Editing Venus (section)

==In culture==
{{Main|Venus in culture}}
Venus is among the most prominent features in the night sky, and has been treated as particularly important in [[Venus (mythology)|mythology]], [[Planets in astrology#Venus|astrology]] and [[Venus in fiction|fiction]] across many different cultures.

[[File:Kudurru Melishipak Louvre Sb23 n02.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The [[Octagram|eight-pointed star]] is a symbol used in some cultures to represent Venus, sometimes combined into a [[star and crescent]] arrangement. Here, the eight pointed star is the [[Star of Ishtar]], the [[Babylonia]]n Venus goddess, alongside the [[solar symbol|solar disk]] of her brother [[Shamash]] and the [[crescent|crescent moon]] of their father [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]] on a [[kudurru|boundary stone]] of [[Meli-Shipak II]], dating to the 12th century&nbsp;BC.]]

{{anchor|Inanna and Shukaletuda}}
Several hymns praise [[Inanna]] in her role as the goddess of the planet Venus.<ref name=Cooley/><ref name="Green1992"/><ref name="Nemet-Nejat"/> Theology professor Jeffrey Cooley has argued that, in many myths, Inanna's movements may correspond with the movements of the planet Venus in the sky.<ref name=Cooley/> The discontinuous movements of Venus relate to both mythology as well as Inanna's dual nature.<ref name=Cooley/> In ''Inanna's Descent to the Underworld'', unlike any other deity, Inanna is able to descend into the netherworld and return to the heavens. The planet Venus appears to make a similar descent, setting in the West and then rising again in the East.<ref name=Cooley/> An introductory hymn describes Inanna leaving the heavens and heading for ''Kur'', what could be presumed to be, the mountains, replicating the rising and setting of Inanna to the West.<ref name=Cooley/> In ''[[Inanna and Shukaletuda]]'' and ''[[Inanna's Descent into the Underworld]]'' appear to parallel the motion of the planet Venus.<ref name=Cooley/> In ''Inanna and Shukaletuda'', Shukaletuda is described as scanning the heavens in search of Inanna, possibly searching the eastern and western horizons.<ref name="Cooley2"/> In the same myth, while searching for her attacker, Inanna herself makes several movements that correspond with the movements of Venus in the sky.<ref name=Cooley/>

Via [[Mesopotamia]]n influence, it is possible that the [[Ancient Egypt]]ians and [[ancient Greeks|Greeks]] knew that the morning star and the evening star were one and the same as early as the second millennium&nbsp;BC—or the [[Late Period of ancient Egypt|Late Period]] at the latest.<ref name="Parker 1974"/><ref name="Quack 2019"/> The Egyptians knew the morning star as {{tlit|egy|Tioumoutiri}} and the evening star as {{tlit|egy|Ouaiti}}.<ref name=Cattermole_Moore_1997/> They depicted Venus at first as a [[Phoenix (mythology)|phoenix]] or [[heron]] (see [[Bennu]]),<ref name="Parker 1974"/> calling it 'the crosser' or 'star with crosses',<ref name="Parker 1974"/> associating it with [[Osiris]], and later depicting it as two-headed (with human or falcon heads), and associated it with [[Horus]],<ref name="Quack 2019"/> son of [[Isis]] (which during the even later [[Hellenistic period]] was together with [[Hathor]] identified with [[Aphrodite]]). The Greeks used the names {{tlit|grc|[[Phōsphoros]]}}, meaning 'light-bringer' (whence the element [[phosphorus]]; alternately {{tlit|grc|Ēōsphoros}}, meaning 'dawn-bringer'), for the morning star, and {{tlit|grc|[[Hesperos]]}}, meaning 'Western one', for the evening star,<ref name="EBLCM"/> both children of dawn [[Eos]] and therefore grandchildren of Aphrodite. Though by the Roman era they were recognized as one celestial object, known as "the star of [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]]", the traditional two Greek names continued to be used, though usually translated to Latin as {{lang|la|[[Lucifer]]}} and {{lang|la|[[Hesperus|Vesper]]}}.<ref name="EBLCM"/><ref name=Cicero/>

Classical poets such as [[Homer]], [[Sappho]], [[Ovid]] and [[Virgil]] spoke of the star and its light.<ref name=Atsma/> Poets such as [[William Blake]], [[Robert Frost]], [[Letitia Elizabeth Landon]], [[Alfred Lord Tennyson]] and [[William Wordsworth]] wrote odes to it.<ref name=Sobel_2005/> The composer [[Gustav Holst|Holst]] included it as [[The Planets#Venus|the second movement]] of his ''[[The Planets]]'' suite.

In India, the name for Venus in Sanskrit was {{tlit|sa|Shukra Graha}}, meaning 'the planet Shukra'—in reference to [[Shukra]], a powerful saint. As appears in [[Vedic astrology]],<ref name="bhalla06"/> the Sanskrit name ''Shukra'' means 'clear, pure' or 'brightness, clearness'. One of the nine [[Navagraha]], it is held to affect wealth, pleasure and reproduction; it was the son of [[Bhrgu]], preceptor of the Daityas, and guru of the Asuras.<ref name="behari_frawley03"/>

The English name ''Venus'' stems originally from the [[Roman religion|ancient Roman]]s. Romans named Venus after [[Venus (goddess)|their goddess of love]], who in turn was based on the [[Ancient Greek religion|ancient Greek]] love goddess [[Aphrodite]],<ref name="Getty"/> who was herself based on the similar [[Sumerian religion]] goddess [[Inanna]] (which is Ishtar in [[Akkadian religion]]), all of whom were associated with the planet.<ref name="Nemet-Nejat"/><ref name="Green1992"/> The [[Planetary hours|weekday of the planet]] and these goddesses is [[Friday]], named after the Germanic goddess [[Frigg]], who has been associated with the Roman goddess Venus.

In Chinese, the planet is called ''Jinxing'' ({{zhi|c=金星|l=metal star}}); of the [[Five elements (Chinese philosophy)|five elements]] of traditional Chinese philosophy, Venus was historically associated with [[Metal (wuxing)|metal]]. These traditions are shared among modern [[Chinese culture|Chinese]], [[Japanese culture|Japanese]], [[Korean culture|Korean]] and [[Culture of Vietnam|Vietnamese]] cultures, including a name for the planet literally meaning 'metal star' ({{lang|zh|金星}}) in each language.<ref name=De_Groot_1912/><ref name=Crump_1992/><ref name=Hulbert_1909/><ref name=VOER/>

The [[Maya civilisation|Maya]] considered Venus to be the most important celestial body after the Sun and Moon. They called it {{tlit|myn|Chac ek}},<ref name="Volume 7 of Mayan studies"/> or {{tlit|myn|Noh Ek'}}, 'the Great Star'.<ref name="Milbrath"/> The cycles of Venus were important to their calendar and were described in some of their books, such as the ''[[Maya Codex of Mexico]]'' and ''[[Dresden Codex]]''. The [[flag of Chile]] ({{lang|es|Estrella Solitaria}}, 'Lone Star') depicts Venus.

===Modern culture===
{{See also|Venus in fiction}}
[[File:Van Gogh - Starry Night - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|Venus is portrayed just to the right of the large cypress tree in [[Vincent van Gogh]]'s 1889 painting ''[[The Starry Night]]''.<ref name=Whitney_1986/><ref name=Boime_1984/>]]

The impenetrable Venusian cloud cover gave science fiction writers free rein to speculate on conditions at its surface; all the more so when early observations showed that not only was it similar in size to Earth, it possessed a substantial atmosphere. Closer to the Sun than Earth, the planet was often depicted as warmer, but still [[Planetary habitability|habitable]] by humans.<ref name="miller"/> The genre reached its peak between the 1930s and 1950s, at a time when science had revealed some aspects of Venus, but not yet the harsh reality of its surface conditions. Findings from the first missions to Venus showed reality to be quite different and brought this particular genre to an end.<ref name=Dick_2001/> As scientific knowledge of Venus advanced, science fiction authors tried to keep pace, particularly by conjecturing human attempts to [[Terraforming of Venus|terraform Venus]].<ref name=Seed_2005/>

=== Symbols ===
{{Main|Venus symbol}}
[[file:Venus symbol (planetary color).svg|frameless|left|80px]]

The symbol of a circle with a small cross beneath is the so-called [[Venus symbol]], gaining its name for being used as the [[astronomical symbol]] for Venus. The symbol is of [[ancient Greek]] origin, and represents more generally [[femininity]], adopted by biology as [[gender symbol]] for female,<ref name="Schott 2005 pp. 1509–1510"/><ref name="stearn1961"/><ref name="stearn"/> like the [[Mars symbol]] for male and sometimes the [[Mercury symbol]] for [[hermaphrodite]]. This gendered association of Venus and Mars has been used to pair them [[heteronormative]]ly, describing women and men stereotypically as being so different that they can be understood as coming from different planets, an understanding popularized in 1992 by the book titled ''[[Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus]]''.<ref name="Brammer 2020"/>

The Venus symbol was also used in Western [[alchemy]] representing the element [[copper]] (like the symbol of [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]] is also the symbol of the [[element mercury]]),<ref name="stearn1961" /><ref name="stearn" /> and since polished copper has been used for mirrors from antiquity the symbol for Venus has sometimes been called Venus mirror, representing the mirror of the goddess, although this origin has been discredited as an unlikely origin.<ref name="stearn1961" /><ref name="stearn" />

Besides the Venus symbol, many other symbols have been associated with Venus, other common ones are the [[star and crescent|crescent or particularly the star]], as with the [[Star of Ishtar]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Liungman |first=Carl G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=06ALKxX225IC |title=Symbols: Encyclopedia of Western Signs and Ideograms |date=2004 |publisher=HME Publishing |isbn=978-91-972705-0-2 |pages=228 |language=en}}</ref>