ADONIS

ADONIS

"Scarce nobler seem'd the Latmian swain whose grace
Could raise a glow on Dian's placid face;
Jove, seeing thee, from Ganymede would turn' 
And Cyprus' queen her lov'd Adonis spurn'"
H.P. Lovecraft, To Alfred Galpin, Esq.

 The gods took pity on her and changed her into the tree called the Smyrna. Nine months later the tree split open and the baby named Adonis was born. Because of his beauty, Aphrodite secreted him away in a chest, keeping it from the gods, and left him with Persephone. But when Persephone got a glimpse of Adonis, she refused to return him. When the matter was brought to Zeus for arbitration, he divided the year into three parts and decreed that Adonis would spent one third of the year by himself, one third with Persephone, and the rest with Aphrodite. But Adonis added his own portion to Aphrodite’s. Later on, while hunting, he was attacked by a boar and died."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca

"The dogs had roused a wild boar from his lair, and the youth threw his spear and wounded the animal with a sidelong stroke. The beast drew out the weapon with his jaws, and rushed after Adonis, who turned and ran; but the boar overtook him, and buried his tusks in his side, and stretched him dying upon the plain."

Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology