Cythera saw Adonis

And knew that he was dead;

She marked the brow, all grisly now,

The cheek no longer red;

And "Bring the boar before me"

Unto her Loves she said.

Forthwith her winged attendants

Ranged all the woodland o'er,

And found and bound in fetters

Threefold the grisly boar:

One dragged him at a rope's end

E'en as a vanquished foe;

One went behind and drave him

And smote him with his bow:

On paced the creature feebly;

He feared Cythera so.

To him said AphroditÈ:

"So, worst of beasts, 'twas you

Who rent that thigh asunder,

Who him that loved me slew?"

And thus the beast made answer:

"Cythera, hear me swear

By thee, by him that loved thee,

And by these bonds I wear,

And them before whose hounds I ran—

I meant no mischief to the man

Who seemed to thee so fair.

"As on a carven statue

Men gaze, I gazed on him;

I seemed on fire with mad desire

To kiss that offered limb:

My ruin, AphroditÈ,

Thus followed from my whim.

"Now therefore take and punish

And fairly cut away

These all unruly tusks of mine;

For to what end serve they?

And if thine indignation

Be not content with this,

Cut off the mouth that ventured

To offer him a kiss"—

But AphroditÈ pitied

And bade them loose his chain.

The boar from that day forward

Still followed in her train;

Nor ever to the wildwood

Attempted to return,

But in the focus of Desire

Preferred to burn and burn.