Voluptas- Roman GodDeity"Goddess of Pleasure"
Also known as: Volupia
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Description
Born at the wedding feast of Cupid and Psyche on Olympus, after Jupiter granted the mortal bride immortality. Voluptas was pleasure itself, the child of love and a soul that had walked through the underworld to earn its place among the gods.
Mythology & Lore
Born on Olympus
Apuleius tells the story in the Metamorphoses. After Psyche survived Venus's trials and Cupid rescued her from the sleep of death, Jupiter summoned the gods to a banquet. He gave Psyche a cup of ambrosia and made her immortal. Then he married her to Cupid before the whole assembly. Apollo sang. Venus danced. Every god on Olympus attended.
From that marriage Voluptas was born. Apuleius gives her name and nothing else: Pleasure, the daughter of Love and the Soul. She appears at the last line of the tale and the story ends.
The Shrine on the Via Nova
Macrobius records that a deity called Volupia had a small shrine, the Sacellum Volupiae, on the Via Nova near the Porta Romana. Sacrifices were made there alongside those to the Diva Angerona, a goddess who held a finger to her sealed lips. Pleasure and silence, worshipped side by side.
Relationships
- Equivalent to