Study on the goddess Venus
The Venus de Milo, sculpted by Alexandros de Antioch C. 130 a. C. Generally considered as a masterpiece of the classic era, Venus de Milo represents the goddess in a natural and relaxed pose while she still shows her seductive charm. Lost for centuries, the statue was discovered in the middle of the ruins of the ancient thousands by a Greek farmer. While this statue actually represents the Roman goddess, the term ‘Venus’ is used to describe any naked female figure of the time. Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
The Venus de Milo, sculpted by Alexandros de Antioch C. 130 a. C. Generally considered as a masterpiece of the classic era, Venus de Milo represents the goddess in a natural and relaxed pose while she still shows her seductive charm. Lost for centuries, the statue was discovered in the middle of the ruins of the ancient thousands by a Greek farmer. While this statue actually represents the Roman goddess, the term ‘Venus’ is used to describe any naked female figure of the time.
Venus was the Roman goddess of love, maternal care, sexual reproduction and erotic desire. Venus, the most beautiful of all deities, wanted – and was desired by – both mortals and gods. As the Greek Apollo, Venus had a fluid sexuality and hugged male and female lovers equally. It was also the guardian of lovers and prostitutes, and an important figure in the Roman religion. Venus was an adaptation of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, with whom he shared a mythological tradition.
Venus was formally incorporated and adopted in the Roman pantheon in the third century to. C. During the Punic wars of the second and III centuries. C., Venus was thought to help the Romans and ensure their victories about the Carthaginians. Its importance as a worship figure reached its maximum point shortly after, although it continued to be venerated until the emergence of Christianity in the fourth century D.C. Venerated for bringing victory to the Romans, Venus was also celebrated as the mother of Aeneas, Romulo’s ancestor, the founder of Rome. In later years, Julio César publicly linked his family’s inheritance to the goddess’s maternal line, turning Venus into the parent of the First Imperial Dynasty.
Etymology
The name ‘Venus’ comes directly from the classic Latin venus noun, which means ‘love’. This noun was often used to indicate love or particularly sexual desire. It was also directly related to the vebal form venerari, which means ‘love or reverence’, also the root of the word in English ‘venerate’.
Some have speculated that "Venus" was related to the Latin word venenum, a noun that means "poison", "potion", "charm" or perhaps even "aphrodisiac", a reference to its supposed control over love poisoning.
Venus was identified by a series of epithets, each of which indicates a different personality of the goddess. She was known as Venus Caelastis, or ‘Venus of the Skies’, and Venus Erycina, or ‘Venus de Eryx’, his Carthaginian incarnation. She called her Venus Felix, the ‘Venus of Luck’, for her role in changing the course of the battle, as she did during the Second Punic War. It was also Venus genetix, or ‘Venus la Creator’, a promoted title nothing less than by Julio César, based on the role of the goddess in the creation of the Roman State. In a more cheerful vein, she was Venus Murcia, ‘Venus de los Arrayanes’, and for being a loving protector of Rome, both were Venus obsequens, ‘Venus who loves’ and Venus Victrix, or ‘Venus that brings the victory’.
Attributes
As the goddess of love and sex, Venus possessed the ability to madly fall in love to mortals and gods. Venus’s main weapons were their charm and erotic attraction, and in their mythological tradition, many were victims of them.
Venus representations were often found in domestic environments. In many of his appearances, he was accompanied by symbols such as the rose, female fertility symbol and female genitals. In addition, it was often presented with a myrto crown (a perennial leaf brush with white flowers). This crown quickly became one of its main symbols. The sea shells were another common reason;These shells served as a reference to the birth of Venus in the sea and as another of the many erotic symbols of Venus.
Family
Due to the unusual circumstances of his birth, Venus did not have parents in the traditional sense. Technically, Venus’s father was Uranus, Saturn’s father and grandfather of Jupiter . His mother was the sea, which embodied the passive female principle in Roman thought.
In his maturity, Venus married Vulcano, the god of the oven and master of metallurgy. His marriage, loaded with distrust and infidelity, did not produce children. Venus’s frequent lover was Mars, the burning and furious God of war, passion and anger. The children of Venus with Mars included Timor, the divine incarnation of fear, and the twins Concordia and Metus, goddess of harmony and god of terror, respectively. Venus and Mars also had a group of children known as coupids, winged creatures that symbolized love in all their forms.
With Mercury, Venus had hermaphroditos, an androgynous child with male and female sexual organs. With Anquises, Venus had a child of great importance to Rome: the hero Guerrero Aeneas. According to Virgil, Aeneas established a real lineage that included the Gens (clan) of the Julii, the ancestors of Julio César (it should be noted that César’s adopted son, Augusto, was Virgil’s main pattern).
Birth
Venus was created in quite unusual circumstances. His father, Uranus, was the original ruler of the cosmos and created the world with Terra, the ‘land’. When Saturn, Uranus’ son overthre. There, the penis and the cut testicles were mixed with the foam of the sea and produced Venus. In art, this scene often took the form of Venus emerging from an clam or other mollusk.
The birth of Venus (1485) by Sandro Botticelli. This picture can be the best known representation of Venus emerging from the sea, a scene frequently represented in ancient and neoclassical art.
The birth of Venus (1485) by Sandro Botticelli. This picture can be the best known representation of Venus emerging from the sea, a scene frequently represented in ancient and neoclassical art.
Husbands and lovers
Although she was married to the god Herrero Vulcano, Venus had a voracious sexual appetite that could not be satisfied by a single man. A famous story showed the infidelity of Venus and his unhappy marriage. Venus and Mars slept together regularly. During one of his many appointments, the messenger god Mercury discovered his adventure. Always anxious for causing harm, Mercury informed Vulcan of the matter. Upon receiving this news, Vulcan immediately went to work in his workshop. Soon, he had prepared a network of material so fine that it was almost undetectable;He placed this network on his bridal bed and waited. When Venus and Mars sought to use the bed, they were trapped by the network. Vulcano then brought together the gods to make fun of the naked lovers who had fallen into their trap.
In the metamorphosis of Ovid, Venus maintained an adventure with Adonis, a mortal known for its incomparable beauty. As explained by the poet, Venus was cut with Cupid’s arrow, one of her children, while she was inclined to kiss the child. The wound penetrated his heart and made her fall in love with the mortal Adonis. The two were quite happy together:
She holds it and is her partner, and although she is accustomed to always being laughed in the shade and, growing it, enhancing her beauty, vague on the ridges of the mountains, forests and thorny cliffs, with clothes at height. The knee, like Diana.
Venus and Adonis of the Italian painter Tiziano. In a scene that is inspired by the metamorphosis of Ovid, Venus tries to prevent Adonis from undertaking an unfortunate hunt.
Venus and Adonis of the Italian painter Tiziano. In a scene that is inspired by the metamorphosis of Ovid, Venus tries to prevent Adonis from undertaking an unfortunate hunt.
With Adonis, Venus adopted a more rustic lifestyle, although he remained cautious. Adonis warned Adonis to avoid the dangerous wild animals, stating that ‘neither youth nor beauty, nor the charms that affect Venus, affect the lions or enthusiast jales or the eyes and minds of other wild creatures’. But Adonis ignored these wise words. He was hunting wild boars when one of the beasts with fangs suddenly cornered him in the groin and killed him. When Venus saw what happened, he felt overwhelmed by pain:
When, from the heights, he saw the lifeless body, lying in his own blood, jumped, tearing his clothes and throwing his hair too, and hitting his breasts with fierce hands, complaining to the fairies.
Collecting Adonis’s blood and mixing it with nectar, Venus made a red flower in the memory of his lover. Like Adonis, the flower was beautiful but short -lived, since it lost its beautiful petals a few days after sprouting. The flower was known as the wind of the wind or anemone .
Venus, Aeneas and the Aeneid
In the mythical tradition of Virgil’s Aeneid, Venus was chosen as the lover of Anchises, a member of the Royal Trojan. According to this tradition, Venus disguised himself as a beautiful Virgin and seduced Anquises, and only revealed his true identity after becoming pregnant. Soon he gave birth to Aeneas, who became a powerful Trojan hero. After the fall of Troy, Aeneas ventured into the Mediterranean to fulfill a prophecy that one day it would found a great Italian empire.
In the Aeneid, Venus served as the main engine of the events, as well as as an incessant defender of his son in battle. Venus came to the aid of Aeneas after discovering that Juno had sent a massive storm to prevent his fleet from reaching Italy. Venus appealed to Jupiter, who interceded to quell the storm, before guiding his son safe to Carthage. Disguised as old woman, he guided Aeneas and his followers to the lovely queen Dido. While they headed towards the queen, Venus protected his son from hostile looks:
But Venus wrapped them, as they advanced, with dark air, and wrapped them, goddess as she was, in a thick mantle of clouds, so that no one could see or touch them, nobody delay or look for the cause of their arrival.
Venus in the forge of Vulcano (1704) by the Italian artist Francesco Solimena. In a sequence of the Aeneid of Virgil, Venus requests a shield and armor for his son Aeneas.
Venus in the forge of Vulcano (1704) by the Italian artist Francesco Solimena. In a sequence of the Aeneid of Virgil, Venus requests a shield and armor for his son Aeneas.
Later, when Aeneas sailed from Carthage to Italy, Venus begged Neptune to cross the Mediterranean without danger. Neptune agreed with the argument that the unfortunate captain, Palinurus, would be sacrificed. Upon the arrival of Aeneas to Rome, Venus provided weapons and armor that had been created by Vulcano. These weapons were used in the next war against Latinos. In the Aeneas shield, Vulcan. C. (As contemporary and survivor of the bloody civil war that ended in Actium, Virgil had all the reasons to appease Augusto and present his triumph as a fundamental moment in Roman history). Finally, in the penultimate moments of the Aevanvenus intervened and cured Aeneas after having been reached by an arrow.
Venus and the Roman state religion
Venus formally joined the Roman state religion at the beginning of the third century to. C., When the consul quintus Fabius Gurgus dedicated a temple to Venus obsequens, or ‘Venus el Doter’. During the Second Punic War at the end of the third century to. C., The Romans asked Venus for help, who, at that time, was recognized as Patroness of Carthage. They asked him to change the side and even looted Eryx, a Carthaginian fortress that housed one of his temples, in an effort to win the favor. The Romans seized a sacred relic of the temple and took it to Rome, where it was carried out in the Temple of Venus Obsequens . It was thought that Venus’s intercession would change the course of war in favor of the Romans.
In the 1st century. C., Julio César claimed to be a real descendant of Venus through the clan that he established through Aeneas;This statement was later confirmed by the poet Virgilio, who presented Venus as the founder of the Julius family. César had political reasons, like his rival Pompeyo, who also claimed to be favored by Venus. Later, César established a temple in honor of Venus genetix, or ‘Venus the Creator’.
The ruins of the Venus generix temple were completed in 46 to. C. Julio César, who claims to descend from Venus and his son Aeneas, commissioned the construction of the temple to commemorate his victories about Pompey. César Forum, Rome, Italy.
The ruins of the Venus generix temple were completed in 46 to. C. Julio César, who claims to descend from Venus and his son Aeneas, commissioned the construction of the temple to commemorate his victories about Pompey.
The Romans celebrated three festivals in honor of Venus every year. Held on April 1, Veneralia dedicated himself to Venus Verticordia, or ‘Venus that changes hearts’. Urban Vinalia, held on April 23, was a wine party shared with Jupiter in which prostitutes gathered before the Temple of Venus, offering myrto and mint and receiving blessings in return. Held on August 19, the Rustic Vinalia was another wine party and a celebration of fertility in which the devotees of Venus offered a lake for sacrifice.
Pop culture
Venus has remained relevant in modern pop culture and is culture as a symbol of love and eroticism. Thanks to their associations with beauty and sexuality, several brands of notable cosmetics have appropriated Venus. One of those companies, Gillette, created a line of shaving products for women with the name of the goddess. Another company, Venus Skin Care, also used the name of the goddess as marketing tactics.
The name of Venus has also been used in several films titles. A French film, Venus, focused on the adventures of two American businessmen while traveling in search of a model for their cosmetics line (called, of course, "Venus"). Three other films have used the Venus title . One of these most recent films focused on the life of a transgender woman who sincere her sexual identity.
Venus has also appeared in songs, including the launch of Miles Davis of 1957, ‘Venus de Milo’, and the success of 1969 of Shocking Blue ‘Venus’. The last song included the famous lyrics: ‘Well, I am your venus / I’m your fire / to your desire’. The 2013 song by Lady Gaga, ‘Venus’, invoked the goddess directly and her ability to inspire an unstoppable sexuality: ‘I can’t help how I feel / goddess of love, take me with your leader / I can’t help it. Keep dancing / goddess of love! Goddess of love.’
Finally, Venus also lent his name to the second planet of the Sun. As corresponds to his homonym, Venus is the brightest planet in the solar system.
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