Venus

Venus is a Roman Goddess known for her roles in Love, Beauty, Desire, Reproduction (based on the word Sx), Fertility, Prosperity, and Victory. She was the ancestor of the Roman People through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Venus was central to many religious festivals and was revered under numerous cult titles. She was also a member of Dii Consentes and was associated with the birth-myth of Greek Goddess Aphrodite. The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art and Latin literature. In the later classical tradition of the West, Venus became one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sxuality.
The Latin term Venus and the noun venus, meaning 'love, charm', originate from Proto-Italic *wenos-, which is derived from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁-os. Derivatives include venustus, venustās, venerius, venerāre, and venerātiō. Venus is also cognate with Latin venia, 'favour, permission', and vēnor, through the common PIE root *wenh₁-.
== Origins ==
Venus, a native goddess, is considered the most original creation of the Roman pantheon and is often associated with Greek Aphrodite. Her cults may represent the religiously legitimate charm and seduction of the divine by mortals, in contrast to the formal, contractual relations between Rome's official pantheon and the state and the unofficial, illicit manipulation of divine forces through magic. Venus-Aphrodite emerged from the sea foam produced by the severed genitals of Caelus-Uranus.
Roman theology presents Venus as the yielding, watery female principle, essential to the generation and balance of life. Her male counterparts, Vulcan and Mars, are active and fiery. Venus absorbs and tempers the male essence, uniting the opposites of male and female in mutual affection. She is essentially assimilative and benign, and embraces several functions, such as giving military victory, sexual success, good fortune, and prosperity.
Varro's theology identifies Venus with water as an aspect of the female principle, as to generate life, the watery matrix of the womb requires the virile warmth of fire. To sustain life, water and fire must be balanced, and excess of either is unproductive or destructive.
Prospective brides offered Venus a gift before the wedding, with the wedding ceremony and state of lawful marriage likely belonging to Juno. Venus and Juno are also likely "bookends" for the ceremony, preparing the bride for conubial bliss and expectations of fertility within lawful marriage.
== Background ==
Venus, a major god in Roman Mythos, is influenced by Greek Mythos, with some exceptions. In some Latin myths, Cupid is the son of Venus born from the ashes of where the Tree of Knowledge once was, since in this alternate universe Garten of Eden was destroyed some years later as requested by God. In parallel myths, Venus was believed to be the consort of Vulcan or the mother of the "second cupid" wich origins were unknown. Virgil, along with Augustus and the gens Julia, connected Venus to Julius Caesar and the Trojan Prince Aeneas, the eventual ancestor of the Roman people. Venus came to Rome to be worshipped in the city of her offspring. In Virgil's poetic account of Octavian's victory at the sea-battle of Actium, Venus, Neptune, and Minerva are allied with Octavian, leading to his defeat against Antony, Cleopatra, and the Egyptians, assisted by bizarre Egyptian deities.
Cupid and Amor are different names for the Roman love-god, the son of Venus. Child-like winged figures accompany Venus, either singly or in pairs. Eros, the most ancient of these, is considered a primordial deity and was the patron deity of Thespiae. He shared cult with a twin named Anteros, and in some sources, Cupid is a deceptive agent of Venus, impersonating Aeneas' son and making Dido forget her husband. Cupid is often seen as a deity of greed and blind passion, morally inferior to Amor. In Roman cult inscriptions and theology, "Amor" is rare, and "Cupido" is relatively common. Cupid's roles in literary myth are usually limited to actions on behalf of Venus, with his love for Psyche, filial disobedience, and mother's envy being the driving forces.
Venus is oftenly represented as a nosensical goddess with no actual purpose, since "she is full of Lust" and can't think straight as she is always thinking on a relationship to always be pleased with, wich has a slight difference of Lust as she doesn't want to have many lovers, but just one to share her future ideas.
=== Cult and Temples ===
The first known temple to Venus was dedicated to Venus Obsequens in 295 BC, funded by fines imposed on Roman women for sexual misdemeanours. Its rites and character were likely influenced by Greek Aphrodite's cults, which were already diffused in various forms throughout Italian Magna Graeca. In 217 BC, Rome suffered a disastrous defeat at the battle of Lake Trasimene, and the Sibylline oracle suggested that Carthage might be defeated if the Venus of Eryx (Venus Erycina), patron goddess of Carthage's Sicilian allies, could be persuaded to change her allegiance. Rome laid siege to Eryx and promised its goddess a magnificent temple as reward for her defection. They captured her image, brought it to Rome, and installed it in a temple on the Capitoline Hill, as one of Rome's twelve dii consentes.
In 217 BC, Rome suffered a disastrous defeat at the battle of Lake Trasimene. The Sibylline oracle suggested that Carthage might be defeated if the Venus of Eryx (Venus Erycina), patron goddess of Carthage's Sicilian allies, could be persuaded to change her allegiance. Rome laid siege to Eryx and promised its goddess a magnificent temple as reward for her defection. They captured her image, brought it to Rome, and installed it in a temple on the Capitoline Hill, as one of Rome's twelve dii consentes.
Towards the end of the Roman Republic, some leading Romans laid personal claims to Venus' favor. General Sulla adopted Felix ("Lucky") as a surname, acknowledging his debt to heaven-sent good fortune and his particular debt to Venus Felix for his extraordinarily fortunate political and military career. Pompey competed for Venus' support, dedicating a large temple to Venus Victrix as part of his lavishly appointed new theatre. Julius Caesar claimed the favors of Venus Victrix in his military success and Venus Genetrix as a personal, divine ancestress, possibly a long-standing family tradition among the Julii.
Vitruvius recommended that any new temple to Venus be sited according to rules laid down by the Etruscan haruspices, built "near to the gate" of the city, where it would be less likely to contaminate "the matrons and youth with the influence of lust." He also recommended widest possible spacing between temple columns, producing a light and airy space, and offering Venus's temple in Caesar's forum as an example of how not to do it.
Venus was an official cult in certain Roman festivals, with her sacred month being April. In the early centuries AD, Venus became associated with the Germanic goddess Frijjo, giving rise to the loan translation "Friday" for dies Veneris.
Veneralia (April 1) was held in honor of Venus Verticordia ("Venus the Changer of Hearts") and Fortuna Virilis (Virile or strong Good Fortune), whose cult was probably by far the older of the two. Venus Verticordia was invented in 220 BC, in response to advice from a Sibylline oracle during Rome's Punic Wars. Her statue was dedicated by a young woman chosen as the most pudica (sexually pure) in Rome by a committee of Roman matrons.
Vinalia urbana (April 23) was a wine festival shared by Venus and Jupiter, king of the gods. It offered opportunity to supplicants to ask Venus' intercession with Jupiter, who was thought to be susceptible to her charms and amenable to the effects of her wine. Venus was patron of "profane" wine, for everyday human use, while Jupiter was patron of the strongest, purest, sacrificial grade wine, which controlled the weather on which the autumn grape-harvest would depend.
Vinalia Rustica (August 19) was almost certainly Venus' oldest festival and was associated with her earliest known form, Venus Obsequens. Kitchen gardens, market-gardens, and vineyards were dedicated to her. Roman opinions differed on whose festival it was, with Varro insisting that the day was sacred to Jupiter, whose control of the weather governed the ripening of the grapes.
A festival of Venus Genetrix (September 26) was held under state auspices from 46 BC at her Temple in the Forum of Caesar, in fulfillment of a vow by Julius Caesar, who claimed her personal favor as his divine patron and ancestral goddess of the Julian clan. Caesar's heir, Augustus, made much of these personal and family associations with Venus as an Imperial deity.
=== Signs and Symbols ===
Venus' signs were similar to Aphrodite's, including roses and myrtle, which was cultivated for its white, sweetly scented flowers, aromatic, evergreen leaves, and medical-magical properties. Venus' statues and worshipers wore myrtle crowns at her festivals. Myrtle was also used in the purification rites of Cloacina, the Etruscan-Roman goddess of Rome's main sewer.
Venus was a patron of the ordinary, everyday wine drunk by most Roman men and women, with the seductive powers of wine well known. In the rites to Bona Dea, a goddess of female chastity, myrtle and anything male were excluded, and women could get virtuously, religiously drunk on strong wine, safe from male intrusion and Venus' temptations. Venus' long association with wine reflects the connections between wine, intoxication, and sex, expressed in the proverbial phrase sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus.
The Roman god of wine was Bacchus, identified with Greek Dionysus and the early Roman wine-god Liber Pater. Roman generals given an ovation wore a myrtle crown to purify themselves and their armies of blood-guilt.
Category:Goddess
Category:Roman Pantheon
Category:Religion