ollo himself that took the form of that animal; and they
say that Adonis descending to the Infernal Regions, Proserpine fell
in love with him, and refused to allow him to return,
notwithstanding the orders of Jupiter. On this, the king of heaven
fearing to displease both the Goddesses, referred the dispute to the
Muse Calliope, who directed that Adonis should pass one half of his
time with Venus on earth, and the other half in the Infernal
Regions. They also tell us that it took up a year before the dispute
could be determined, and that the Hours brought Adonis at last to
the upper world, on which, Venus being dissatisfied with the
decision of Calliope, instigated the women of Thrace to kill her son
Orpheus.

The mythologists have considered this story to be based on grounds
either historical or physical. Cicero, in his Discourse on the
Nature of the Gods, says, that there were several persons who had
the name of Venus, and that the fourth, surnamed Astarte, was a
Syrian, who married Adonis, the son of Cinyras, king of Cyprus.
Hunting in the forests of Mount Libanus, or Lebanon, he was wounded
in the groin by a wild boar, which accident ultimately caused his
death. Astarte caused the city of Byblos and all Syria to mourn for
his loss; and, to keep his name and his sad fate in remembrance,
established feasts in his honour, to be celebrated each year. Going
still further, if we suppose the story to have originated in
historical facts, it seems not improbable that Adonis did not die of
his wound, and that, contrary to all expectation, he was cured; as
the Syrians, after having mourned for several days during his
festival, rejoiced as though he had been raised from the dead, at a
second festival called 'The Return.' The worship both of Venus and
Adonis probably originated in Syria, and was spread through Asia
Minor into Greece; while the Carthaginians, a Phoenician colony
introduced it into Sicily. The festival of Adonis is most amusingly
described by Theocritus the Sicilian poet, in his 'Adoniazusae.' Some
authors have suggested that Adonis was the same with the Egyptian
God Osiris, and that the affliction of Venus represented that of
Isis at the death of her husband. According to Hesiod, Adonis was
the son of Phoenix and Alphesiboea, while Panyasis says that he was
son of Theias, the king of the Assyrians.

In support of the view which some commen