She is already wife, mother, adulteress, _femme entretenue_, before she meets the lad.

Her method of treating him is that of a licentious queen, who, after seducing page or groom, keeps the instrument of her pleasures in seclusion for occasional indulgence during intervals of public business.

Vulcan and Mars, her husband and her _cicisbeo_, contest the woman's right to this caprice; and when the god of war compels, she yields him the crapulous fruition of her charms before the eye of her disconsolate boy-paramour.

Her pre-occupation with Court affairs in Cythera--balls, pageants, sacrifices, and a people's homage--brings about the catastrophe.

Through her temporary neglect, Adonis falls victim to a conspiracy of the gods.
Thus the part which the female plays in this amorous epic is that of an accomplished courtesan, highly placed in society.