Smyrna(Myrrha), Aphrodite and Adonis-- Aphrodite is confused with great phoenician goddess Astrate. They were both in love with a handsome youth named by the greeks Adonis. The mother of Adonis was Smyrna who fell desperately in love with her father Theias (the king of Syria)who was driven by the intense anger of Aphrodite to commit incest. Smyrna spent 12 nights with her father but on the twelfth night Thias realized how his daughter deceived him. With his knife, he pursued with the goal of putting her to death. Smyrna put herself under the protection of the gods who changed her into a Myrrh tree. Ten months later the bark of the tree exploded to reveal the child Adonis. When Aphrodite saw the child she fell in love with him. When Adonis grew up there was a hunt upon which he went on. Aphrodite warned him of the wild beasts of which he might enconter on his journey. He yet proceeded.