 While Sappho does not describe the myth of Adonis, later sources flesh out the details.According to the retelling of the story found in the poem "Metamorphoses" by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17/18 AD), Adonis was the son of Myrrha, who was cursed by Aphrodite with insatiable lust for her own father, King Cinyras of Cyprus,

Aphrodite found the baby, and took him to the underworld to be fostered by Persephone.She returned for him once he was grown and discovered him to be strikingly handsome.