themselves
into a smile of understanding and held themselves up to hers. And,
while they kissed, the soul of Adonis passed away.

"A cruel, cruel wound on his thigh hath Adonis, but a
deeper wound in her heart doth Cytherea[6] bear. About
him his dear hounds are loudly baying, and the nymphs of
the wild woods wail him; but Aphrodite with unbound
locks through the glades goes wandering--wretched, with
hair unbraided, with feet unsandalled, and the thorns as
she passes wound her and pluck the blossom of her sacred
blood. Shrill she wails as down the woodland she is
borne.... And the rivers bewail the sorrows of
Aphrodite, and the wells are weeping Adonis on the
mountains. The flowers flush red for anguish, and
Cytherea through all the mountain-knees, through every
dell doth utter piteous dirge:

"'_Woe, woe for Cytherea, he hath perished, the lovely
Adonis!_'"

Bion.

Passionately the god besought Zeus to give her back her lost love, and
when there was no answer to her prayers, she cried in bitterness: "Yet
shall I keep a memorial of Adonis that shall be to all everlasting!"
And, as she spoke, her tears and his blood, mingling together, were
turned into flowers.

"A tear the Paphian sheds for each blood-drop of Adonis, and tears and
blood on the earth are turned to flowers. The blood brings forth the
roses, the tears, the wind-flower."

Yet, even then, the grief of Aphrodite knew no abatement. And when
Zeus, wearied with her crying, heard her, to his amazement, beg to be
allowed to go down to the Shades that she might there endure eternal
twilight with the one of her heart, his soul was softened.

"Never can it be that the Queen of Love and of Beauty leaves Olympus
and the pleasant earth to tread for evermore the dark Cocytus valley,"
he said. "Nay, rather shall I permit the beauteous youth of thy love
to return for half of each year from the Underworld that thou and he
may together know the joy of a love that hath reached fruition."

Thus did it come to pass that when dark winter's gloom was past,
Adonis returned to the earth and to the arms of her who loved him.

"But even in death, so strong is love,
I could not wholly die; and year by year,
When the bright springtime comes, and the earth lives,
Love opens these dread gates, and calls me forth
Across the gulf. Not here, indeed, she comes,
Being a goddess and in h