[aras-image:5Hv.041,,13,,,Figure 17 Myrrha metamorphosing into tree.]

The recurrent image of the birth from the earth emphasizes, perhaps, the chthonic element in the divine incarnation so that the child image is not wholly spirit, a counter to the radical separation of good and evil exemplified by much Western thinking.
 
Other stories tell of miraculous births in the natural world. A 10th century illustration for Ovid's Metamorphoses, shows Myrra changing into a tree and Lucina, after splitting open the trunk of the tree, delivering the child Adonis with assistance from six nymphs (Figure 17).