacteristically mourning manner which unsettles the reader as the laughter-loving goddess is not supposed to be grieving.
In that poem, right as Adonis is breathing his last breath, Aphrodite exclaims how Persephone won in the end, having now gained one more permanent denizen in her realm.
The anemone and the red rose
Goddess and mortal were thus allowed one last embrace. She wept profusely, he bled non-stop;
and from her tears that wet the earth grew the anemone, the windflower; while from his blood that dripped onto the earth grew the red rose.
This story shows in vivid, heartbreaking detail that no one is immune to Eros’ power; not even the being who gave birth to him.
(Ancient Sources: Bion, The Lament for Adonis; Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 183; 1. 6; Pausanias, Desciption of Greece 6.24.6; Orphic Hymn 56 to Adonis; Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 34; Aelian, On Animals 9. 36; Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 2. 69b-d; Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History Books 1-2-4-5; Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 58; 251; 271; 248; Astronomica 2.7; Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.522 and 705ff; Propertius, Elegies 2.13A; Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 21-23; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48. 264ff; 42.1ff; 42.98ff; 3.400ff. For more information check out theoi.com.)