Site Library Library of Hellas

Adonis, Aphrodite, and the Blood-Red Anemone

In the land of Greece and in many places in the Middle East, this blood-red anemone, which blooms in deserts and wild places but is fragile and short-lived because the winds soon tear it to pieces, is identified with the beautiful youth Adonis who was adored by the the goddess Aphrodite but was soon torn from her arms and torn to pieces by her jealous lover Ares. And so it is called also the "Adonis Anemone." Here is the tragic story of their love:

Because the King of Cyprus boasted that his daughter Smyrna was more beautiful than Aphrodite, the goddess punished him by making Smyrna fall in love with him. She got him drunk and got into his bed and got herself pregnant by him. When the king found out, he grabbed a sword and chased her from the palace. Just when he caught up with her and was about to kill her with his sword, Aphrodite changed her into a myrrh tree -- which split in two from the king's descending sword. Out tumbled baby Adonis.

Aphrodite snatched him up and hid him in a chest, which she gave to Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, asking her to hide it in a dark place. Overcome with curiosity, Persephone opened the chest. Struck by his beauty, she took Adonis to her palace and brought him up, then made him her lover. When Aphrodite found out, she complained to Zeus. But Zeus, who knew what was going on between the two women, refused to intervene. He handed the case over to the muse Calliope, who decided the two goddesses should share Adonis equally. Dividing the year into three trimesters, she said Adonis should stay the winter months in the Kingdom of the Dead with Persephone, spend the next trimester making love with Aphrodite, and then take the third one off all by himself.

Aphrodite would have none of it. She complained that the Three Fates had assigned her just one task: making love. So, flaunting her charms in her magic girdle, she seduced Adonis into spending the winter idling in Hades, and the rest of the year making love with her.

Furious, Persephone went to tell Aphrodite's lover Ares how he had been replaced by a mere mortal, and a rather girlish one too! Ares immediately disguised himself as a boar and went off to kill Adonis.

This painting by Titian shows Adonis leaving to go out on the hunt one more time, as Aphrodite pleads with him not to, for she has had a premonition of danger. She warns him not to hunt any creature that can turn against him. Ignoring her warning, Adonis ran off with his hounds for the thrill of a kill. They soon roused a boar and Adonis chased and shot him,

But he only wounded and maddened the beast, who charged him and tore him to pieces. Aphrodite watched him die, his blood draining out upon the ground. From it, blood-red flowers sprang up, only to be torn apart and scattered by the wind across the land. Hence it is called "windflower," or "anemone."

Below: The Dying Adonis. Neither sarcophagus nor ash urn, containing neither bones nor ashes, this mainly solid piece was probably designed as a sumptuous lid for a large Etruscan ash urn. But not just for a young man. Rather for a man or a woman (unisex), especially if cast in multiple copies from a mold. Etruscan ladies wouldn't mind having an Adonis like this atop their ashes, judging from the popularity of hand mirrors depicting Aphrodite embracing her only mortal lover. Also, considering he's just been gored to death by a wild boar, our toy boy's body is in remarkably good condition -- as third-century BC Etruscans hoped their own might be in the afterlife? Is that gash on Adonis' left leg by design, or from a crack in the clay? Dog lovers: Note the lovely faithful hound; licking a wound of his own from that same boar.

TYCHE & OEDIPUS
Fatal Boar Hunts, Fatal Loves: Meleager & Adonis
A Valentine for Camille Flammarion
The Met returns its Euphronios vase!
Camille Flammarion: Romantic Astronomer
The Fountains of Enceladus
The Eye of God
Is Ganymede the Boy from Marathon Bay?
THE ANCIENT OLYMPIEIA FESTIVAL AT ATHENS
Which satyr would you choose...
The Marathon Boy and the Satyr
Contrapossto from Praxiteles to Rubens and Playboy
The Afternoon of a Faun
The Dancing Satyr - A Lost Bronze of Praxiteles?
Hermes, The Liar Who Invented the Lyre
Inanna Adored: The Uruk Vase
The Moon-God Nanna-Sin Visits his Ziggurat at Ur
Apollo Sauroktonos, or How the Romans Killed the Lizard-Killer
Jacob's Ladder
Lilith: Wild Demon of Sex and Death
DUMUZI FEEDS INANNA'S SHEEP
The Sun God in his Dragon Boat
Lassalle's Post-Modern Male Torso
Brancusi's Torsos: Pure Platonic Forms?
Brancusi on Men and Women: Take the Tate Test?
Four Gods Greet the Rising Sun God
Rilke's Archaic Torso of Apollo
Culsu & Vanth Lead the Dead into Hades
Aita, the Etruscan Hades
Socrates' Apology: The Background
THE GREEK SPHINX
Hypnos & Thanatos, Sleep & Death
The SPHINX and The ROBOT
PYTHAGOREAN HARMONICS: FROM PYTHAGORAS TO NEWTON
Orestes Pursued by Furies in The Eumenides