In Legends of the Rose it says "The rose was created by Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, according to the ancient Greeks. White roses were said to have sprung from the sea foam which surrounded her as she rose up out of the sea. Another story tells of her lover Adonis, being wounded by a wild boar. From her tears mixed with his blood grew a superb fragrant, blood red rose."
I relate that to my naked thorn hill climb with my vision of a blue rose near the top, after I had shed some blood on the thorns (not a huge amount of blood since the thorns did not go very deep but the repeated piercing of hands and feet was extremely painful). Also note that while I relate the blue rose to Gaia (the blue planet Earth) I also somewhat relate it to Sarah Mclachlan, my main inspirer and the woman I have the strongest crush on. However she is far away and is not yet (if ever) involved with me and I am currently open to other women.
There are some other Greek and Roman rose legends recounted in Rose Trivia. Also in Symbolism and Colors of the Rose it says "The rose was sacred in ancient Greece and Rome as it represented Aphrodite (or Venus to the Romans) and represented beauty and love."
Also in Symbolism of the Rose in Alchemy Jon Marshall says that " in Apuleius novel the Golden Ass, the hero Lucius who has been transformed into an Ass, after experiencing a vision of the goddess Isis is turned back into a man when he eats some roses...". In the same page, drawing on Jung Alchemical Studies p294-5, Jon Marshall writes that "The rose is also an attribute of Dionysus.". And Everything is Coming up Roses says "A Greek Drachma coin made between 408 - 395 BC was found with the head of Apollo on one side and a rose bloom on the reverse."
In the tale of Heracles (or Hercules) and Omphale, Heracles is a slave to Omphale for three years (or one version says one year) and is forced to do women's work while she wears his lion's skin (a sign of a poet). Similarly for the last few years (as of July 2013) I have done some household chores and snow-shoveling for my poet sister Mary (but she has not stolen my lion's skin but has one of her own, but mine has been mostly missing the last 17 years). However of course my sister will not take me as a husband as Omphale did Heracles.
I will do more library and web research later and perhaps add to this file with more on Adonis and other Greek and Italian past pagan figures. I welcome contributions from you and if I include them would reference you and your sources.