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| Venus and Adonis |
In Greek, mythology,
Adonis was a beautiful boy beloved by Venus (Aphrodite). He was slain by a wild boar. Venus sprinkled nectar upon his blood, and there from sprang the anemone, or wind flower. At the request of Venus, Zeus decreed that Adonis should spend half the year in the upper and half in the lower world. His death was celebrated by an autumnal, his resurrection by a spring, festival. Adonis is an oriental deity of nature, a type of the decay of nature in autumn and its revival in spring. "Beautiful as Adonis," is a common expression.
