Editing Venus (mythology)

{{short description|Ancient Roman goddess of love, sex and fertility}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Roman
| other_names = 
| image = Aphrodite Anadyomene from Pompeii cropped.jpg
| caption = [[Venus Anadyomene|Venus rising from the sea]], alluding to the birth-myth of Greek [[Aphrodite]].<ref>[[Mary Beard (classicist)|Beard, M.]], [[Simon Price (classicist)|Price, S.]], North, J., ''Religions of Rome: Volume 2, a Sourcebook, illustrated,'' Cambridge University Press, 1998, 2.1a, p. 27</ref>  From a garden wall at the Casa della Venere in conchiglia, [[Pompeii]]. Before AD 79
| deity_of = Goddess of love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory
| symbols = Rose, [[Myrtus communis|common myrtle]]
| consort = [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] and [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]]
| parents = [[Caelus]]
| day = [[Friday]] (''dies Veneris'')
| planet = [[Venus]]
| siblings = 
| children = [[Cupid]] (in later tradition); [[Aeneas]] (fathered by [[Anchises]] in [[Virgil]]'s ''Aeneid'')
| Greek_equivalent = [[Aphrodite]]
| festivals = [[Veneralia]]<br />[[Vinalia Rustica]]<br />[[Vinalia Urbana]]|
}}
'''Venus''' ({{IPAc-en|'|v|i:|n|ə|s}}; {{IPA|la-x-classic|ˈu̯ɛnʊs̠|lang|link=yes}} {{IPA|la|ˈvɛ(ː)nus|label=[[Ecclesiastical Latin]]:}}) is a [[List of Roman deities|Roman goddess]] whose functions encompass [[love]], [[beauty]], [[desire]], [[Sexuality in ancient Rome|sex]], [[fertility]], [[prosperity]], and [[victory]]. In [[Roman mythology]], she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, [[Aeneas]], who survived the [[Trojan War|fall of Troy]] and fled to Italy. [[Julius Caesar]] claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many [[Roman festivals|religious festivals]], and was revered in [[Religion in ancient Rome|Roman religion]] under numerous cult titles.

The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her [[interpretatio graeca|Greek counterpart]] [[Aphrodite]] for [[Roman art]] and [[Latin literature]]. In the later [[classical tradition]] of [[Western culture|the West]], Venus became one of the most widely referenced deities of [[classical mythology|Greco-Roman mythology]] as the embodiment of love and sexuality. As such, she is usually depicted [[nude]].

== Etymology ==
The Latin theonym {{lang|la|Venus}} and the common noun {{lang|la|venus}} ('love, charm') stem from a [[Proto-Italic language|Proto-Italic]] form reconstructed as ''*wenos-'' ('desire'), itself from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) ''{{PIE|*wenh₁-os}}'' ('desire'; cf. [[Messapic language|Messapic]] {{lang|cms|Venas}}, [[Indo-Aryan languages|Old Indic]] {{lang|inc|vánas}} 'desire').{{Sfn|de Vaan|2008|p=663}}<ref>{{cite book |last=de Simone |first=Carlo |year=2017 |chapter=Messapic |editor1-last=Klein |editor1-first=Jared |editor-last2=Joseph |editor-first2=Brian |editor-last3=Fritz |editor-first3=Matthias |title=Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics |volume=3 |page=1843 |lang=en |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-054243-1 }}</ref>

[[Morphological derivation|Derivatives]] include ''venustus'' ('attractive, charming'), ''venustās'' ('charm, grace'), ''venerius'' ('of Venus, erotic'), ''venerāre'' ('to adore, revere, honor, venerate, worship'), and ''venerātiō'' ('adoration').{{Sfn|de Vaan|2008|p=663}} ''Venus'' is also [[cognate]] with Latin {{lang|la|venia}} ('favour, permission') and {{lang|la|vēnor}} ('to hunt') through to common PIE root ''{{PIE|*wenh₁-}}'' ('to strive for, wish for, desire, love').{{Sfn|de Vaan|2008|p=663}}<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Mallory |editor1-first=J.P. |editor2-last=Adams |editor2-first=D.Q. |year=1997 |title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture |page=158 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=1-884964-98-2}}</ref> [[File:Roman Venus MBA Lyon L83.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|A 2nd- or 3rd-century bronze figurine of Venus, in the collection of the [[Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon]]<ref>{{cite AV media |medium=photograph |title=Vénus – figurine |publisher=Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon |url=http://collections.mba-lyon.fr/fr/search-notice/detail/l-83-venus-a3fed |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref>]]

== Origins ==
Venus has been described as perhaps "the most original creation of the Roman pantheon",<ref name=Schilling-1954 />{{rp|page=146}} and "an ill-defined and assimilative" native goddess, combined "with a strange and exotic Aphrodite".{{efn|Eden (1963)<ref name=Eden-1963 />{{rp|pages=458ff}} discusses possible associations between [[Astarte]] or the "Venus of [[Eryx (Sicily)|Eryx]]" and the [[brassica]] species ''[[Eruca sativa|E. sativa]]'', which the Romans considered an aphrodisiac.}} Her cults may represent the religiously legitimate charm and seduction of the divine by mortals, in contrast to the formal, contractual relations between most members of Rome's official pantheon and the state, and the [[Religion in ancient Rome#Superstitio and magic|unofficial, illicit manipulation]] of divine forces through magic.<ref name=Schilling-1954>{{cite book |first=R. |last=Schilling |year=1954 |title=La religion romaine de Venus depuis les origines jusqu'au temps d' Auguste |place=Paris, FR |publisher=Editions E. de Boccard}}</ref>{{rp|pages=13–64}}<ref name=Schilling-1962>{{cite journal |last=R. |first=Schilling |year=1962 |title=La relation Venus venia |journal=Latomus |volume=21 |pages=3–7}}</ref> The ambivalence of her persuasive functions has been perceived in the relationship of the root ''*wenos-'' with its Latin derivative ''venenum'' ('poison'; from ''*wenes-no'' 'love drink' or 'addicting'),{{Sfn|de Vaan|2008|p=660}} in the sense of "a charm, magic [[Potion|philtre]]".<ref>Linked through an adjectival form ''*venes-no-'': William W. Skeat ''ibid''. s.v. "venom"</ref>

Venus seems to have had no origin myth until her association with Greek Aphrodite. Venus-Aphrodite emerged, already in adult form, from the [[sea foam]] (Greek αφρός, ''aphros'') produced by the severed genitals of [[Caelus]]-[[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]].<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Hesiod]] |title=[[Theogony]] |at=176}}</ref> Roman [[theology]] presents Venus as the yielding, watery female principle, essential to the generation and balance of life. Her male counterparts in the Roman pantheon, [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]] and [[Mars (mythology)|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 otherwise quite disparate functions. She can give military victory, sexual success, good fortune and prosperity. In one context, she is a goddess of prostitutes; in another, she turns the hearts of men and women from sexual vice to virtue. [[Varro]]'s theology identifies Venus with water as an aspect of the female principle. To generate life, the watery matrix of the womb requires the virile warmth of fire. To sustain life, water and fire must be balanced; excess of either one, or their mutual antagonism, is unproductive or destructive.<ref name=Staples-1998 />{{rp|pages=12, 15–16, 24–26, 149–50}}

Prospective brides offered Venus a gift "before the wedding"; the nature of the gift, and its timing, are unknown. The wedding ceremony itself, and the state of lawful marriage, belonged to [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]] – whose mythology allows her only a single marriage, and no divorce from her habitually errant spouse, [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] – but Venus and Juno are also likely "bookends" for the ceremony; Venus prepares the bride for "conubial bliss" and expectations of fertility within lawful marriage. Some Roman sources say that girls who come of age offer their toys to Venus; it is unclear where the offering is made, and others say this gift is to the Lares.<ref>Hersch, Karen K., ''The Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity'', Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 66–67, 231-266.</ref> In dice-games played with [[knucklebones]], a popular pastime among Romans of all classes, the luckiest, best possible roll was known as "[[Venus Throw|Venus]]".<ref>Whoever threw "Venus" had the right to appoint a "King of the Feast"; the "Venus" throw was also known as the "Basilicus" (from the Greek "king"). See article by James Yates, M.A., F.R.S., and primary sources on entry ''Talus'', pp. 1095‑1096 of William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.</ref>

== Epithets ==
[[File:Pompeii - Casa di Marte e Venere - MAN.jpg|thumb|right|Venus and Mars, with Cupid attending, in a wall painting from [[Pompeii]]]]

Like other major Roman deities, Venus was given a number of [[epithet]]s that referred to her different cult aspects, roles, and her functional similarities to other deities. Her "original powers seem to have been extended largely by the fondness of the Romans for folk-etymology, and by the prevalence of the religious idea ''nomen-omen'' which sanctioned any identifications made in this way."<ref name=Eden-1963 />{{rp|page=457}}{{efn|For further exposition of ''nomen-omen'' (or ''nomen est omen'') see<ref>{{cite book |last=del Bello |first=Davide |title=Forgotten Paths: Etymology and the allegorical mindset |publisher=The Catholic University of America Press |year=2007 |pages=52&nbsp;ff |isbn=978-0-8132-1484-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQh7PdkctiYC&dq=Venus&pg=PT52}}</ref>}}

'''Venus Acidalia''', in [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'' (1.715–22, as ''mater acidalia''). [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]] speculates this "rare" and "strangely recondite epithet" as reference to a mooted "Fountain of Acidalia" (''fons acidalia'') where the [[Graces]] (Venus' daughters) were said to bathe; but he also connects it to the Greek word for "dart", "needle", "arrow", whence "love's arrows" and love's bitter "cares and pangs". [[Ovid]] uses ''acidalia'' only in the latter sense. ''Venus Acidalia'' is likely a literary conceit, formed by Virgil from earlier usages in which ''acidalia'' had no evident connection to Venus. It was almost certainly not a cultic epithet.<ref>{{cite journal |last=O'Hara |first=James J. |year=1990 |title=The significance of Vergil's Acidalia Mater, and Venus Erycina in Catullus and Ovid |journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |volume=93 |pages=335–42|doi=10.2307/311293 |jstor=311293 }}</ref>

'''[[Venus Anadyomene]]''' (Venus "rising from the sea"), based on a once-famous painting by the Greek artist [[Apelles]] showing the birth of Aphrodite from sea-foam, fully adult and supported by a more-than-lifesized scallop shell. The Italian Renaissance painter [[Sandro Botticelli]] used the type in his [[The Birth of Venus]]. Other versions of Venus' birth show her standing on land or shoreline, wringing the sea-water from her hair.<ref name=Marcovich1996>{{cite journal |last1=Marcovich |first1=Miroslav |title=From Ishtar to Aphrodite |journal=Journal of Aesthetic Education |date=1996 |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=43–59 |doi=10.2307/3333191 |jstor=3333191 }}</ref> 

'''Venus Barbata''' ("Bearded Venus"), mentioned in [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]]' commentary on Virgil's ''Aeneid''.<ref>Servius, ''ad Aeneiadem'', ii. 632.</ref> [[Macrobius]]'s [[Macrobius#Saturnalia|Saturnalia]] describes a statue of Venus in [[Cyprus]], bearded, with male genitalia but in female attire and figure (see also [[Aphroditus]]). Her worshippers cross-dressed - men wore women's clothes, and women wore men's. Macrobius says that Aristophanes called this figure ''[[Aphroditos]]''. The Latin poet [[Laevius]] wrote of worshipping "nurturing Venus" whether female or male ''([[Si deus si dea|sive femina sive mas]])''.<ref>''Venerem igitur almum adorans, sive femina sive mas est,'' as quoted by Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 3.8.3.</ref> Several examples of Greek and Roman sculpture show her in the [[attitude (art)|attitude]] ''anasyrmene'', from the Greek verb ''anasyromai'', "to pull up one's clothes"<ref>Penner, Todd C., Stichele, Caroline Van der, editors, ''Mapping Gender in Ancient Religious Discourses'', p. 22, 2007, Brill, isbn 90-04-15447-7</ref> to reveal her male genitalia. The gesture traditionally held [[apotropaic]] or magical power.<ref>Dominic Montserrat, "Reading Gender in the Roman World," in ''Experiencing Rome: Culture, Identity, and Power in the Roman Empire'' (Routledge, 2000), pp. 172–173.</ref>

'''Venus [[List of Roman deities#Caelestis|Caelestis]]''' (Celestial or Heavenly Venus), used from the 2nd&nbsp;century AD for Venus as an aspect of a syncretised supreme goddess. ''Venus Caelestis'' is the earliest known Roman recipient of a [[taurobolium]] (a form of bull sacrifice), performed at her shrine in [[Pozzuoli]] on 5&nbsp;October 134. This form of the goddess, and the taurobolium, are associated with the "Syrian Goddess", understood as a late equivalent to [[Astarte]], or the Roman [[Cybele|Magna Mater]], the latter being another supposedly Trojan "Mother of the Romans", as well as "Mother of the Gods".<ref>Turcan, pp. 141–43.</ref>

'''Venus Calva''' ("Venus the bald one"), a legendary form of Venus, attested only by post-Classical Roman writings which offer several traditions to explain this appearance and epithet. In one, it commemorates the virtuous offer by Roman matrons of their own hair to make bowstrings during a siege of Rome. In another, king [[Ancus Marcius]]' wife and other Roman women lost their hair during an epidemic; in hope of its restoration, unafflicted women sacrificed their own hair to Venus.<ref name=Schilling-1954 />{{rp|pages=83–89}}{{efn|Ashby (1929) finds the existence of a temple to Venus Calva "very doubtful"; see<ref>{{cite book |first1=Samuel Ball |last1=Platner |first2=Thomas |last2=Ashby |year=1929 |title=A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome |page=551 |place=London |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Venus_Calva.html |via=Penelope, [[University of Chicago|U.Chicago]] }}</ref>}}

[[File:Roman - Venus - Walters 54966.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Imperial image of Venus suggesting influence from [[Roman Syria|Syria]] or [[Roman Palestine|Palestine]], or from the [[Isis#Ancient Rome|cult of Isis]]<ref>[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_-_Venus_-_Walters_54966.jpg Description] from [[Walters Art Museum]]</ref>]]
{{anchor|Epithets of Venus}} <!-- still used by some hatnotes/links -->

'''Venus Cloacina''' ("Venus the Purifier"); a fusion of Venus with the Etruscan water goddess [[Cloacina]], who had an ancient shrine above the outfall of the [[Cloaca Maxima]], originally a stream, later covered over to function as Rome's main sewer. The rites conducted at the shrine were probably meant to purify the culvert's polluted waters and [[Miasma theory|noxious airs]].{{refn|Eden (1963),<ref name=Eden-1963 />{{rp|page=457}} citing [[Pliny the Elder]], ''Natural History'', 15.119–21.}}<ref>Pliny the Elder, remarking Venus as a goddess of union and reconciliation, identifies the shrine with a legendary episode in Rome's earliest history, in which the Romans, led by [[Romulus]], and the [[Sabine]]s, led by [[Titus Tatius]] and carrying branches of myrtle, met there to make peace following the [[rape of the Sabine women]]. Also cited in Wagenvoort, p. 180.</ref> In some traditions, Titus Tatius was responsible for the introduction of lawful marriage to Rome, and Venus-Cloacina promoted, protected and purified sexual intercourse between married couples.<ref>{{cite book |first=William |last=Smith |year= |title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology |article=Venus |place=London|publisher=John Murray |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=venus-bio-1 |via=Perseus, [[Tufts University]]}}</ref>

{{anchor|Venus Erycina}}'''Venus Erycina''' ("[[Eryx (Sicily)|Erycine]] Venus"), a [[Canaanite religion|Punic statue]] of [[Astarte]] [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#evocatio|captured]] from [[Eryx (Sicily)|Eryx]], in [[Sicily]], and worshiped [[interpretatio graeca#Interpretatio romana|in Romanised form]] by the elite and respectable matrons at a temple on the [[Capitoline Hill]]. A later temple, outside the [[Porta Collina]] and Rome's [[pomerium|sacred boundary]], may have preserved some Erycine features of her cult. It was considered suitable for "common girls" and [[prostitute]]s.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Livy]] |title=Ab Urbe Condita |at=23.31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Thomas A.J. |last=McGinn |year=1998 |title=Prostitution, Sexuality, and the Law in Ancient Rome |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=25}}</ref><ref name=Beard-etal-1998>{{cite book
 |last1=Beard |first1=M. |author1-link=Mary Beard (classicist)
 |last2=Price |first2=S. |author2-link=Simon Price (classicist)
 |last3=North |first3=J.
 |year=1998
 |title=Religions of Rome: A history, illustrated
 |volume=1
 |publisher=Cambridge University Press
}}</ref>{{rp|pages=80, 83}}

'''Venus Euploia''' (Venus of the "fair voyage"), also known as '''Venus Pontia''' (Venus of the Sea"), because she smooths the waves for mariners. She is probably based on the influential image of Aphrodite by [[Praxiteles]], once housed in a [[Aphrodite of Knidos|temple by the sea]] but now lost. Most copies of its Venus image would have been supported by dolphins, and worn diadems and carved veils, inferring her birth from sea-foam, and a consequent identity as Queen of the Sea, and patron of sailors and navigation. Roman copies would have embellished baths and gymnasiums.<ref>Christie's online catalogue [https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6239348 essay], citing Vermuele and Brauer, ''Stone Sculptures, The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums'', pp. 50-51</ref><ref name=Marcovich1996/> 

'''Venus Frutis''' honoured by all the Latins with a federal cult at the temple named ''Frutinal'' in Lavinium.<ref>Paulus-Festus s. v. p. 80 L: ''Frutinal templum Veneris Fruti''</ref>{{efn|"At the midway between Ostia and Antium lies Lavinium that has a sanctuary of Aphrodite common to all Latin nations, but which is under the care of the Ardeans, who have entrusted the task to intendants".<ref>Strabo V 3, 5</ref>}} Inscriptions found at Lavinium attest the presence of federal cults, without giving precise details.{{efn|"''Sp. Turrianus Proculus Gellianus ... pater patratus ... Lavinium sacrorum principiorum p(opuli) R(omani) Quirt(ium) nominisque Latini qui apud Laurentis coluntur''".<ref>CIL X 797;  cited in {{cite journal |first=B. |last=Liou-Gilles |year=1996 |title=Naissance de la ligue latine. Mythe et culte de fondation |journal=Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire |volume=74 |issue=1 |page=85}}</ref>}}

'''Venus Felix''' ("Lucky Venus"), probably a traditional epithet, combining aspects of Venus and [[Fortuna]], goddess of both good and bad fortune and personification of luck, whose iconography includes the rudder of a ship, found in some Pompeian examples of the regal ''Venus Physica''. A form of Venus usually identified as Venus Felix was adopted by the dictator [[Sulla]] to legitimise his victories over his domestic and foreign opponents during Rome's late Republican civil and foreign wars; Rives finds it very unlikely that Sulla would have imposed this humiliating connection on unwilling or conquered domestic territories once allied to Samnium, such as Pompei.<ref name=Rives1994>{{cite journal |last1=Rives |first1=James |title=Venus Genetrix outside Rome |journal=Phoenix |date=1994 |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=294–306 |doi=10.2307/1192570 |jstor=1192570 }}</ref>
The emperor [[Hadrian]] built a temple to ''[[Temple of Venus and Roma|Venus Felix et Roma Aeterna]]'' on the [[Via Sacra]]. The same epithet is used for [[Venus Felix (sculpture)|a specific sculpture at the Vatican Museums]].

{{anchor|Genetrix}}
'''[[Venus Genetrix (sculpture)|Venus Genetrix]]''' ("Venus the Mother"), as a goddess of motherhood and domesticity, with a festival on September 26, a personal ancestress of the [[Julia (gens)|Julian lineage]] and, more broadly, the divine ancestress of the Roman people. [[Julius Caesar]] dedicated a [[Temple of Venus Genetrix]] in 46 BC.<ref name=Rives1994/> This name has attached to [[Venus Genetrix (sculpture)|an iconological type of statue of Aphrodite/Venus]].

{{anchor|Venus Heliopolitana}}<!--linked-->
'''Venus Heliopolitana''' ("Venus of [[Heliopolis Syriaca]]"), a Romano-Syrian form of Venus at [[Baalbek]], variously identified with [[Ashtart]], [[Dea Syria]] and [[Atargatis]], though inconsistently and often on very slender grounds. She has been historically identified as one third of a so-called [[Heliopolitan Triad]], and thus a wife to presumed sun-god "Syrian Jupiter" ([[Baal]]) and mother of "Syrian Mercury" ([[Adon]]). The "Syrian Mercury" is sometimes thought as another sun-god, or a syncretised form of [[Bacchus]] as a [[Dying-and-rising deity|"dying and rising" god]], and thus a god of Springtime. No such Triad seems to have existed prior to Baalbek's 15 BC colonisation by Augustus' veterans. It may be a modern scholarly artifice.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kropp |first1=Andreas J. M. |title=Jupiter, Venus and Mercury of Heliopolis (Baalbek). The images of the 'triad' and its alleged syncretisms |journal=Syria |date=2010 |volume=87 |pages=229–264 |doi=10.4000/syria.681 |jstor=41681338 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

'''[[Venus Kallipygos]]''' ("Venus with the beautiful buttocks"), a statue, and possibly a statue type, after a lost Greek original. From [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]], Sicily.<ref>Havelock, Christine Mitchell,''The Aphrodite of Knidos and Her Successors: A Historical Review of the Female Nude in Greek Art'', University of Michigan Press, 2007, pp 100–102, ISBN 978-0-472-03277-8</ref>

'''Venus Libertina''' ("Venus the [[freedman|Freedwoman]]"), probably arising through the semantic similarity and cultural links between ''libertina'' (as "a free woman") and ''lubentina'' (possibly meaning "pleasurable" or "passionate"). Further titles or variants acquired by Venus through the same process, or through orthographic variance, include Libentia, Lubentina, and Lubentini. '''Venus Libitina''' links Venus to a patron-goddess of [[Roman funerary practices#Undertakers|funerals and undertakers]], [[Libitina]], who also became synonymous with death; a temple was dedicated to Venus Libitina in Libitina's grove on the [[Esquiline Hill]], "hardly later than 300 BC".{{efn|Eden (1963)<ref name=Eden-1963 />{{rp|page=457}} states that Varro rationalises the connections as ''"lubendo libido, libidinosus ac Venus Libentina et Libitina"''<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Varro]] |title=[[Lingua Latina]] |at=6, 47}}</ref>}}
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 | image1 = RSC 0022 - transparent background.png
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 | caption1 = Julius Caesar, with Venus holding [[Victoria (mythology)|Victoria]] on reverse, from February or March 44 BC
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 | caption2 = [[Bruttia Crispina|Crispina]], wife of [[Commodus]], with enthroned Venus Felix holding Victory on reverse
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'''Venus Murcia''' ("Venus of the Myrtle"), merging Venus with the little-known deity [[Murcia (mythology)|Murcia]] (or Murcus, or Murtia). Murcia was associated with Rome's Mons Murcia (the [[Aventine Hill|Aventine's lesser height]]), and had a shrine in the [[Circus Maximus]]. Some sources associate her with the myrtle-tree. Christian writers described her as a goddess of sloth and laziness.<ref>Augustine, ''De civitate Dei'', IV. 16; Arnobius, ''Adversus Nationes'', IV. 9. 16; ''Murcus'' in Livy, ''Ab Urbe Condita'', 1, 33, 5 – cf ''murcidus'' = "slothful".</ref>

'''[[Venus Obsequens]]''' ("Indulgent Venus"<ref name="ReferenceA">"The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome", v. 1, p. 167</ref>), Venus' first attested Roman epithet. It was used in the dedication of her first Roman temple, on August 19 in 295 BC during the [[Third Samnite War]] by [[Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges (consul 292 BC)|Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges]]. It was sited somewhere near the Aventine Hill and Circus Maximus, and played a central role in the [[Vinalia Rustica]]. It was supposedly funded by fines imposed on women found guilty of [[adultery]].<ref name=Staples-1998>{{cite book |last=Staples |first=Ariadne |year=1998 |title=From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and category in Roman religion |publisher=Routledge}}</ref>{{rp|page=89}}

'''Venus Physica''', Venus as a universal, natural creative force that informs the physical world. She is addressed as "Alma Venus" ("Mother Venus") by [[Lucretius]] in the introductory lines of his vivid, poetic exposition of [[Epicurean]] physics and philosophy, ''De Rerum Natura''. She seems to have been a favourite of Lucretius' patron, [[Gaius Memmius (praetor 58 BC)|Memmius]].<ref>Elisabeth Asmis, "Lucretius' Venus and Stoic Zeus", ''Hermes'', 110, (1982), p. 458 ff.</ref> 

'''Venus Physica Pompeiana''' was Pompeii's protective goddess, antedating Sulla's imposition of a colonia named ''[[Colonia (Roman)|Colonia]] Veneria [[Cornelia (gens)|Cornelia]]'' after his family and Venus, following his siege and capture of Pompeii from the [[Samnites]]. Venus also had a distinctive, local form as '''Venus Pescatrice''' ("Venus the Fisher-woman") a goddess of the sea, and trade. For Sulla's claims of Venus' favour, see ''Venus Felix'' above).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lill |first1=Anne |title=Myths of Pompeii: reality and legacy |journal=Baltic Journal of Art History |date=2011 |volume=3 |url=https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/bjah/article/view/814 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carroll |first=Maureen |authorlink=Maureen Carroll |date=2010 |title=Exploring the sanctuary of Venus and its sacred grove: politics, cult and identity in Roman Pompeii |journal=Papers of the British School at Rome |volume=78 |pages=63–351 |doi=10.1017/S0068246200000817 |jstor=41725289 |s2cid=154443189 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Pompeii's Temple of Venus was built sometime in the 1st century BC, before Sulla's colonisation.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The world of Pompeii |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |others=John Joseph Dobbins, Pedar William Foss |isbn=978-0-415-17324-7 |location=London |oclc=74522705 }}{{pn|date=June 2022}}</ref> This local form of Venus had Roman, [[Oscans|Oscan]] and local Pompeiian influences.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beard |first=Mary |title=The fires of Vesuvius : Pompeii lost and found |date=2008 |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-02976-7 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |oclc=225874239 |p=280}}</ref> Like ''Venus Physica'', ''Venus Physica Pompeiana'' is also a regal form of "Nature Mother" and a guarantor of success in love.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grant |first=Michael |title=Cities of Vesuvius : Pompeii and Herculaneum |date=2005 |publisher=Phoenix Press |isbn=1-898800-45-6 |location=London |oclc=61680895 }}{{pn|date=June 2022}}</ref>

'''Venus Urania''' ("Heavenly Venus"), used as the title of a book by [[Basilius von Ramdohr]], a relief by [[Pompeo Marchesi]], and a painting by [[Christian Griepenkerl]]. (cf. [[Aphrodite Urania]])

'''[[Venus Verticordia]]''' ("Venus the Changer of Hearts"), celebrated at the [[Veneralia]] for her ability to transform untethered desire (''libido)'' into ''[[pudicitia]]'', sexuality expressed within socially permitted bounds, hence marriage. 

'''Venus Victrix''' ("Venus the Victorious"), a Romanised aspect of the armed Aphrodite that Greeks had inherited from the East, where the goddess [[Ishtar]] "remained a goddess of war, and Venus could bring victory to a [[Lucius Cornelius Sulla|Sulla]] or a Caesar".<ref>Thus [[Walter Burkert]], in ''Homo Necans'' (1972) 1983:80, noting C. Koch on "Venus Victrix" in ''Realencyclopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft'', '''8''' A860-64.</ref> [[Pompey]] vied with his patron Sulla and with Caesar for public recognition as her protégé. In 55 BC he dedicated a temple to her at the top of his [[Pompey's Theater|theater]] in the [[Campus Martius]]. She had a shrine on the [[Capitoline Hill]], and festivals on August 12 and October 9. A sacrifice was annually dedicated to her on the latter date. In neo-classical art, her epithet as Victrix is often used in the sense of 'Venus Victorious over men's hearts' or in the context of the [[Judgement of Paris]] (e.g. [[Canova]]'s ''[[Venus Victrix (Canova)|Venus Victrix]]'', a half-nude reclining portrait of [[Pauline Bonaparte]]).

== Cult history and temples ==
The first known temple to Venus was [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#votum|vowed]] to ''Venus Obsequens'' by [[Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges (consul 292 BC)|Q. Fabius Gurges]] in the heat of a battle against the [[Samnite Wars#Third Samnite War (298 to 290 BC)|Samnites]]. It was dedicated in 295 BC, at a site near the [[Aventine Hill]], and was supposedly funded by fines imposed on Roman women for sexual misdemeanours. Its rites and character were probably influenced by or based on Greek [[Aphrodite]]'s cults, which were already diffused in various forms throughout Italian [[Magna Graeca]]. Its dedication date connects ''Venus Obsequens'' to the ''[[Vinalia]] rustica'' festival.<ref name=Eden-1963 />{{rp|page=456}}{{efn|Schilling (1954)<ref name=Schilling-1954 />{{rp|pages=87}} suggests that Venus began as an abstraction of personal qualities, later assuming Aphrodite's attributes.}}
[[File:The Forum of Caesar (built near the Forum Romanum in Rome in 46 BC) and the Temple of Venus Genetrix, Imperial Forums, Rome (21101482544).jpg|thumb|left|Remains of the [[Temple of Venus Genetrix]] in the [[Imperial forums|Forum of Caesar]], Rome]]
In 217 BC, in the early stages of the [[Second Punic War]] with [[Carthage]], Rome suffered a disastrous defeat at the [[battle of Lake Trasimene]]. The [[Sibylline books|Sibylline oracle]] suggested that Carthage might be defeated if the Venus of [[Eryx (Sicily)|Eryx]] ({{lang|la|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 [[Evocatio|captured]] her image, brought it to Rome and installed it in a temple on the [[Capitoline Hill]], as one of Rome's twelve ''{{lang|la|[[dii consentes]]}}''. Shorn of her more overtly Carthaginian characteristics,{{efn|Her Sicillian form probably combined elements of Aphrodite and a more warlike Carthaginian-Phoenician Astarte}} this "foreign Venus" became Rome's ''Venus Genetrix'' ("Venus the Mother"),<ref name=Beard-etal-1998 />{{rp|pages=80, 83}}<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Livy]] |title=Ab Urbe Condita |at=23.31}}</ref><ref>Orlin, Eric (2007), in Rüpke, J, ed. ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Blackwell publishing, p. 62.</ref> Roman tradition made Venus the mother and protector of the Trojan prince [[Aeneas]], ancestor of the Romans, so as far as the Romans were concerned, this was the homecoming of an ancestral goddess to her people. Soon after, Rome's defeat of Carthage confirmed Venus's goodwill to Rome, her links to its mythical Trojan past, and her support of its political and military hegemony.{{efn|Venus' links with Troy can be traced to the epic, mythic history of the [[Trojan War]], and the [[Judgement of Paris]], in which the Trojan prince [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] chose Aphrodite over [[Hera]] and [[Athena]], setting off a train of events that led to war between the Greeks and Trojans, and eventually to Troy's destruction. In [[Founding of Rome|Rome's foundation myth]], Venus was the divine mother of the Trojan prince Aeneas, and thus a divine ancestor of the Roman people as a whole.<ref name=Beard-2007>{{cite book |author-link=Mary Beard (classicist) |first=Mary |last=Beard |year=2007 |title=The Roman Triumph |publisher=The Belknap Press}}</ref>{{rp|page=23}} The Punic Wars saw many similar introductions of foreign cult, including the Phrygian cult to [[Magna Mater]], who also had mythical links to Troy. See also<ref name=Beard-etal-1998 />{{rp|page=80.}} }}

The Capitoline cult to Venus seems to have been reserved to higher status Romans. A separate cult to ''Venus Erycina'' as a fertility deity,<ref name=Lipka-2009-foundation /> was established in 181 BC, in a traditionally plebeian district just outside [[pomerium|Rome's sacred boundary]], near the [[Colline Gate]]. The temple, cult and goddess probably retained much of the original's character and rites.{{refn|name=Lipka-2009-foundation| Lipka gives a foundation date of 181 BC for Venus' Colline temple.<ref name=Lipka-2009>{{cite book |last=Lipka |first=Michael |year=2009 |title=Roman Gods: A conceptual approach |publisher=Brill}}</ref>{{rp|pages=72–73}} }}<ref name=Orlin-2002>{{cite journal |last=Orlin |first=Eric M. |year=2002 |title=Foreign cults in republican Rome: Rethinking the pomerial rule |journal=Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome |volume=47 |pages=1–18 |publisher=University of Michigan Press|doi=10.2307/4238789 |jstor=4238789 }}</ref>{{rp|pages=4, 8, 14}} Likewise, a shrine to Venus Verticordia ("Venus the changer of hearts"), established in 114 BC but with links to an ancient cult of Venus-Fortuna, was "bound to the peculiar milieu of the Aventine and the Circus Maximus" – a strongly plebeian context for Venus's cult, in contrast to her aristocratic cultivation as a [[Stoicism|Stoic]] and [[Epicurian]] "all-goddess".{{efn|The aristocratic ideology of an increasingly Hellenised Venus is "summarized by the famous invocation to ''Venus Physica'' in [[Lucretius]]' poem."<ref>{{cite book |first=Mario |last=Torelli |year=1992 |title=Typology and Structure of Roman Historical Reliefs |publisher=University of Michigan Press |pages=8–9}}</ref>}}

Towards the end of the [[Roman Republic]], some leading Romans laid personal claims to Venus' favour. The general and [[Roman dictator|dictator]] [[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.{{efn|Plutarch's original Greek translates this adopted surname, Felix, as Epaphroditus (Aphrodite's beloved); see<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=Life of Sulla |at=19.9}}</ref>}} His protégé [[Pompey]] competed for Venus' support, dedicating (in 55 BC) a large temple to ''Venus Victrix'' as part of his lavishly appointed new [[Theatre of Pompey|theatre]], and celebrating his triumph of 54 BC with coins that showed her crowned with triumphal laurels.<ref name=Beard-2007 />{{rp|pages=22–23}}

Pompey's erstwhile friend, ally, and later opponent [[Julius Caesar]] went still further. He claimed the favours of ''Venus Victrix'' in his military success and ''Venus Genetrix'' as a personal, divine ancestress – apparently a long-standing family tradition among the [[Julia (gens)|Julii]]. When Caesar was assassinated, his heir, [[Augustus]], adopted both claims as evidence of his inherent fitness for office, and divine approval of his rule.{{efn|"At the battle of Pharsalus, Caesar also vowed a temple, in best republican fashion, to Venus Victrix, almost as if he were summoning Pompey's protectress to his side in the manner of an ''[[evocatio]]''. Three years after Pompey's defeat at the battle of Actium, Caesar dedicated his new Roman Forum, complete with a temple to his ancestor ''Venus Genetrix'', "apparently in fulfillment of the vow". The goddess helped provide a divine aura for her descendant, preparing the way for Caesar's own cult as a [[divus]] and the formal institution of the [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|Roman Imperial cult]].<ref>Orlin, in Rüpke (ed), pp. 67–69</ref>}} Augustus' new temple to [[Mars Ultor]], divine father of Rome's legendary founder [[Romulus]], would have underlined the point, with the image of avenging Mars "almost certainly" accompanied by that of his divine consort Venus, and possibly a statue of the [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)#Caesar's heir|deceased and deified Caesar]].<ref name=Beard-etal-1998 />{{rp|pages=199–200}}

[[Vitruvius]] recommends that any new temple to Venus be sited according to rules laid down by the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] [[Haruspex|haruspices]], and 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 finds the Corinthian style, slender, elegant, enriched with ornamental leaves and surmounted by [[volute]]s, appropriate to Venus' character and disposition.{{efn|Immediately after these remarks, Vitruvius prescribes the best positioning for temples to Venus' two divine consorts, Vulcan and Mars. Vulcan's should be outside the city, to reduce the dangers of fire, which is his element; Mars' too should be outside the city, so that "no armed frays may disturb the peace of the citizens, and that this divinity may, moreover, be ready to preserve them from their enemies and the perils of war."<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Vitruvius]] |title=[[De architectura]] |chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/1*.html#7.1 |chapter=Book 1 |at=7.1 |via=Penelope, [[University of Chicago|U. Chicago]]}}</ref>}} Vitruvius recommends the widest possible spacing between the temple columns, producing a light and airy space, and he offers Venus's temple in Caesar's forum as an example of how not to do it; the densely spaced, thickset columns darken the interior, hide the temple doors and crowd the walkways, so that matrons who wish to honour the goddess must enter her temple in single file, rather than arm-in arm.{{efn|The widely spaced, open style preferred by Vitruvius is ''eustylos''. The densely pillared style he criticises is ''pycnostylos''.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Vitruvius]] |title=[[De architectura]] |chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/3*.html#1.5  |chapter=Book 3 |at=1.5 |via=Penelope, [[University of Chicago|U. Chicago]]}}</ref>}}

In 135 AD the Emperor [[Hadrian]] inaugurated [[Temple of Venus and Roma|a temple]] to Venus and ''[[Roma (mythology)|Roma Aeterna]]'' (Eternal Rome) on Rome's [[Velian Hill]], underlining the Imperial unity of Rome and its provinces, and making Venus the protective ''genetrix'' of the entire Roman state, its people and fortunes. It was the largest temple in Ancient Rome.<ref name=Grout-Venus-temple-Rome>{{cite book |first=James |last=Grout |title=Encyclopedia Romana |article=Temple of Venus and Rome |article-url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/romanurbs/venusrome.html |via=Penelope, [[University of Chicago|U. Chicago]] }}</ref><ref name=Beard-etal-1998 />{{rp|pages=257–58, 260}}

=== Festivals ===
{{See also|Roman festivals}}
[[File:Dea Barberini Massimo.jpg|thumb|Fresco with a seated Venus, restored as a personification of Rome in the so-called "Dea Barberini" ("Barberini goddess"); Roman artwork, dated first half of the 4th century AD, from a room near the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Laterano]]
Venus was offered [[Religion in ancient Rome#Religio and the state|official (state-sponsored) cult]] in certain [[Roman festivals|festivals of the Roman calendar]]. Her sacred month was April (Latin ''Mensis Aprilis'') which Roman etymologists understood to derive from ''aperire'', "to open", with reference to the springtime blossoming of trees and flowers.{{efn|The origin is unknown, but it might derive from ''Apru'', an Etruscan form of Greek Aphrodite's name.<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=April |dictionary=Etymology Online |url=http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=April}}</ref> <!-- Big OED or Etymological Dict., anyone? --> }} In the {{lang|la|[[interpretatio romana]]}} of the [[Germanic pantheon]] during the early centuries AD, Venus became identified with the Germanic goddess ''[[Frijjo]]'', giving rise to the loan translation "[[Friday]]" for ''dies Veneris''.

'''[[Veneralia]]''' (April 1) was held in honour of [[Venus Verticordia]] ("Venus the Changer of Hearts"), and [[Fortuna Virilis]] (Virile or strong Good Fortune{{cn|date=August 2024}})), 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]],{{efn| Either the [[Sibylline Books]], per {{cite book |author=[[Valerius Maximus]] |title=Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX |trans-title=Nine books of memborable deeds and sayings |at=8.15.12 |postscript=;}} or the [[Cumaean Sibyl]], per {{cite book |author=[[Ovid]] |title=[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]] |at=4.155–62}} }} when a series of [[Prodigium|prodigies]] was taken to signify divine displeasure at sexual offenses among Romans of every category and class, including several men and three [[Vestal Virgins]].<ref name=Staples-1998 />{{rp|pages=105–09}} The statue of Venus Verticordia was dedicated by a young woman, chosen as the most ''[[Pudicitia|pudica]]'' (sexually pure) in Rome by a committee of Roman matrons. At first, this statue was probably housed in the temple of ''[[Fortuna]] Virilis'', perhaps as divine reinforcement against the perceived moral and religious failings of its cult. In 114 BC ''Venus Verticordia'' was given her own temple.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Carter |first=Jesse Benedict |year=1900 |title=The cognomina of the goddess 'Fortuna' |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |volume=31 |page=66 |doi=10.2307/282639 |jstor=282639 }}</ref> She was meant to persuade Romans of both sexes and every class, whether married or unmarried, to cherish the traditional sexual proprieties and [[Mos maiorum|morality]] known to please the gods and benefit the State. During her rites, her image was taken from her temple to the men's baths, where it was undressed and washed in warm water by her female attendants, then garlanded with myrtle. Women and men asked Venus Verticordia's help in affairs of the heart, sex, betrothal and marriage. For [[Ovid]], Venus's acceptance of the epithet and its attendant responsibilities represented a change of heart in the goddess herself.{{efn|Romans considered personal ethics or mentality to be functions of the heart.}}<ref>Langlands, p. 59, citing {{cite book |author=Ovid |title=[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]] |at=4. 155–62}}</ref>

'''[[Vinalia#Vinalia Urbana|Vinalia urbana]]''' (April 23), a wine festival shared by Venus and [[Jupiter (mythology)|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 "[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#profanum|profane]]" wine, for everyday human use. Jupiter was patron of the strongest, purest, sacrificial grade wine, and controlled the weather on which the autumn grape-harvest would depend. At this festival, men and women alike drank the new vintage of ordinary, non-sacral wine (pressed at the previous year's ''vinalia rustica'') in honour of Venus, whose powers had provided humankind with this gift. Upper-class women gathered at Venus's Capitoline temple, where a libation of the previous year's vintage, sacred to Jupiter, was poured into a nearby ditch.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=de Cazanove |first1=Olivier |title=Jupiter, Liber et le vin latin |journal=Revue de l'histoire des religions |date=1988 |volume=205 |issue=3 |pages=245–265 |doi=10.3406/rhr.1988.1888 }}</ref> Common girls (''vulgares puellae'') and prostitutes gathered at Venus' temple just outside the Colline gate, where they offered her myrtle, mint, and rushes concealed in rose-bunches and asked her for "beauty and popular favour", and to be made "charming and witty".{{refn|Staples<ref name=Staples-1998 />{{rp|page=122}} citing {{cite book |author=[[Ovid]] |title=[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]] |at=4.863–72}} }}

'''[[Vinalia Rustica]]''' (August 19), originally a rustic [[Latium|Latin]] festival of wine, vegetable growth and fertility. This was almost certainly Venus' oldest festival and was associated with her earliest known form, ''Venus Obsequens''. Kitchen gardens and market-gardens, and presumably vineyards were dedicated to her.{{efn|Vegetable-growers may have been involved in the dedications as a corporate guild.<ref name=Eden-1963 />{{rp|page=451}} }} Roman opinions differed on whose festival it was. Varro insists that the day was sacred to Jupiter, whose control of the weather governed the ripening of the grapes; but the sacrificial victim, a female lamb (''agna''), may be evidence that it once belonged to Venus alone.{{efn|For associations of kind between Roman deities and their sacrificial victims, see [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#victima|Victima]].}}{{efn| [[Varro]] explicitly denies that the festival belongs to Venus;<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Varro]] |title=Lingua Latina |at=6.16}}</ref> that implies he was aware of opposite scholarly and / or commonplace opinion. Lipka (2009) offers this apparent contradiction as an example of two Roman cults that offer "complementary functional foci".<ref name=Lipka-2009 />{{rp|page=42}} }}

A festival of '''Venus Genetrix''' (September 26) was held under state auspices from 46 BC at [[Temple of Venus Genetrix|her Temple]] in the [[Forum of Caesar]], in fulfillment of a vow by [[Julius Caesar]], who claimed her personal favour as his divine patron, and ancestral goddess of the [[Julia (gens)|Julian clan]]. Caesar dedicated the temple during his extraordinarily lavish quadruple triumph. At the same time, he was [[pontifex maximus]] and Rome's senior magistrate; the festival is thought to mark the unprecedented promotion of a personal, family cult to one of the Roman state. Caesar's heir, Augustus, made much of these personal and family associations with Venus as an Imperial deity.<ref>Grossi, Olindo. "The Forum of Julius Caesar and the Temple of Venus Genetrix." Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 13 (1936): 215–2. https://doi.org/10.2307/4238590.</ref>{{efn|Sulla may have set some form of precedent, but there is no evidence that he built her a Temple. Caesar's associations with Venus as both a personal and state goddess may also have been propagated in the Roman provinces.<ref name=Rives1994/>}} The festival's rites are not known.

== Mythology and literature ==
{{details|Aphrodite}}
[[File:Anquises y Afrodita - Afrodisias.jpg|thumb|left|A Venus-Aphrodite ''[[velificatio|velificans]]'' holding an infant, probably Aeneas,{{efn|Sometimes interpreted as Eros-Cupid, as a symbol of the sexual union between the goddess and Anchises, but perhaps alluding also to the scene in the ''[[Aeneid]]'' when [[Dido (Queen of Carthage)|Dido]] holds Cupid disguised as Ascanius in her lap as she falls in love with Aeneas.}} as Anchises and [[Luna (goddess)|Luna]]-[[Selene]] look on (Roman-era relief from [[Aphrodisias]])]]
[[File:1863 Alexandre Cabanel - The Birth of Venus.jpg|thumb|''[[The Birth of Venus (Cabanel)|The Birth of Venus]]'' (1863) by [[Alexandre Cabanel]]|250x250px]]
As with most major gods and goddesses in [[Roman mythology]], the literary concept of Venus is mantled in whole-cloth borrowings from the literary [[Greek mythology]] of her counterpart, Aphrodite, but with significant exceptions. In some Latin mythology, [[Cupid]] was the son of Venus and [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]], the god of war. At other times, or in parallel myths and theologies, Venus was understood to be the consort of [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]] or as mother of the "second cupid", fathered by [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]].{{efn|Cicero, ''On the nature of the Gods'', 3.59 - 3.60; "The first Venus is the daughter of the Sky and the Day; I have seen her temple at Elis. The second was engendered from the sea‑foam, and as we are told became the mother by Mercury of the second Cupid. The third is the daughter of Jupiter and Dione, who wedded Vulcan, but who is said to have been the mother of Anteros by Mars. The fourth was conceived of Syria and Cyprus and is called Astarte; it is recorded that she married Adonis."}} [[Virgil]], in compliment to his patron [[Augustus]] and the ''[[gens Julia]]'', embellished an existing connection between Venus, whom [[Julius Caesar]] had adopted as his protectress, and the Trojan prince [[Aeneas]], refugee from Troy's destruction and eventual ancestor of the Roman people. Virgil's Aeneas is guided to [[Latium]] by Venus in her heavenly form, the morning star, shining brightly before him in the daylight sky; much later, she lifts Caesar's soul to heaven.{{efn|Venus as a guide and protector of Aeneas and his descendants is a frequent motif in the Aeneid. See discussion throughout Williams (2003).<ref>{{cite journal |first=M.F. |last=Williams |year=2003 |title=The Sidus Iulium, the divinity of men, and the Golden Age in Virgil's Aeneid |journal=Leeds International Classical Studies |volume=1 |url=http://lics.leeds.ac.uk/2003/200301.pdf |access-date=2014-03-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611090942/http://lics.leeds.ac.uk/2003/200301.pdf |archive-date=2014-06-11}}</ref>}} In [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' Venus came to Rome because she "preferred to be worshipped in the city of her own offspring".{{refn|Orlin,<ref name=Orlin-2002 />{{rp|page=4, note 14}} citing {{cite book |author=Ovid |title=[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]] |at=4.876}} }} In Virgil's poetic account of [[Octavian]]'s victory at the sea-[[battle of Actium]], the future emperor is allied with Venus, [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]] and [[Minerva]]. Octavian's opponents, [[Mark Antony|Antony]], [[Cleopatra]] and the Egyptians, assisted by bizarre and unhelpful [[Ancient Egyptian deities|Egyptian deities]] such as "barking" [[Anubis]], lose the battle.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Vergil]] |title=Aeneid |at=8.696–700}}</ref>
{{clear}}

== The Cupids ==
{{Main|Eros|Anteros|Cupid}}
Cupid (lust or desire) and Amor (affectionate love) are taken to be different names for the same Roman love-god, the son of Venus, fathered by [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]], [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]] or Mars.<ref>See entry "Cupid" in ''The Classical Tradition'', edited by Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, and Salvatore Settis (Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 244–246; cf Cicero, ''On the nature of the Gods'', 3.59-3.60.</ref> Childlike or boyish winged figures who accompany Venus, whether singly, in pairs or more, have been variously identified as Amores, [[Cupid]]s, [[Erotes]] or forms of Greek [[Eros]]. The most ancient of these is Eros, whom [[Hesiod]] categorises as a [[Greek primordial deities|primordial deity]], emerging from [[Chaos (cosmogony)|Chaos]] as a generative power with neither mother nor father. Eros was the [[Greek city-state patron gods|patron deity]] of [[Thespiae]], where he was embodied as an [[aniconic]] stone as late as the 2nd century AD. From at least the 5th century BC he also had the form of an adolescent or pre-adolescent male, at [[Elis]] (on the [[Peloponnese]]) and elsewhere in Greece, acquiring wings, bow and arrows, and divine parents in the love-goddess Aphrodite and the war-god Ares. He had temples of his own, and shared others with Aphrodite.<ref>{{cite journal |last=O'Hara |first=James J. |year=1990 |title=The significance of Vergil's Acidalia Mater, and Venus Erycina in Catullus and Ovid |journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |volume=93 |pages=335–338|doi=10.2307/311293 |jstor=311293 }}</ref><ref name=Wlosok1975>{{cite journal |last1=Wlosok |first1=Antonie |title=Amor and Cupid |journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |date=1975 |volume=79 |pages=165–179 |doi=10.2307/311134 |jstor=311134 }}</ref>
[[File:Altar Mars Venus Massimo n4.jpg|thumb|right|Fragmentary base for an altar of Venus and Mars, showing cupids or [[erotes]] playing with the war-god's weapons and [[biga (chariot)|chariot]]. From the reign of [[Trajan]] (98–117 AD)]]
At Elis, and in [[Athens]], Eros shared cult with a twin, named Anteros. [[Xenophon]]'s [[Socrates|Socratic]] ''[[Symposion]]'' 8. 1, features a dinner-guest with ''eros'' (love) for his wife; in return, she has ''anteros'' (reciprocal love) for him. Some sources suggest Anteros as avenger of "slighted love". In [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]]' 4th century commentary on Virgil's [[Aeneas]], Cupid is a deceptive agent of Venus, impersonating Aeneas' son and making [[Dido]], queen of [[Carthage]], forget her husband. When Aeneas rejects her love, and covertly leaves Carthage to fulfill his destiny as ancestor of the Roman people, Dido is said to invoke Anteros as "contrary to Cupid". She falls into hatred and despair, curses Rome, and when Aeneas leaves, commits suicide.{{efn|Cicero presents Anteros as a "third Cupid", fathered by Mars and birthed by a "third Venus", the huntress [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]] (more usually described as ''virgin''). See Cicero, ''On the nature of the Gods'', 3.59-3.60}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=O'Hara |first=James J. |year=1990 |title=The significance of Vergil's Acidalia Mater, and Venus Erycina in Catullus and Ovid |journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |volume=93 |pages=335–338|doi=10.2307/311293 |jstor=311293 }}</ref><ref name=Wlosok1975/> 

[[Ovid]]'s Fasti, Book 4, invokes Venus not by name but as "Mother of the Twin Loves", the ''gemini amores''.{{efn|Ovid, ''Fasti'', 4, 1: ''Amores'', 3. 15. 1: ''Heroides'', 7. 59: 16. 203. See also Catullus C. 3. 1, 13. 2: Horace, 1. 19. 1 :4. 1. 5.}} "Amor" is the Latin name preferred by Roman poets and ''literati'' for the personification of "kindly" love. Where Cupid (lust) can be imperious, cruel, prone to mischief or even war-like, Amor softly persuades. [[Cato the Elder]], having a [[Stoicism|Stoic's]] outlook, sees Cupid as a deity of greed and blind passion, morally inferior to Amor. The Roman playwright [[Plautus]], however, has Venus, Cupid and Amor working together.<ref name=Wlosok1975/>

In Roman cult inscriptions and theology, "Amor" is rare, and "Cupido" relatively common. No Roman temples seem dedicated to Cupid alone but the joint dedication formula ''Venus Cupidoque'' ("Venus and Cupid") is evidence of his cult, shared with Venus at her Temple just outside the Colline Gate and elsewhere. He would also have featured in many private household cults. In private and public areas alike, statues of Venus and Mars attended by Cupid, or Venus, Cupid and minor ''erotes'' were sometimes donated by wealthy sponsors, to serve both religious and artistic purposes.<ref>Clark, Anna, ''Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome'', Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 177.</ref><ref>Leonard A. Curchin, Leonard A., "Personal Wealth in Roman Spain," ''Historia'' 32.2 (1983), p. 230</ref> Cupid's roles in literary myth are usually limited to actions on behalf of Venus; in [[Cupid and Psyche]], one of the stories within ''[[The Golden Ass]]'', by the Roman author [[Apuleius]], the plot and its resolution are driven by Cupid's love for Psyche ("soul"), his filial disobedience, and his mother's envy.<ref name=Wlosok1975/>

== Iconography ==
=== Signs, context and symbols ===
[[File:Medallion painting of Venus Aphrodite with a golden diadem and scepter, pearl earrings and necklace, House of Marcus Fabius Rufus, Pompeii 2.jpg|thumb|A medallion painting from the House of Marcus Fabius Rufus in [[Pompeii]], Italy, executed in the [[Pompeian Styles|Second Style]] and depicting the Greco-Roman goddess Venus-Aphrodite in [[regalia]], with [[diadem]] and [[scepter]]; it is dated to the 1st century BC.]]

Images of Venus have been found in domestic murals, mosaics<!-- Need text and image of Bignor Venus and "gladiator-cupids", if possible: Imperial era stuff, and Venus as vehicle of Imperial religion and ludi  --> and household shrines (''lararia''). [[Petronius]], in his ''[[Satyricon]]'', places an image of Venus among the [[Lares]] (household gods) of the [[freedman]] [[Trimalchio]]'s ''lararium''.<ref>Kaufmann-Heinimann, in Rüpke (ed), pp. 197–98.</ref> 

The Venus types known as ''Venus Pompeiana'' ("Venus of Pompeii") and ''Venus Pescatrice'' ("Venus the Fisher-woman") are almost exclusive to Pompeii. Both forms of Venus are represented within Pompeian homes of the well-off, with ''Venus Pompeiana'' more commonly found in formal reception spaces, typically depicted in full [[regalia]], draped with a mantle, standing rigidly upright with her right arm across her chest. Images of ''Venus Pescatrice'' tend to be more playful, usually found in less formal and less public "non-reception" areas: here, she usually holds a [[fishing rod]], and sits amidst landscape scenery, accompanied by at least one [[cupid]].{{sfnp|Brain|2017|pp=51-56|ps=none}}

Venus' [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#signum|signs]] are for the most part the same as Aphrodite's. They include [[rose]]s, which were offered in Venus' [[Porta Collina]] rites,{{efn|Eden (1963),<ref name=Eden-1963>{{cite journal |last=Eden |first=P.T. |year=1963 |title=Venus and the Cabbage |journal=Hermes |volume=91 |pages=448–59}}</ref>{{rp|page=456}} citing {{cite book |author=[[Ovid]] |title=[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]] |at=4:869–70, cf. I35–I38}} Ovid describes the rites observed in the early Imperial era, when the temple environs were part of the Gardens of Sallust.}} <!-- A bit of an oddment – not sure how best to incorporate --> and above all, [[Myrtus|myrtle]] (Latin ''myrtus''), which was cultivated for its white, sweetly scented flowers, aromatic, evergreen leaves and its various medical-magical properties. Venus' statues, and her worshipers, wore myrtle crowns at her festivals.<ref>{{cite book |last=Versnel |first=H.S. |year=1994 |title=Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion |volume=2 |page=262 |article=Transition and reversal in myth and ritual |publisher=Brill |article-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kWU33X4gPmUC&q=Inconsistencies+in+Greek+and+Roman+Religion:+Transition+and+reversal+in+myth}}</ref> Before its adoption into Venus' cults, myrtle was used in the purification rites of [[Cloacina]], the Etruscan-Roman goddess of Rome's [[Cloaca Maxima|main sewer]]; later, Cloacina's association with Venus' sacred plant made her [[Venus Felix|Venus Cloacina]]. Likewise, Roman folk-etymology transformed the ancient, obscure goddess [[Murcia (mythology)|Murcia]] into "Venus of the Myrtles, whom we now call Murcia".{{refn|Eden (1963)<ref name=Eden-1963 />{{rp|pages=457–58}} citing [[Pliny the Elder]], Natural History, 15,119–21}}{{efn|Murcia had a shrine at the [[Circus Maximus]].}}

[[Myrtus|Myrtle]] was thought a particularly potent [[aphrodisiac]]. As goddess of love and sex, Venus played an essential role at Roman prenuptial rites and wedding nights, so myrtle and roses were used in bridal bouquets. Marriage itself was not a seduction but a lawful condition, under [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]]'s authority; so myrtle was excluded from the [[bridal crown]]. Venus was also a patron of the ordinary, everyday wine drunk by most Roman men and women; the seductive powers of wine were well known. In the rites to [[Bona Dea]], a goddess of female chastity,{{efn|"[[Bona Dea]]" means "The Good Goddess". She was also a "Women's goddess".}} Venus, myrtle and anything male were not only excluded, but unmentionable. The rites allowed women to drink the strongest, sacrificial wine, otherwise reserved for the Roman gods and Roman men; the women euphemistically referred to it as "honey". Under these special circumstances, they could get virtuously, religiously drunk on strong wine, safe from male intrusion and Venus' temptations. Outside of this context, ordinary wine (that is, Venus' wine) tinctured with myrtle oil was thought particularly suitable for women.<ref>{{cite book |last=Versnel |first=H.S. |title=Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion |volume=2 |article=Transition and reversal in myth and ritual |publisher=Brill |year=1994 |page=262 |postscript=;}} see also {{cite journal |last=Versnel |first=H.S. |date=April 1992 |title=The Festival for Bona Dea and the Thesmophoria |journal=Greece & Rome |series=Second Series |volume=39 |issue=1 |page=44 |doi=10.1017/S0017383500023974 |s2cid=162683316 |postscript=,}} citing {{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=Quaestiones Romanae |at=20}}  For the total exclusion of myrtle (and therefore Venus) at Bona Dea's rites, see [[Bona Dea]] article.</ref>

Venus' long association with wine reflects the inevitable connections between wine, intoxication and sex, expressed in the proverbial phrase {{Lang|la|[[sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus]]}} (loosely translated as "without food and wine, Venus freezes"). It was used in various forms, notably by the Roman playwright, [[Terence]], probably by others before him, and certainly into the early modern era. Although Venus played a central role in several wine festivals, the Roman god of wine was [[Bacchus]], identified with Greek [[Dionysus]] and the early Roman wine-god [[Liber Pater]] (Father of Freedom).<ref>Bull, Malcolm, ''The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods'', Oxford UP, 2005, pp. 218_219{{ISBN|978-0195219234}}</ref>

Roman generals given an [[ovation]], a lesser form of [[Roman triumph]], wore a myrtle crown, perhaps to purify themselves and their armies of blood-guilt. The ovation ceremony was assimilated to Venus Victrix ("Victorious Venus"), who was held to have granted and purified its relatively "easy" victory.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brouwer |first=Henrik H.J. |title=Bona Dea : The sources and a description of the cult |date=1997 |publisher=E.J. Brill |isbn=978-9004086067 |page=337 |postscript=,}} citing [[Pliny the Elder]], Natural History, Ch 23, line 152–58; and Book 15, Ch.38, line 125}}</ref><ref name=Beard-2007 />{{rp|pages=63, 113}}

=== Classical art ===
[[File:Venus sur un char tiré par des élpéhants - Pompéi - Atelier des Feutriers.jpg|thumb|Venus riding a ''[[quadriga]]'' of [[elephant]]s, fresco from [[Pompeii]], 1st century AD]]
[[File:Capitoline Venus - Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016.jpg|thumb|Statue of nude Venus of the Capitoline type, Roman, 2nd century AD, from Campo Iemini, housed in the British Museum]]
Roman and Hellenistic art produced many variations on the goddess, often based on the [[Praxiteles|Praxitlean]] type [[Aphrodite of Cnidus]]. Many female nudes from this period of sculpture whose subjects are unknown are in modern art history conventionally called "Venus", even if they originally may have portrayed a mortal woman rather than operated as a [[cult statue]] of the goddess.

Examples include:
* ''[[Venus de Milo]]'' (130 BC)
* [[:File:Venus pudica Massimo.jpg|Venus Pudica]]
:* [[Capitoline Venus]]
:* [[Venus de' Medici]]
* [[Esquiline Venus]]
* [[:File:Venus Felix Pio-Clementino.jpg|Venus Felix]]
* [[:File:Venus Arles.jpg|Venus of Arles]]
* [[Venus Anadyomene]] (also [[:File:Lely Venus BM 1963.jpg|here]])
* [[:File:NAMA Aphrodite Pan & Eros.jpg|Venus, Pan and Eros]]
* [[Venus Genetrix (sculpture)|Venus Genetrix]]
* [[:File:Venus Capua, Nordisk familjebok.png|Venus of Capua]]
* [[Venus Kallipygos]]
{{clear}}

== Post-classical culture ==
=== Medieval art ===
Venus is remembered in ''[[De Mulieribus Claris]]'', a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the [[Florence|Florentine]] author [[Giovanni Boccaccio]], composed in 1361{{endash}}62. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.<ref name="Brown_xi">{{cite book |last=Boccaccio |first=Giovanni |author-link=Giovanni Boccaccio |year=2003 |translator=Virginia Brown |title=Famous Women |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |series=I Tatti Renaissance Library |volume=1 |isbn=0-674-01130-9 |page=xi}}</ref>

{|style="margin: 0 auto;"
|[[File:Othea's Epistle (Queen's Manuscript) 07.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Medieval representation of Venus, sitting on a rainbow, with her devotees who offer their hearts to her, 15th century.]]
|[[File:Roman de la Rose f. 129v (Venus aims at the castle).jpg|thumb|Venus, setting fire to the castle where the Rose is imprisoned, in the medieval French romance [[Roman de la Rose]]. In this story Venus is portrayed as the mother of [[Cupid]]]]
|}

=== Art in the classical tradition ===
[[File:Aphrodite Anadyomene from Pompeii cropped.jpg|thumb|[[Venus Anadyomene|Venus rising from the sea]], alluding to the birth-myth of Greek [[Aphrodite]].<ref>[[Mary Beard (classicist)|Beard, M.]], [[Simon Price (classicist)|Price, S.]], North, J., ''Religions of Rome: Volume 2, a Sourcebook, illustrated,'' Cambridge University Press, 1998, 2.1a, p. 27</ref>  From a garden wall at the Casa della Venere in conchiglia, [[Pompeii]]. Before AD 79]]
Venus became a popular subject of [[painting]] and [[sculpture]] during the [[Renaissance]] period in Europe. As a "[[classical tradition|classical]]" figure for whom [[nudity]] was her natural state, it was socially acceptable to depict her unclothed. As the goddess of [[Human sexuality|sexuality]], a degree of erotic beauty in her presentation was justified, which appealed to many artists and their patrons. Over time, ''venus'' came to refer to any artistic depiction in post-classical art of a nude woman, even when there was no indication that the subject was the goddess.
[[File:Sandro Botticelli - La nascita di Venere - Google Art Project - edited.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|''[[The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)|The Birth of Venus]]'', by [[Sandro Botticelli]] {{circa|1485}}–1486.]]
[[File:Jacopo Tintoretto - Venus, Mars, and Vulcan - WGA22664.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|''[[Tintoretto|Venus, Mars, and Vulcan]]'', by [[Tintoretto]] ]]
* [[The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)|''The Birth of Venus'' (Botticelli)]] ({{circa|1485}})
* ''[[Sleeping Venus (Giorgione)|Sleeping Venus]]'' ({{circa|1501}})
* ''[[Venus of Urbino]]'' (1538)
* ''[[Venus with a Mirror]]'' ({{circa|1555}})
* ''[[Rokeby Venus]]'' (1647–1651)
* ''[[Olympia (Manet)|Olympia]]'' (1863)
* [[The Birth of Venus (Cabanel)|''The Birth of Venus'' (Cabanel)]] (1863)
* [[The Birth of Venus (Bouguereau)|''The Birth of Venus'' (Bouguereau)]] (1879)
* Venus of Cherchell, Gsell museum in [[Algeria]]
* ''[[Venus Victrix (Canova)|Venus Victrix]]'', and ''Venus Italica'' by [[Antonio Canova]]

In the field of [[prehistoric art]], since the discovery in 1908 of the so-called "[[Venus of Willendorf]]" small [[Neolithic]] sculptures of rounded female forms have been conventionally referred to as [[Venus figurines]]. Although the name of the actual deity is not known, the knowing contrast between the obese and fertile [[cult figure]]s and the classical conception of Venus has raised resistance to the terminology.{{Citation needed|date=March 2020}}

===Gallery===<!--chronological order-->
<gallery>
File:TITIAN - Venus Anadyomene (National Galleries of Scotland, c. 1520. Oil on canvas, 75.8 x 57.6 cm).jpg|''[[Venus Anadyomene (Titian)|Venus Anadyomene]]'' ({{circa|1525}}) by [[Titian]]
File:Titian - Venus with a Mirror - Google Art Project.jpg|''Venus with a Mirror'' ({{circa|1555}}) by [[Titian]]
File:Målning. Venus. Frans Floris - Hallwylska museet - 86707.tif|''Venus'' by [[Frans Floris]], [[Hallwyl Museum]]
File:0 Vénus et Cupidon - P.P. Rubens - Musée Thyssen-Bornemisza (2).JPG|''Venus and Cupid'', painting ({{circa|1650}}–1700) by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]
File:Jacques-Louis David - Mars desarme par Venus.JPG|''[[Mars Being Disarmed by Venus]]'' (1822–1825) by [[Jacques-Louis David]]
File:Lely_venus-cupid.jpg|[[Nell Gwynne]], one of the long-time mistresses of King Charles II of England, as Venus with her son as Cupid ({{circa|1665}}) by [[Peter Lely]]
File:Tannhäuser en el Venusberg, por John Collier.jpg|''Tannhäuser in the Venusberg'' (1901) by [[John Collier (Pre-Raphaelite painter)|John Collier]]
File:Kustodiev russian venus.jpg|''Russian Venus'' (1926) by [[Boris Kustodiev]]
File:Iris presenting the wounded Venus to Mars (Venus, supported by Iris, complaining to Mars), by Sir George Hayter, 1820 - Ante Library, Chatsworth House - Derbyshire, England - DSC03419.jpg|Iris presenting the wounded Venus to Mars by Sir [[George Hayter]], 1820 – Ante Library, [[Chatsworth House]]
File:Venus and Cupid dli 165005537 cor.tif|Anonymous (France) after [[François Boucher]], "Venus and Cupid on a Dolphin", 19th century, [[Lithography|lithograph]]
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[History of the nude in art|Venus in nude art history]]
* [[Love goddess]]
* [[Labia majora#Pudendal cleft|Cleft of Venus]]
* [[Dimples of Venus]]
* [[Planets in astrology#Venus|Astrological planet Venus]]
* [[Saartjie Baartman|Hottentot Venus]]
* [[Sailor Venus]]
* [[Benzaiten]]
* [[Anahita]]
* [[Venus|Planet Venus in the Solar System]]
* [[Venus symbol]]
* [[Venus (1929 film)]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|25em}}

=== Bibliography ===
* [[Mary Beard (classicist)|Beard, M.]], [[Simon Price (classicist)|Price, S.]], North, J., ''Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History, illustrated,'' Cambridge University Press, 1998.
* [[Mary Beard (classicist)|Beard, Mary]]: ''[[The Roman Triumph]]'', The Belknap Press of [[Harvard University Press]], Cambridge, Mass., and London, England, 2007. (hardcover). {{ISBN|978-0-674-02613-1}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Brain |first1=Carla |title=Venus in Pompeian Domestic Space: Decoration and Context |journal=Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal |date=23 March 2017 |issue=2016 |pages=51–66 |doi=10.16995/TRAC2016_51_66 |doi-access=free }}
* Champeaux, J. (1987). ''Fortuna. Recherches sur le culte de la Fortuna à Rome et dans le monde romain des origines à la mort de César. II. Les Transformations de Fortuna sous le République.'' Rome: Ecole Française de Rome, pp.&nbsp;378–395.
* {{cite book |last1=de Vaan |first1=Michiel |title=Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages |date=2008 |publisher=Leiden · Boston |isbn=978-90-04-16797-1 |author-link=Michiel de Vaan }}
* Eden, P.T., "Venus and the Cabbage", ''Hermes'', 91, (1963), pp.&nbsp;448–459.
* Hammond, N.G.L. and Scullard, H.H. (eds.) (1970). ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (p.&nbsp;113)
* Langlands, Rebecca (2006). ''Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-85943-1}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=aEXOF_tdahYC&q=Sexual+morality+in+ancient+Rome++By+Rebecca+Langlands]
* Lloyd-Morgan, G. (1986). "Roman Venus: public worship and private rites." In M. Henig and A. King (eds.), ''Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman Empire'' (pp.&nbsp;179–188). Oxford: Oxford Committee for Archaeology Monograph 8.
* Nash, E. (1962). ''Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome Volume 1''. London: A. Zwemmer Ltd. (pp.&nbsp;272–263, 424)
* Richardson, L. (1992). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=K_qjo30tjHAC A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome]''. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. (pp.&nbsp;92, 165–167, 408–409, 411) {{ISBN|0-8018-4300-6}}
* Room, A. (1983). ''Room's Classical Dictionary''. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (pp.&nbsp;319–322)
* [[Jörg Rüpke|Rüpke, Jörg]] (Editor), ''A Companion to Roman Religion'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-4051-2943-5}}
* Schilling, R. (1982) (2nd ed.). ''La Religion Romaine de Vénus depuis les origines jusqu'au temps d'Auguste.'' Paris: Editions E. de Boccard.
* Schilling, R., in Bonnefoy, Y., and Doniger, W. (Editors), ''Roman and European Mythologies'', (English translation), University of Chicago Press, 1991. pp.&nbsp;146. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Uf2_kHAs22sC&dq=omen&pg=PA146]
* Scullard, H.H. (1981). ''Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic''. London: Thames and Hudson. (pp.&nbsp;97, 107)
* Simon, E. (1990). ''Die Götter der Römer''. Munich: Hirmer Verlag. (pp.&nbsp;213–228).
* Staples, Ariadne (1998). ''From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion''. London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0415132339}}.
* Turcan, Robert (2001). ''The Cults of the Roman Empire''. Blackwell. {{ISBN|0631200460}}.
* Wagenvoort, Hendrik, "The Origins of the goddess Venus" (first published as "De deae Veneris origine", ''Mnemnosyne'', Series IV, 17, 1964, pp.&nbsp;47 – 77) in ''Pietas: selected studies in Roman religion'', Brill, 1980.
* Weinstock, S. (1971). ''Divus Julius''. Oxford; Clarendon Press. (pp.&nbsp;80–90)
* Gerd Scherm, Brigitte Tast ''Astarte und Venus. Eine foto-lyrische Annäherung'' (1996), {{ISBN|3-88842-603-0}}

== External links ==
{{DGRBM poster|Venus}}
* {{Commons category inline|Venus (dea)}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/625655/Venus Britannica Online Encyclopedia]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150829172513/http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/r/the_roman_goddess_venus.aspx The Roman goddess Venus – highlights at The British Museum]
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000062 Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (ca 2400 images of Venus)]
* [http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/displaypicture.asp?venue=7&id=86 'Venus Chiding Cupid for Learning to Cast Accounts'] by Sir Joshua Reynolds at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20040401102820/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/index.asp Lady Lever Art Gallery]
{{Roman religion}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Venus (mythology)| ]]
[[Category:Beauty goddesses]]
[[Category:Deities in the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Fertility goddesses]]
[[Category:Love and lust goddesses]]
[[Category:Mother goddesses]]
[[Category:Fortune goddesses]]
[[Category:Peace goddesses]]
[[Category:Nudity in mythology]]
[[Category:Sexuality in ancient Rome]]
[[Category:Venusian deities]]
[[Category:Planetary goddesses]]
[[Category:Dii Consentes]]
[[Category:Roman goddesses]]
[[Category:Aphrodite]]
[[Category:Deities of wine and beer]]
[[Category:Alcohol goddesses]]
[[Category:Legendary progenitors]]