“The fairest thing I leave behind is sunlight
then shining stars and the full moon's face,
and also ripe cucumbers, and apples, and pears"
(“Hymn to Adonis”, Praxilla of Sicyon, ca.5th century BC)
With Valentine's Day fast approaching and our attentions being encouraged to turn towards love and beauty, I thought I would share part of an article that I wrote for "Insight" magazine either last February or even February 2009.
We are told that our devotion to our partners is measured in the number of long stemmed red roses we buy, whose price almost miraculously skyrockets around the 14th of this month. Aside from roses, when we consider love and beauty, it is the Greek Goddess of love, Aphrodite, (or her Roman counterpart Venus) who quickly comes to mind. For the purpose of this article, however, I would like to focus on another Deity, one whose extraordinary beauty even had Aphrodite herself distracted by feelings of passion, that being the beautiful youth, Adonis.
We are told that our devotion to our partners is measured in the number of long stemmed red roses we buy, whose price almost miraculously skyrockets around the 14th of this month. Aside from roses, when we consider love and beauty, it is the Greek Goddess of love, Aphrodite, (or her Roman counterpart Venus) who quickly comes to mind. For the purpose of this article, however, I would like to focus on another Deity, one whose extraordinary beauty even had Aphrodite herself distracted by feelings of passion, that being the beautiful youth, Adonis.
