The poem also includes many other embedded tales or detailed descriptions of mythological figures. Yet for all its undeniable wealth of mythical material, the poem strives to be more than a mythological poem, and it reflects Marino’s encyclopedic interest in the natural world, seen alternatively through theological, scientific, and historical lenses. Cantos VI–VIII, for instance, celebrate the five senses, weaving together the tradition of creation stories with rich religious symbolism and technical, scientific language.

The Adone is a work whose development reflects Marino’s entire poetic life. It began as a short poem of about 100 octaves. First mentioned explicitly by Marino in letter on 1605, it grew to one of the longest poems in Italian literature by the time it was published in 1623. By 1615, the Adone had become the main focus of the poet, who during that year moved from the Savoy court in Turin to the royal French court in Paris in the hope of publishing it (Russo, Adone, 12). Indeed, Emilio Russo cites Marino’s letter to the Venetian printer Giovan Battista Ciotti, in which the poet clearly expresses his desire to publish the Adone in Paris, “perché forse in Italia non vi si passerebbono alcune lasciviette amorose” (“because perhaps in Italy some of the lascivious little love scenes would not pass [the censorship]”; Russo, Marino, 254). Yet the tumultuous events at the French court in 1616–1617, which included the assassination in 1617 of his planned patron of the poem, Concino Concini, forced Marino to revise the poem in order to focus on his new patron, King Louis XIII. In the dedication of the first edition of the work (Paris, 1623), Marino praises the virtue of the young king but he likewise honors the king’s mother, Maria de Medici, whom he also celebrates as the paragon of women in his catalogue of illustrious women (Canto XI). Indeed, this praise of Maria’s virtue, which includes her justice and clemency as a ruler, is arguably the centerpiece of the poem.

The 1623 Paris edition is prefaced by a Discours by M. Chapelain, a counselor at the court of Louis XIII. Written in the form of a letter to a fellow counselor at the Parisian court, the piece serves as a defense of the poem against potential critics in lieu of a planned defense in Marino’s own hand that never appears. Chapelain analyzes the poem according to the Aristotelian precepts of verisimilitude; unity of action, character, and time; and the emotional coloring and wonder arising from the construction of the plot and the ingeniousness of the poet’s language. His favorable judgment of the poem hinges on three main points: that Marino had discovered a neglected form of the epic poem that has as its subject illustrious action outside the realm of war; that the tale of Adonis and the style with which Marino treats it can be accommodated within the conventions of epic; and that Marino’s poem has the verisimilitude necessary to draw readers in and make a strong impact on their emotions. Regarding specifically the first point, Chapelain maintains that Marino discovered, or rediscovered, a new kind of poem within the genre of epic ‒ always implicit within the genre but either never before explored or explored by some ancient writers and then neglected ‒ in which illustrious action (“l’action illustre”) could take place outside the context of the military action and momentous affairs of state typical of the “heroic epic.” Hence, Chapelain’s discourse famously identifies the Adone as “un poëme de paix” (“a poem of peace”) (par. 26), one in which extended descriptions and a focus on love become central to the work of the poet.

The lyric descriptiveness and sensuality of Marino’s poetry are evident throughout the Adone. With only a few exceptions, the cantos end with a description of dusk or nightfall, and there are nearly as many accounts of the beauty of dawn. These passages demonstrate Marino’s lyrical bent, his appreciation of natural beauty, and his ability to produce ingenious variations on a theme. The sensual quality of Marino’s verse is felt throughout the poem, particularly in his descriptions of nature, of the cool, fragrant refuge of the solitary spring or pool within the green woods (V, 71–72, 85–86), and of Zephyrus and the blossoming of springtime (VI, 101–10; XV, 10–14). There are erotic scenes, like that of the love-making of the nymph and satyr (VIII, 58–63), Venus’ flirtatious bathing (VIII, 43–48 and 76–81), Hylas’ entrapment by the loving nymphs in an isolated spring (V, 73–75), and Atys’ amorous encounter with the nymph, Sangarida, after he spies her gazing at her reflection in an isolated pool (V, 87–93). In addition to these sensual passages, Marino’s skill in description is evident in the pageantry of the competition of the princes for the crown of Cyprus (XVI, 78f) and the processions of mourners at Adonis’ funeral (XIX, 359–97); in his various catalogues of natural phenomena and illustrious men and women; and in his accounts of the architecture of Amor’s palace (II, 23–35; VI, 7–21), Amor’s temple in Cyprus (XVI, 27–34), and Adonis’ tomb (XIX, 335–46).

Despite all its critical acclaim and popularity, the Adone was nonetheless placed on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1624, only a year after its publication in Paris. Several other of Marino’s minor works were put on the Index in the 1620s, and in 1678 the Lira, Marino’s collection of lyric poetry, also succumbed to the Church’s censure. Yet at least as difficult for Marino’s reputation as the Church’s condemnation of his major works was the critical atmosphere in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Italy, and in Europe generally, which showed signs of rejecting the ornamentation and excess that were held to epitomize Marino’s poetry.

[Adapted from the introduction to my translation of the Adone (Adonis. Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies: Tempe, 2019, revised and republished as an e-book in 2022), with the permission of the editors of ACMRS.]