Consent and Power

This poem features many non-consensual sexual activities. Venus touches Adonis without his consent, even after he objects. She physically restrains him so that he cannot get away, even when he wants to. She talks in explicit terms about his body and her own, all which is met with rejection from the uninterested Adonis. However, the poem also gives voice to the distress that Adonis feels as his consent is violated. He refers to his feelings as “shame” in eight different places in the poem. He blushes, struggles, and tries to get away from Venus throughout their interaction.

There is also emphasis placed on Venus’s greater physical strength. She “governed him in strength” (42). As a goddess confronting a mortal, she is able to physically force Adonis into submitting to her desires. This narrative mirrors that of other instances in Greek and Roman mythology when...