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All Site ContentTaming of the ShrewAct IntroductionScene 2
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Adonis, Cytherea
Mythological Allusion
Act Introduction,
Scene 2
Lines 47-51

An explanation of the allusion to Adonis and Cytherea in Introduction 2 of myShakespeares The Taming of the Shrew. 

Second Servant

Dost thou love pictures? We will fetch thee straight
Adonis painted by a running brook,
And Cytherea all in sedges hid,    
Which seem to move and wanton with her breath,    
Even as the waving sedges play with wind.    

This is the first of three paintings described by the lord and his servants depicting erotic scenes from Greek mythology. The goddess Cytherea (Venus) became infatuated with the Greek mortal Adonis after she hid herself among the reeds (sedges) of a riverbank to watch him bathing.

Venus and Adonis, Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1635