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ADOON, ADOUN. Adonis was the son of Cinyras, king of Cyprus, by an incestuous union with his daughter Myrrha. The young man was so beautiful that Venus fell in love with him, preferring his company to the gods'. He ignored her advice not to hunt the boar and met his death when he attacked a particularly ferocious boar, which gored him to death. Venus, in love and grief, caused anemones to spring from his blood (Met X.298-518; OM X.1960-2493; RR 15668-15750).

Palamon invokes Venus by her love for Adoon, KnT 2224, and Troilus asks Venus to pray her father to turn all bad aspects of Mars or Saturne to grace for love of Adoun, Tr III.720-721. [Mirra: Venus]

The form seems to be Chaucer's own. Adone appears in Tes VI.42.1 and VII.43.5. Adoon occurs in final rhyming position, KnT 2224, and Adoun medially, Tr III.721.


Boccaccio, Tutte le Opere, ed. V. Branca, II: 432, 460; Ovid, Met, ed. and trans. F.J. Miller, II: 84-100; OM, ed. C. de Boer, II, deel 37, 58-70; RR, ed. E. Langlois, IV: 114-117; RR, trans. C. Dahlberg, 265-266.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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