Myth Library · Custody Death And Ritual Reception

Adonis Between Aphrodite and Persephone

3 source witnesses · 3 source-scoped variants · reviewed 2026-08-29

Pseudo-Apollodorus preserves competing parentages, then follows Panyasis: Aphrodite's anger drives Smyrna toward her father Thias, a nurse conceals their incest for twelve nights, and Smyrna becomes the myrrh tree from which Adonis is born. Aphrodite hides the infant with Persephone, Zeus divides his year when Persephone refuses to return him, and Artemis's anger brings his boar death. Theocritus and Ovid reshape the later mourning in Alexandrian and Roman settings.

Canonical narrative

Pseudo-Apollodorus opens with competing genealogies. One makes Adonis the son of Cinyras and Metharme; a line attributed to Hesiod gives him Phoenix and Alphesiboea as parents; Panyasis makes him the child of Smyrna and her father Thias, king of Assyria. The mythographer then follows Panyasis into the violent story of Adonis' birth.

Smyrna fails to honor Aphrodite. In anger, the goddess makes her desire her father. A nurse learns the secret and helps Smyrna share Thias's bed without his knowledge for twelve nights. When Thias discovers who she is, he draws a sword and pursues her. The gods turn Smyrna into a myrrh tree. Ten months later the tree bursts open and Adonis is born.

The infant's beauty catches Aphrodite's attention. She hides him in a chest and entrusts him to Persephone, who opens the chest, sees him, and refuses to return him. The dispute goes before Zeus. He divides the year into three portions: Adonis must spend one part by himself, one with Persephone, and one with Aphrodite. Adonis gives his own portion to Aphrodite, so she receives more of his time. Pseudo-Apollodorus then says that Artemis, angered for an unstated reason, sends the boar that kills him while he hunts.

Theocritus does not retell the birth or custody dispute in Idyll 15. He carries Aphrodite and Adonis into a festival at Ptolemaic Alexandria. Women push through the city into a palace display rich with fruit, cakes, gardens, woven hangings, and images of the divine pair. A singer celebrates Adonis' return to Aphrodite. The next day, the women will carry his image toward the sea and lament his departure. The poem shows myth performed through temporary abundance, public spectacle, female song, and grief.

Ovid gives the Roman Venus another story. She loves Adonis, hunts with him, and warns him away from dangerous animals. He attacks a boar, receives a mortal wound, and dies. Venus mourns him and changes his blood into a fragile flower. This Latin transformation became enormously influential, but it does not reproduce Pseudo-Apollodorus' Artemis or Theocritus' Alexandrian festival.

These tellings do not form one seamless life. Greek mythography preserves rival parentages, Aphrodite's punishment of Smyrna, a concealed incest, a tree birth, divine custody, and Artemis's fatal anger. Alexandrian poetry turns Adonis' return and departure into festival song, and Roman poetry turns his blood into a flower. Each witness changes what his beauty, death, and mourning mean.

Episodes in this myth

Episode 1

The chest, custody, and divided year

Pseudo-Apollodorus preserves rival parentages before following Smyrna through Aphrodite's anger, twelve concealed nights with Thias, pursuit, myrrh-tree transformation, Adonis' birth, and the later chest and custody dispute.

Episode 2

Boar death, festival, and mourning

Artemis's anger sends the fatal boar in Pseudo-Apollodorus; Theocritus stages festival lament at Alexandria; Ovid has Venus turn Adonis' blood into a flower.

Participants and roles

Aphrodite

goddess whose anger begins Smyrna's Greek mythographic story, who later hides and claims Adonis, and who receives or mourns him in festival and Roman tellings

Pseudo-Apollodorus gives the punishment, custody dispute, and divided year. Theocritus stages Aphrodite in festival song, while Ovid tells the Roman sequence under the name Venus.

Adonis

mortal born from the myrrh tree, hidden as an infant, divided between goddesses, killed by a boar, celebrated in festival song, and mourned in Roman poetry

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Theocritus, and Ovid give Adonis different parentage, death, ritual, and transformation contexts.

Persephone

goddess entrusted with the infant who refuses to return him after opening the chest

She opens the chest, sees Adonis, and refuses to return him, forcing the dispute before Zeus.

Zeus

arbiter who divides Adonis' year between himself, Persephone, and Aphrodite

He divides the year into three shares, after which Adonis gives his own share to Aphrodite.

Smyrna or Myrrha

Smyrna in the Greek mythographic sequence and Myrrha in Roman poetry, mother of Adonis after her transformation into a myrrh tree

Library 3.14.4 gives Aphrodite's anger, the nurse's deception, pursuit by Thias, the tree transformation, and Adonis' birth. Ovid develops a separate Latin narrative.

Cinyras

father of Adonis with Metharme in one genealogy reported before the Smyrna and Thias birth narrative

Pseudo-Apollodorus lists this parentage in Library 3.14.3 and does not make Cinyras Smyrna's father in the Panyasis sequence.

Metharme

mother of Adonis with Cinyras in one genealogy listed by Pseudo-Apollodorus

This parentage appears before the mythographer turns to the Smyrna and Thias birth narrative.

Phoenix

father of Adonis in the genealogy attributed to Hesiod by Pseudo-Apollodorus

The quoted genealogy names Alphesiboea as Adonis' mother.

Alphesiboea

mother of Adonis in the genealogy attributed to Hesiod by Pseudo-Apollodorus

The quoted genealogy names Phoenix as Adonis' father.

Thias

father of Smyrna who unknowingly shares his bed with her and pursues her after discovering the deception

Panyasis's sequence, preserved in Library 3.14.4, makes Thias king of Assyria and Adonis' father through Smyrna.

Smyrna's nurse

unnamed woman who learns Smyrna's desire and arranges twelve nights with Thias without revealing Smyrna's identity

Her intervention makes the concealed incest possible in Pseudo-Apollodorus' account.

Artemis

goddess whose anger sends the boar that kills Adonis in Pseudo-Apollodorus

Library 3.14.4 does not explain the cause of her anger.

Boar

wild animal that kills Adonis, sent through Artemis's anger in Pseudo-Apollodorus and confronted despite Venus's warning in Ovid

The hunting deaths differ by witness and do not establish the boar as Aphrodite's sacred animal.

Source-scoped variants

Custody and divided year

Pseudo-Apollodorus lists competing parents, then follows Smyrna from Aphrodite's anger through incest, pursuit, tree transformation, Adonis' birth, the chest, rival custody, a divided year, and death through Artemis's anger.

What differs: Only this Greek mythographic sequence joins the rival genealogies, the nurse's twelve-night deception, the myrrh-tree birth, the goddesses' custody dispute, and Artemis's unexplained anger.

Greek Roman Imperial · Ancient Greece

Alexandrian Adonia in Idyll 15

Women move through Ptolemaic Alexandria to a palace display of fruit, cakes, gardens, woven images, song, and Adonis' temporary return; the next day they carry him toward the sea in lament.

What differs: Theocritus shows myth becoming festival display, female song, abundance, procession, and grief in Hellenistic Alexandria. He does not retell Adonis' birth or the custody dispute.

Greek Hellenistic · Alexandria Egypt

Ovid's Venus, hunting warning, and flower

Venus hunts beside Adonis and warns him away from dangerous animals. He attacks a boar, dies from its wound, and becomes a fragile flower when Venus changes his blood.

What differs: Ovid's Roman poem gives Venus the warning, mourning, and flower transformation. It omits Persephone's custody claim and does not make Artemis responsible for the boar.

Greek Roman Imperial

Source witnesses

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

Library

Pseudo-Apollodorus; edited and translated by James G. Frazer · 1921

Entry Library · Book 3 · Chapter 14 · Section 3-4

Library 3.14.3-14.4 preserves rival parentages, the Smyrna and Thias incest and tree-birth sequence, Aphrodite and Persephone's custody dispute, the divided year, and Artemis's anger behind the boar death.

Open reviewed source

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

The Idylls of Theocritus

Theocritus; edited by Roger James Cholmeley · 1901

Book Idyll 15 · Line 94-149

Hellenistic literary representation of Alexandrian festival display, song, mourning, and sea procession.

Open reviewed source

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

Metamorphoses

Ovid; Hugo Magnus Latin edition and Brookes More translation · 1922

Book Metamorphoses · Chapter 10 · Line 503-739

Roman literary variant under the name Venus, with warning, hunting death, mourning, and flower transformation.

Open reviewed source