Editing Adonis (section)

=== Aphrodite and Persephone ===
[[File:Aphrodite Adonis Louvre MNB2109.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Attic [[Red-figure pottery|red-figure]] ''[[aryballos]]'' painting by Aison ({{circa}} 410 BC) showing Adonis consorting with [[Aphrodite]]]]

Aphrodite found the baby,{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} and took him to the underworld to be fostered by [[Persephone]].{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} She returned for him once he was grown{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} and discovered him to be strikingly handsome.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} However, Persephone too found Adonis to be exceedingly handsome<ref>Grimal, s.v. [https://archive.org/details/concisedictionar00grim/page/12/mode/2up?view=theater Adonis]; Bell, s.v. [https://archive.org/details/womenofclassical00bell/page/54/mode/2up?view=theater Aphrodite]; Tripp s.v [https://archive.org/details/meridianhandbook00trip/page/12/mode/2up?view=theater Adonis]</ref> and wanted to keep Adonis{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} for she too fell in love with him;<ref>[[Greek anthology]] ''Agathias Scholasticus'' [https://topostext.org/work/532#5.289 5.289]</ref><ref>[[Alciphron]], ''Letters to Courtesans'' [https://topostext.org/work/495#4.14.1 4.14.1]</ref><ref>[[Clement of Alexandria]], ''[[Protrepticus (Clement)|Exhortations]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/215#2.29 2.29]</ref> Zeus settled the dispute by decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of the year with Aphrodite, one third with Persephone, and one third with whomever he chose.<ref>[[Pseudo-Apollodorus]], ''Bibliotheca'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+3.14.4&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 3.14.4]</ref>{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} Adonis chose Aphrodite, and they remained constantly together.{{sfn|Kerényi|1951|page=76}} Another version states that both goddesses got to keep him for half the year each at the suggestion of the [[Muse]] [[Calliope]].<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Astronomica'' [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.7.4 2.7.4]</ref> Thus was Adonis' life divided between Aphrodite and Persephone, one goddess who loved him beneath the earth, the other above it.<ref>[[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], ''On Animals'' [http://www.attalus.org/translate/animals9.html#36 9.36]</ref> In his comical work ''[[Dialogues of the Gods]]'', the satirical author [[Lucian]] features Aphrodite in several dialogues, in one of which she complains to the [[List of lunar deities|moon goddess]] [[Selene]] that [[Eros]] made Persephone fall in love with Adonis and now she has to share him with her.<ref>[[Lucian]], ''[[Dialogues of the Gods]]'' [http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:dialogues:dialogues-of-the-gods#section11 Aphrodite and the Moon]</ref>