This 1808 bronze sculpture by Bertel Thorvaldsen depicts Greek god of beauty, Adonis, standing naked and casually leaning against a column. He holds a spear which has a dead rabbit tied to it.
Wikipedia (
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"Adonis ... in Greek mythology, is the god of beauty and desire, and is a central figure in various mystery religions. His religion belonged to women: the dying of Adonis was fully developed in the circle of young girls around the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos, about 600 BC, as revealed in a fragment of Sappho's surviving poetry.
Adonis has had multiple roles, and there has been much scholarship over the centuries concerning his meaning and purpose in Greek religious beliefs. He is an annually-renewed, ever-youthful vegetation god, a life-death-rebirth deity whose nature is tied to the calendar. His name is often applied in modern times to handsome youths, of whom he is the archetype."
As for the asteroid, Wikipedia (
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2101 Adonis was one of the first near-Earth asteroids to be discovered. It was discovered by Eugene Delporte in 1936 and named after Adonis, the beautiful youth with whom the goddess Venus fell in love. 2101 Adonis is believed to measure approximately 1 km in diameter.
In the close approach of February 1936 that led to its initial discovery, the asteroid was observed for two months, but not enough observations could be made to calculate an orbit, and Adonis was a lost asteroid until 1977 when it was rediscovered by Charles T. Kowal.
Adonis was the second Apollo asteroid to be discovered (after 1862 Apollo itself). It may be an extinct comet, and may be the source of some meteor showers.
Adonis makes close approaches to Venus, Earth, and Mars.[3] It comes within 30 Gm of the Earth six times in the 21st century, the nearest being 0.03569 AU (5,339,000 km; 3,318,000 mi) on 7 February 2036."