one of his limbs had been found minor temples and tombs were built in commemoration of the event. THE DEATH OF ADONIS[4] (_From Bion’s Lament for Adonis_) Low on the hills is lying the lovely Adonis, and his thigh with the boar’s tusk, his white thigh with the boar’s tusk, is wounded, and sorrow on Cypris he brings, as softly he breathes his life away. To Cypris his kiss is dear, though he lives no longer, but Adonis knew not that she kissed him whenas he died. _Woe, woe for Adonis, the Loves join in the lament!_ A cruel, cruel wound on his thigh hath Adonis, but a deeper wound in her heart Cytherea bears. About him his dear hounds are loudly baying, and the nymphs of the wild wood wail him; but Aphrodite with unbound locks through the glades goes wandering—wretched, with hair unbraided, with feet unsandalled, and the thorns as she passes wound her and pluck the blossom of her sacred blood. Shrill she wails as down the long woodlands she is borne, lamenting her Assyrian lord, and again calling him and again. _Woe, woe for Cytherea, the Loves join in the lament!_ ... No more in the oak woods, Cypris, lament thy lord. It is no fair couch for Adonis, the lonely bed of reeds! Now lay him down to sleep in his own soft coverlets, in a couch all of gold, that yearns for Adonis, though sad is he to look upon. Cast on him garlands and blossoms: all things have perished in his death, yea, all the flowers are faded. Sprinkle him with ointments of Syria, sprinkle him with unguents of myrrh. Nay, perish all perfumes, for Adonis, who was thy perfume, hath perished. He reclines, the delicate Adonis, in his raiment of purple, and around him the Loves are weeping, and groaning aloud, clipping their locks for Adonis. And one upon his shafts, another on his bow is treading, and one hath loosed the sandals of Adonis, and another hath broken his own feathered quiver, and one in a golden vessel bears water, and another laves the wound, and another from behind him with his wings is fanning Adonis. _Woe, woe for Cytherea, the Loves join in the lament!_ ... And woe, woe for Adonis, shrilly cry the Muses, neglecting Pæan (Apollo), and they lament Adonis aloud, and songs they chant to him, but he does not heed them, not that he is loath to hear, but that the Maiden of Hades doth not let him go. Cease, Cytherea, from thy lamentations, to-day refrain from thy dirges. Thou must again bewail him, again must weep for him another year. CHAPTER V MYTHS OF THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS We come now to myths in which the Sun and the Moon, and other objects of nature, play the most important part. We find myths of this sort all over the globe, some of them crude and simple, and some of them in the form of very beautiful stories.