Adonis (Greek mythology)

Adonis is a beautiful youth in Greek myth, loved by Aphrodite and killed by a boar. His death and return became associated with seasonal renewal and vegetation.

Aphrodite: Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sexual desire. Her love for Adonis drives the best-known versions of his myth.
Metamorphoses: Metamorphoses is Ovid’s Latin narrative poem recounting transformations from creation to Julius Caesar’s deification. Its account of Myrrha’s transformation and Adonis’s death became widely influential.
Boar of Adonis: The boar of Adonis is the animal that fatally wounds the youth in Greek myth. Its attack is the immediate cause of the death around which his cult and story turn.
Adonis (English word): An adonis is an exceptionally handsome young man, named after the Greek mythological figure. The myth’s emphasis on extraordinary beauty survives in the common noun.
Myrrha: Myrrha is a figure in Greek myth transformed into a myrrh tree after an incestuous union with her father. In one influential account, she is Adonis’s mother.
Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus): The Bibliotheca is a Greek mythographic handbook traditionally attributed to Apollodorus but written later. It records a concise version of Adonis’s birth, death, and division between goddesses.
Ares: Ares is the Greek god of war and violence. Some versions identify him as the jealous rival who takes boar form to kill Adonis.
Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem): Venus and Adonis is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare, published in 1593. Shakespeare recasts Aphrodite and Adonis as Venus and a reluctant mortal youth.
Cinyras: Cinyras is a king of Cyprus in Greek mythology, associated with music and the cult of Aphrodite. Ovid names him as Myrrha’s father and Adonis’s grandfather.
Bion of Smyrna: Bion of Smyrna was a Greek bucolic poet, probably active in the Hellenistic period. His lament for Adonis shaped later poetic treatments of the youth’s death.

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