ABSTRACT
Mythological appropriation is but one of the strategies through which the erotic theme unfolds in the epyllion. Rhetorical, allegorical, alchemical, pictural and philosophical traditions of Eros are also drawn into the erotic landscape of Venus and Adonis. Although few of these contexts explicit the central link between Eros and the cognitive substructure which underlies the interpretations of the myth of Echo and Narcissus. The relationship between Echo/echo and Eros is inscribed within this interpretive nexus, in which the acoustic Echo and the Ovidian figure constantly overlap. The polarization of Echo and Eros informs the rhetorical and symbolic strategies of Venus and Adonis. The echo, whose voice resonates throughout nearly four stanzas, prolongs the interminable and useless plea of the goddess. The acoustic and rhetorical interpretations of the echo are also merged with the Ovidian reference to reverberate the goddess' grief through the woods, as shown by the recurrence of epanalepsis.
