Volute Krater with Adonis, Aphrodite, and Persephone in the Getty Villa, July 2008

Mixing Vessel with Adonis, Aphrodite, and Persephone
Greek, made in Athens, 390-380 BC
Terracotta
Red-figured dinoid volute krater and stand attributed to the Meleager Painter

Inventory # 87.AE.93

On this vesel's neck, Adonis reclines on a couch between Aphrodite and Persephone (goddess of the Underworld). According to myth, Aphrodite fell in love with the young mortal. She shut him up in a chest and entrusted him to Persephone so that no one else could share in his beauty, but Persephone opened it and fell in love with him, too. The goddesses fought over his attention until Zeus intervened. He declared that Adonis would spend one third of the year with Aphrodite, one third with Persephone; the last third would be Adonis' own choice, and he devoted it to his beloved Aphrodite. Adonis' annual return to earth from the Underworld was linked with the cycle of the seasons and the regeneration of vegetation.

Text from the Getty Villa museum label.