The heat of July

One of the sexiest men in Greek mythology is the ever fined Adonis.  He is an annually-renewed, ever-youthful vegetation god, a life-death-rebirth deity whose nature is tied to the calendar. His name is often applied in modern times to handsome youths, of whom he is the archetype.

Adonis is son of Princess Myrrha and her father King Cinyras of Cyprus (Other myths state King Theias of Assyria as her father). When Myrrha’s mother bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than Aphrodite, warning NEVER compare yourselves or your relatives with the gods you are asking for trouble. The Goddess curse Myrrha to lust for her father. Her father King Cinyras resisted his daughter’s advances but was trick one night when she disguised herself as a concubine, got him and raped him. When Cinyras learned that his daughter was pregnant with his child all hell broke loose! He chased her with a sword to kill her. As she fled, Myrrha prayed to the gods for help. Aphrodite, feel sorry for Myrrha in this position, change her into a tree known today as a myrrh tree.

Depend on some version: One is that Dad finds out immediately and goes for the tree with a sword and cuts it open and out pops baby Adonis. Two is that after ten months (months were shorter) the baby splits the bark itself and is born. Three is that a wild boar comes along and rips the bark. Same result.

Aphrodite came across the baby, she was taken with baby Adonis’s beauty. She put him in a box and delivered him to Persephone in the Underworld. Persephone agreed to hide Adonis from Aphrodite's suspicious husband, Hephaestus. Persephone raised Adonis and he grew into a drop dead hunk of a man. Persephone fell in love with Adonis but Aphrodite want him back. This catfight went to Zeus. Calliope, on Zeus’s behalf, judge the matter and her decision was Persephone get Adonis one-third of the year (sound familiar), Aphrodite one-third of the year and his personal time one-third of the year. Only thing is, he decided to spend that third of a year with Aphrodite thank to her lovely touch. This situation really pissed Persephone off more on this later.

Adonis picked the sport of hunting and Aphrodite joined him. This was a problem because Aphrodite was accidently taking over the domain of Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. Aphrodite and Adonis spent many hours together, as lovers do, hunting and telling tales. Aphrodite also begged Adonis not to hunt wild beasts but to hunt only those which are safe to hunt, like hares, stags or does. But Adonis ignored her advice and continued hunting dangerous beasts.

Persephone told Ares and Hephaestus about the affair between Aphrodite and Adonis. The guys went to Artemis and ask her to send a wild, powerful boar to kill him. Artemis sent to the boar to him. Adonis met a boar and attacked it, and the boar fought him back, wounding him.

When he died, Aphrodite heard his cries and hastened to his side in her swan-drawn chariot. She cursed the Fates that had ordained his death and, with Adonis still in her arms, turned the blood drops that fell from his wounds onto the soil into windflowers, also known as the short-lived anemone, as a memorial to their love.  

Zeus’s judgment is still in effect this means Adonis spends spring and summer with the Goddess of Love and fall and winter with the Queen of the Underworld maybe time with Hades too;). This makes Adonis a resurrection gods like Osiris and Jesus.

I give you the Modern Adonises