Venus - The Roman Aphrodite
THE GODDESS OF LOVE has an ancient history.Ishtar/Astarte was the Semitic goddess of love.In Greece she was called Aphrodite,worshipped especially on the islands of Cyprus and Kythera.As goddess of love she was instrumental in the myths about Atalanta,Hippolytus,Myrrha,and Pygmalion.Adonis and Anchises were her human lovers.Venus,the Roman goddess,was worshiped originally as a goddess of fertility,both human,and of the garden.The Greek aspects were added on and for most practical purposes,Venus is synonymous with Aphrodite.The Romans had a special respect for Venus as the ancestor of the Roman people through her liaison with Anchises.
"She was the goddess of chastity in women,despite the fact that she had many affairs with both gods and mortals.As Venus Genetrix,she was worshiped as the mother (by Anchises) of the hero Aeneas,the founder of the Roman people; as Venus Felix,the bringer of good fortune; as Venus Victrix,the bringer of victory; and as Venus Verticordia,the protector of feminine chastity.
Venus is also a nature goddess,associated with the arrival of spring.She is the bringer of joy to gods and humans.Venus really had no myths of her own but was so closely identified with the Greek Aphrodite that she "took over" Aphrodite's myths."
There were two major aspects of Aphrodite or Venus:
"There were actually two different Aphrodites,one was the daughter of Uranus,the other the daughter of Zeus and Dione.The first,called Aphrodite Urania,was the goddess of spiritual love.The second,Aphrodite Pandemos,was the goddess of physical attraction."
Although we are most familiar with the nude Venus artistic representations,this wasn't always the way she was portrayed:
"The patron deity of Pompeii was Venus Pompeiana; she was always shown as being fully clothed and wearing a crown.The statues and frescos which have been found in Pompeian gardens always show Venus either scantily clothed or totally nude.Pompeians seem to have referred to these nude images of Venus as Venus fisica?; this may be from the Greek word physike,which meant related to nature?."
"Her cult originated from Ardea and Lavinium in Latium.The oldest temple known of Venus dates back to 293 B.C.,and was inaugurated on August 18.Later,on this date the Vinalia Rustica was observed.A second festival,that of the Veneralia,was celebrated on April 1 in honor of Venus Verticordia,who later became the protector against vice.Her temple was built in 114 B.C.After the Roman defeat near Lake Trasum in 215 B.C.,a temple was built on the Capitol for Venus Erycina.This temple was officially opened on April 23,and a festival,the Vinalia Priora,was instituted to celebrate the occasion."