![]() Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), Birth of Venus (1480), Uffizi Gallery
Birth of Venus
Edited by Peter Y. Chou, WisdomPortal.com
Of these, however, the Venus sprung from the froth of the sea, after the mutilated part
of the body of Uranus had been thrown there by
Saturn,
is the most known, and of her in
particular ancient mythologists, as well as painters, make mention. She arose from the sea
near the island of Cyprus, or, according to Hesiod, of Cythera, whither she was wafted by
the zephyrs, and received on the seashore by the seasons, daughters of
Jupiter and
Themis.
She was soon after carried to heaven, where al the gods admired her beauty, and all the
goddesses became jealous of her personal charms.
Jupiter attempted to gain her affections and even wished to offer her violence, but Venus
refused, and the god, to punish her obstinacy, gave her in marriage to his deformed son
Vulcan.
This marriage did not prevent the goddess of Love from gratifying her favorite passions and
she defiled her husband's bed by her amours with the gods. Her intrigue with Mars is the most
celebrated. She was caught in her lover's arms, and exposed to the ridicule and
laughter of all the gods.
Venus became mother of Hermione,
Cupid,
and Anteros by
Mars;
by Mercury
she had Hermaphroditus;
by Bacchus,
Priapus; and by
Neptune,
Eryx. Her great partiality for
Adonis made her abandon the
seats of Olympus, and her regard for
Anchises
obliged her often to visit the woods and solitary retreats of Mount Ida.
The power of Venus over the heart was supported and assisted by a
celebrated girdle, called zone by the Greeks, and
cestus
by the Latins. The mysterious girdle gave beauty, grace, and elegance, when worn even by the
most deformed; and it excited love and rekindled extinguished flames.
Juno herself was indebted to this powerful ornament
to win the favors of Jupiter, and Venus, though herself possessed of every charm, no sooner
put on her cestus, than Vulcan, unable to resist the influence of love, forgot all the intrigues
and infidelities of his wife, and fabricated arms even for her illegitimate children.
The contest of Venus (Aphrodite)
for the
golden apple of Discord is well known. She gained the prize
over Pallas (Athena) and Juno
(Hera),
and rewarded her impartial
judge
(Paris)
with the hand of the fairest woman
in the world
(Helen of Troy).
The worship of Venus was universally established; statues
and temples were erected to her inevery kingdom, and the ancients were fond of paying homage
to a divinity who presided over generation, and by whose influence alone mankind existed.
The rose, the
myrtle,
and the apple,
were sacred to Venus; and among birds,
the dove,
the swan,
and the sparrow,
were her favorites; and among fishes, those called the
aphya and the lycostomus.
The goddess of beauty was represented among the ancients in different forms. At Elis, she appeared
seated on a goat,
with one foot resting on a tortoise. At Sparta
and Cythera, she was represented
armed like Minerva (Athena),
and sometimes wearing chains on her feet. In the temple of Jupiter Olympius,
she was represented by Phidias
as rising from the sea, received by love, and crowned by the goddess of persuasion.
Her statue at
Cnidos by Praxiteles,
represented her naked, with one hand hiding
what modesty keeps concealed. Her statue at Elephantis was the same, with only a naked Cupid by her side.
In Sicyon she held a poppy in one hand, and in the other an apple, while on her head she had a crown,
which terminated in a point to intimate the pole. she is generally represented with her son Cupid,
on a chariot drawn by doves, or at other times by swans and sparrows.
As goddess of the sea, born in the bosom of the waters, Venus was called Pontia, Marina,
Limnesia, Epipontia, Pelagia, Saligenia, Pontogenia, Aligena, Thalassia, etc., and as rising from
the sea, the name of Anadyomene
is applied to her, and rendered immortal by the celebrated
painting of Apelles,
which represented her as issuing from the bosom of the waves, and wringing
her tresses on her shoulder.
The planet Venus was called by the Greeks Phosphorus, and by the Latins
Lucifer,
when it rises before the Sun, but when it follows it,
Hesperus
or Vesper (Cicero, Nat. D. 2, c. 20. Somn. Scipio).
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