Story of Venus and Adonis

To her who made the miracle, he pays: Then lips to lips he join’d; now freed from fear, He found the savour of the kiss sincere. At this the waken’d image oped her eyes, And view’d at once the light and lover with surprise. The goddess, present at the match she made, So bless’d the bed, such fruitfulness convey’d, That ere ten months had sharpen’d either horn, To crown their bliss, a lovely boy was born: Paphos his name, who, grown to manhood, wall’d The city Paphos, from the founder call’d.

Venus becomes enamoured of young Adonis, whom she cautions against the pursuit of wild beasts, lest he should meet a premature death⁠—The youth disregards this advice, and receives a mortal bite from a wild boar which he has wounded; and Venus, after lamenting his fate, changes him into a flower called anemone.