---
title: Aphrodite and Adonis
description: Aphrodite and Adonis
author:
  name: Graciela Paula Caldeiro
  url: http://graciela-caldeiro.idoneos.com
canonical: https://mitologiagrecorromana.idoneos.com/en/297436/
source: en/297436/index.md
---

<h2 id="afrodita-y-adonis">Aphrodite and Adonis</h2>

<figure class="commons-illustration" data-commons-id="11453197">
  <img src="/297436/resources/commons-11453197.jpg" width="1200" height="850" alt="Venus and Adonis. Hendrick Goltzius." loading="lazy" decoding="async">
  <figcaption>Venus and Adonis. Hendrick Goltzius.<br>Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hendrick_Goltzius_013.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wikimedia Commons</a>. Public domain.</figcaption>
</figure>

_Aphrodite and Adonis in a summer embrace. Aphrodite implores Adonis not to leave, for she fears for his safety. "Venus and Adonis" Hendrick Goltzius_

**Adonis** was a beautiful young man with whom both **Aphrodite** and **Persephone** fell in love. He would die as a result of their quarrels, at the hands of Ares — Aphrodite's jealous lover, disguised as a boar — at Persephone's instigation (for she wished to confine Adonis eternally in the underworld). Adonis was the son of Cinyras, king of Paphos in Cyprus, and of his own daughter Smyrna (Myrrha). Aphrodite had caused Smyrna to fall in love with her father and to sleep with him while he was drunk, in retaliation for his having boasted that his daughter was more beautiful than she. When Smyrna realized she was pregnant, her father tried to kill her, but Aphrodite, taking pity on Smyrna, transformed her into a **myrrh** tree. The tree later split in two, and from it emerged the extraordinarily beautiful **Adonis**. Aphrodite placed the infant in a chest and gave him to Persephone to care for&#46;&#46;&#46; but Persephone fell hopelessly in love with him!