Venus: The Goddess of Sex & Love
SYMBOLS: A sea shell. A scepter
USUAL IMAGE: A beautiful woman.
HOLY DAYS: February 14.
PLACE OF WORSHIP: Temples
MAJOR TABOOS: Celibacy. While in one of her forms she protected women who wished to remain chase. She also often dealt harshly with those who rejected sex or love in their life.
RELATIVES: (Father & Mother) Homer claimed that Zeus was her father and Dione (a female manifestation of Zeus) was her mother. However she is older then Zeus and the other Olympians. Another account says that she was born when Cronus (Kronos) cut off the genitals of the Titan Uranus (Ouronos) and tossed them into the sea. There she was born from sea foam. (Husband) Vulcan. (Children) by Mars: Phobus, Deimus, Harmonia. by Adonis: Beroe. by Anchises: Aeneas & Lyrus. by Butes: Eryx. by Phaethon: Astynois by Hermes: Hermaphroditus. by Dionysus: Priapus. by fathers unknown: Eros (Cupid) & Anteros.
SYNODEITIES: Inanna (Sumerian), Astarte, Istar (Babylonian), Chalchiuhtlicue (Aztec).
DETAILS: As with most Roman deities Venus was much less complex early in her worship. At first a goddess of vegetation her worship and myths became blended with the Greek Aphrodite in the 3rd century B.C.E.
While today she is thought of as a "mere" goddess of love, this is a mistake as she was for many hundreds of years one of the most powerful deities of the Greek/Roman pantheon.
Like Hera / Juno there is evidence that she was worshipped long before Zeus/Jupiter. It was only later after the marriage of Jupiter and Juno that some would change her birth, claiming her to be the daughter of Jupiter and a female version of himself.
The earlier myth had her being born of the sky and the sea when the severed genitals of the Titan Uranus are tossed into the sea by Cronus. There she is born from the sea-foam that formed around the divine naughty bits.
Venus was widely worshipped in the ancient world. It is said that Julius Caesar even claimed her as an ancestor and that his battle cry was "Venus among us."
As the Goddess of sexual passion & love the immaterial girl was naturally noted for her many lovers both among the gods and with mortals. Her power was so great that one form was not enough to carry out all her duties.
There are a number of manifestations of Venus. Many of which were widely worshipped in their own right by large numbers of people. (See List Below)
While having many lovers and a number of children (See Relatives) she was only married to one deity. The lame god of the forge Vulcan. While she was never said to have had children with him there is the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps one of her two children by unknown fathers might have been his. Though the thought of Vulcan being Cupid's dad not widely entertained.
Today Venus is not given the respect she once was. With such depictions today consisting of such things as a Valley Girl speaking bimbo, an air-headed anime superheroine, a forgotten Marvel comic book and a bad Vanna White made for TV movie.
This does not hold with the view held of her in the past where she was one of the most depicted and revered of the Olympian Gods.
I blame the Puritans and / or Victorians.
