150 FAMILIAlt GAUDEN FLUWEKS. 



The qiKitatiou lands us in a difficulty, for it suyg-ests 

 the (question that Adonis was perhaps a proper mortal ot' 

 the common world, and only passed into fable in order to 

 lie e(jmmemorated. But he is there, in the heart of the 

 fable, and the tlower is stained with his blood, or rather 

 the ad\-enturous youth lives in the flower, and is the tlower, 

 and so will continue to dower it with human interest while 

 the world shall last. The Adonis of story was the sou of 

 Smyrna, who having neglected the worship of Aphrodite, 

 the Olympian goddess of love and beauty, was changed 

 into a tree. From forth the tree in due time came her 

 son, whose infant beauty so beguiled Aphrodite that she 

 hid him in a chest, and coutided his keeping to the care of 

 Persephone. Then Persephone was equally enraptured with 

 his beauty, and claimeil him for her own, and, as a conse- 

 (piencc, a lawsuit followed in the heavenly courts. The 

 great judge Zeus decided the cause. He parcelled the year 

 of Adonis into three divisions; he was to be the pet of Per- 

 sephone four months, the pet of Aphrodite four months, 

 and the remaining four were to Ije his own. As a matter 

 of course, he could not love the ladies e(prally, and as his 

 heart leaned to Ajihrodite, he gave her the four months 

 over which he had control, and thus was her companion 

 eight months in tlieyear. AA'hcther the gods ilisapproved of 

 this, Panyasis does not say, but he tells that the youth was 

 killed l>y a boar during the chase. The story, as told by 

 (Jvid, brings Adonis before us as passionately beloved by 

 \'enus, \\\\o always cautioned him against the wild boars, 

 liut all in vain, for he would pursue them, even when, with 

 tears and entreaties, the beautiful wooer besought him to 

 remain beside her in safety and peace. It is this version 

 which our Shakespeare has wrought uj) into a jioem, which. 



