Venus- Roman GodDeity"Goddess of Love"

Venus and Mars

Vulcan, Venus's husband, discovered her affair with Mars through Sol, who saw them together. Vulcan forged a net of bronze links so fine they were invisible, draped it over the bed, and waited. When Venus and Mars lay down, the net sprang shut and held them fast. Vulcan called the other gods to witness. They came, and they laughed. Neptune negotiated Mars's release. Venus withdrew to Paphos, Mars to Thrace.

Lucretius opens De Rerum Natura with this pair in a different posture. Mars reclines in Venus's lap, head tilted back, unable to look away. He is disarmed. Lucretius calls her alma Venus, nourishing Venus, the force that drives every creature to breed and every seed to grow. Without her, he writes, nothing rises into the shores of light.

Mother of Aeneas

In the Aeneid, Venus appears to her son Aeneas disguised as a Spartan huntress, her hair loose and her tunic hitched above the knee. She gives him directions and turns to leave. Only then does he recognize her: a flush of rosy light runs through her neck, and the scent of ambrosia lingers in her wake. He calls after her. She is already gone.

When Aeneas arrives at Carthage, Venus sends Cupid disguised as his young son Ascanius to kindle love in Queen Dido's heart. The stratagem protects the Trojan refugees. It destroys the queen.

In the burning ruins of Troy retold in Book 2, Venus lifts the mortal veil from Aeneas's eyes and shows him what human sight cannot see: Neptune tearing at Troy's foundations with his trident and Juno storming through the gates to let the Greeks pour in. She tells her son to stop fighting and flee. The city is already dead.

In Book 8, Venus delivers armor forged by Vulcan. The shield bears the future history of Rome in scenes Aeneas cannot read. He lifts the weight of his descendants' fate onto his shoulder.

The Veneralia

On April 1, women of all ranks gathered for the Veneralia. They bathed the statue of Venus Verticordia, the Changer of Hearts, and dressed her in fresh clothes and myrtle. Matrons and prostitutes honored the goddess side by side.

An archaic shrine to Venus Cloacina stood in the Forum near the great sewer. Cloacina meant "the Purifier."

The Goddess of Eryx

On Mount Eryx in Sicily, an ancient sanctuary honored Venus Erycina. Diodorus Siculus traced the cult to Phoenician settlers. During the Second Punic War, after the catastrophe at Cannae, the Senate consulted the Sibylline Books and vowed a temple to Venus Erycina in Rome. Two temples were built: one on the Capitoline for the respectable face of the goddess, another outside the Colline Gate for her association with prostitutes. The women who worked the Colline Gate district worshipped Venus as their patron.

Caesar's Goddess

On the morning of Pharsalus in 48 BCE, Caesar vowed a temple to Venus Genetrix, Venus the Mother, if she granted him victory over Pompey. She did. The temple rose in the new Forum Iulium, its centerpiece a statue of the goddess by the Greek sculptor Arcesilaus. Beside it Caesar placed a gilded statue of Cleopatra.

Pompey had claimed Venus before him. In 55 BCE, he built Rome's first permanent stone theater with a temple to Venus Victrix at its summit. The theater's tiers of seats doubled as stairs leading up to the goddess's shrine, letting Pompey build what the Senate had forbidden.

Hadrian built the Temple of Venus and Roma on the Velian Hill. It was the largest temple in Rome. The two goddesses sat back to back in matching chambers, one facing the Forum, one facing the Colosseum.