Pair of Altars with Relief Decoration

Unknown

first quarter of 4th century B.C.

Terracotta

J. Paul Getty Museum

Two terracotta altars feature relief carvings of figures. The left altar depicts three women, one playing a lyre. The right altar shows a group of figures, some reclining and others seated. This pair of terracotta altars depicts the death of Adonis, a god of vegetation, and the rituals that were celebrated in his honor. On the altar on the right, Adonis, looking weak, sits supported in the arms of his lover Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Adonis was born of an incestuous love between the Assyrian king Theias and his daughter Myrrha; Aphrodite was smitten by the infant Adonis's great beauty and hid him in a box (cista), which she entrusted to Persephone. When Persephone opened the box, she too fell in love with the beautiful infant and decided not to give him back to Aphrodite. Zeus interceded in the quarrel between the