Adonis, Standing Figure

Adonis was the mortal lover of Aphrodite — and of Persephone, queen of the dead, who refused to release him. Their dispute was finally settled by Zeus: Adonis would spend half the year in the Underworld and half on earth, a mythic explanation for the cycle of vegetation and the return of spring. Adored for his beauty, mourned by goddesses, he became the archetype of youth itself, and gave Western art one of its most enduring images of masculine grace.