Venus and Adonis

Shakespeare’s main source for Venus and Adonis is Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Ovid (43 BC-AD 17/18) was a Roman poet who was popular with Elizabethan readers, including Shakespeare. Ovid tells the story of Venus and Adonis in Book X of the Metamorphoses, but Shakespeare also uses elements taken from the story of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus in Book IV and the story of Narcissus in Book III.

Ovid’s treatment of Venus and Adonis differs from that of Shakespeare. In Ovid, the two are constant companions. Venus is completely in love with Adonis, and he seems to have no objections. They roam the woods together, and Venus participates in the hunt, but only when it is safe to do so, like when the quarry are deer, hares, or stags. She avoids bears, boars, wolves, and lions and, as in Venus and Adonis, warns Adonis to beware of them. Adonis does not heed the warning and is killed by a boar. In her grief, Venus declares that every year the scene of his death will be reenacted, and his blood will be changed into a flower. Thus, in Ovid, the flower, which is identified as an anemone, is a symbol of rebirth. Venus sprinkles Adonis’s blood with nectar and, within an hour, a flower springs up.