"uncertain. The traditional etymology is from the verb ""aperire"", ""to open"", in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to ""open"", which is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of άνοιξη (""ánixi"") (opening) for spring. Since some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred to the goddess Venus, her Veneralia being held on the first day, it has been suggested that Aprilis was originally her month Aphrilis, from her equivalent Greek goddess name Aphrodite (""Aphros""), or from the Etruscan name ""Apru"". Jacob Grimm suggests the name"
"by the Swedish symphonic metal Therion, on the album ""Vovin"", and the song ""Venus as a Boy"" by the Icelandic artist Björk. Another reference to Venus is from Billy Idol's album ""Cyberpunk"" , in track # 16 titled ""Venus"". Venus (mythology) Venus (, Classical Latin: ) is the Roman goddess, whose functions encompassed love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the mother of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals,"
"to many religious festivals in ancient Rome, and was venerated under numerous cult titles. The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart, Aphrodite, in their art and literature. In the later classical tradition of the West, Venus was one of the most widely depicted deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. In ancient Rome, she embodied love, beauty, enticement, seduction, and persuasive female charm among the community of immortal gods; in Latin orthography, her name is indistinguishable from the noun ""venus"" (""sexual love"" and ""sexual desire""), from which it derives. Venus has been"
"of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. Venus embodies sex, love, beauty, enticement, seduction, and persuasive female charm among the community of immortal gods; in Latin orthography, her name is indistinguishable from the Latin noun ""venus"" (""sexual love"" and ""sexual desire""), from which it derives. It has connections to ""venerari"" (""to honour, to try to please"") and ""venia"" (""grace, favour"") through a possible common root in an Indo-European ""*wenes-"" or ""*u̯enis"" (""friend""). Their common Proto-Indo-European root is assumed as ""*wen-"" or ""*u̯en-"" ""to strive for, wish for, desire, love""). Venus has"
"substituted for the Nordic deities to help suppress paganism. The Roman pantheon had numerous deities, both Greek and non-Greek. The more famed deities, found in the mythologies and the 2nd millennium CE European arts, have been the anthropomorphic deities syncretized with the Greek deities. These include the six gods and six goddesses: Venus, Apollo, Mars, Diana, Minerva, Ceres, Vulcan, Juno, Mercury, Vesta, Neptune, Jupiter (Jove, Zeus); as well Bacchus, Pluto and Hercules. The non-Greek major deities include Janus, Fortuna, Vesta, Quirinus and Tellus (mother goddess, probably most ancient). Some of the non-Greek deities had likely origins in more ancient European"
"Juno (mythology) Juno (; , ) was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. A daughter of Saturn, she is the wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona and Juventas. She is the Roman equivalent of Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology; like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called (""Queen"") and was a member of the Capitoline Triad (""Juno"
"Sicily. After this point, Romans adopted Aphrodite's iconography and myths and applied them to Venus. Because Aphrodite was the mother of the Trojan hero Aeneas in Greek mythology and Roman tradition claimed Aeneas as the founder of Rome, Venus became venerated as ""Venus Genetrix"", the mother of the entire Roman nation. Julius Caesar claimed to be directly descended from Aeneas's son Iulus and became a strong proponent of the cult of Venus. This precedent was later followed by his nephew Augustus and the later emperors claiming succession from him. This syncretism greatly impacted Greek worship of Aphrodite. During the Roman"
"cults, without giving precise details. Venus Felix (""Lucky Venus""), probably a traditional epithet, later adopted by the dictator Sulla. It was Venus's cult title at Hadrian's temple to ""Venus Felix et Roma Aeterna"" on the Via Sacra. This epithet is also used for a specific sculpture at the Vatican Museums. Venus Genetrix (""Venus the Mother""), as a goddess of motherhood and domesticity, with a festival on September 26, a personal ancestress of the Julian lineage and, more broadly, the divine ancestress of the Roman people. Julius Caesar dedicated a Temple of Venus Genetrix in 46 BC. This name has attached"
"the Etruscan god Tagni, or Dianus (Janus, following the work of folklorist James Frazer in ""The Golden Bough""). Lucifer Lucifer ( ; ""light-bringer"") was a Latin name for the planet Venus as the morning star in the ancient Roman era, and is often used for mythological and religious figures associated with the planet. Due to the unique movements and discontinuous appearances of Venus in the sky, mythology surrounding these figures often involved a fall from the heavens to earth or the underworld. Interpretations of a similar term in the Hebrew Bible, translated in the King James Version as ""Lucifer"", led"
"the Roman state. Caesar's heir, Augustus, made much of these personal and family associations with Venus as an Imperial deity. The festival's rites are not known. Like other major Roman deities, Venus was given a number of epithets 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."" Venus Acidalia, in Virgil's ""Aeneid"" (1.715–722, as ""mater acidalia""). Servius speculates this as"
"– and is rarely found in Greek art. The Romans had a greater appreciation for the color green; it was the color of Venus, the goddess of gardens, vegetables and vineyards. The Romans made a fine green earth pigment that was widely used in the wall paintings of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Lyon, Vaison-la-Romaine, and other Roman cities. They also used the pigment verdigris, made by soaking copper plates in fermenting wine. By the second century AD, the Romans were using green in paintings, mosaics and glass, and there were ten different words in Latin for varieties of green. In the Middle"
"Lucifer Lucifer ( ; ""light-bringer"") was a Latin name for the planet Venus as the morning star in the ancient Roman era, and is often used for mythological and religious figures associated with the planet. Due to the unique movements and discontinuous appearances of Venus in the sky, mythology surrounding these figures often involved a fall from the heavens to earth or the underworld. Interpretations of a similar term in the Hebrew Bible, translated in the King James Version as ""Lucifer"", led to a Christian tradition of applying the name Lucifer and its associated stories of a fall from heaven"
"the dawn. The Romans considered the planet Lucifer particularly sacred to the goddess Venus, whose name eventually became the scientific name for the planet. The second century Roman mythographer Pseudo-Hyginus said of the planet: Ovid, in his first century epic ""Metamorphoses"", describes Lucifer as ordering the heavens: In the classical Roman period, Lucifer was not typically regarded as a deity and had few, if any, myths, though the planet was associated with various deities and often poetically personified. Cicero pointed out that ""You say that Sol the Sun and Luna the Moon are deities, and the Greeks identify the former"
"The Worship of Venus The Worship of Venus is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist Titian completed between 1518–1519, housed at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. It describes a Roman rite of worship conducted in honour of the goddess Venus each 1 April. On this occasion, women would make offerings to representations of the goddess so as to cleanse ""every blemish on their bodies"". In Titian's work, two nymphs, one young and one matronly, are situated to the right of the ceremony, attending to a shrine holding a representation of Venus. The shrine is surrounded"
"Venus (bivalve) Venus is a genus of small to large saltwater clams in the family Veneridae, which is sometimes known as the Venus clams and their relatives. These are marine bivalve molluscs. The genus ""Venus"" is named after the Roman goddess of love, Venus. However, some bivalves are still called Venus clams because they used to be in the genus ""Venus"", though they are now placed in other genera: these include the species within the genus ""Mercenaria"", and ""Pitar dione"", the Venus shell described in sexual terms by Linnaeus. The genus is known from the Cretaceous to the recent periods"
"Roman god of the underworld's traditional Latin name, Dis. Venus, in order to bring love to Pluto, sent her son Amor (also known as Cupid) to hit Pluto with one of his arrows. Proserpina was in Sicily, at the Pergusa Lake near Enna, where she was playing with some nymphs and collecting flowers, when Pluto came out from the volcano Etna with four black horses named Orphnaeus, Aethon, Nycteus and Alastor. He abducted her in order to marry her and live with her in the underworld of which he was the ruler. Her mother Ceres, also known as Demeter, the"
"Venus Verticordia Venus Verticordia (""the changer of hearts"") was an epithet of the Roman goddess Venus, alluding to the goddess' ability to change hearts from lust to chastity. In the year 114 BC, three Vestal Virgins were condemned to death for transgressing with Roman knights the rigid law against sexual intercourse. To atone for their misdeeds, a shrine was dedicated to Venus Verticordia in the hope that she would turn the hearts of women and girls against licentiousness and towards chastity. Hence her name ""Verticordia"", which means 'turner of hearts'. Under this title she was especially worshipped by married women,"
"Greek and Roman mythology; however, it is later revealed that she is a Siren and not the true goddess. The Marvel version of the character first appeared in ""Venus"" #1 (Aug. 1948), and made her first Silver Age appearance in ""Sub-Mariner"" #57 (Jan. 1973). In the original 1940s ""Venus"" series, Venus dwelled on the planet Venus with her female companions. She traveled to Earth and took on the human identity of Victoria ""Vicki"" Nutley Starr, a journalist and editor for ""Beauty"" magazine. She developed a romantic relationship with ""Beauty"" editor Whitney Hammond; he and Venus' rival, Della Mason, were among"
"Aphrodite Aphrodite is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. She is identified with the planet Venus, which is named after the Roman goddess , with whom Aphrodite was extensively syncretized. Aphrodite's major symbols include myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows, and swans. The cult of Aphrodite was largely derived from that of the Phoenician goddess Astarte, a cognate of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar, whose cult was based on the Sumerian cult of Inanna. Aphrodite's main cult centers were Cythera, Cyprus, Corinth, and Athens. Her main festival was the Aphrodisia, which was celebrated annually in midsummer. In"
"Ancient Rome. Venus was offered official (state-sponsored) cult in certain 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. Veneralia (April 1) was held in honour 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, when a series of"
"Hearts""). See Veneralia in this article and main article, Veneralia. 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 Sulla or a Caesar."" Pompey, Sulla's protégé, vied with his patron and with Caesar for public recognition as her protégé. In 55 BC he dedicated a temple to her at the top of his 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"", a half-nude reclining portrait of Pauline Bonaparte). 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. In some Latin mythology, Cupid was the son of Venus and Mars, the god of war. At other times, or in"
"Terra, Venus (and thus Victoria) and with Libera as a female aspect of Liber. No native Roman myths of Ceres are known. According to ""interpretatio romana"", by which Roman deities were identified with their Greek counterparts, she was an equivalent to Demeter, one of the Twelve Olympians of Greek religion and mythology; this made Ceres one of Rome's twelve Di Consentes, daughter of Saturn and Ops, sister of Jupiter, mother of Proserpina by Jupiter and sister of Juno, Vesta, Neptune and Dis. Ceres' known mythology is indistinguishable from Demeter's: ""When Ceres sought through all the earth with lit torches for"
"of her first Roman temple, on August 19 in 295 BC during the Third Samnite War by 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. 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"
"for drinking parties or with the presence of Eros (""Love, Desire""). The Greek romance novel ""Daphnis and Chloe"" (2nd century AD) describes a pleasure garden, with roses and violets among its abundant flora, centered on a sacred space for Dionysus. At Rome Venus was a goddess of gardens as well as love and beauty. Venus received roses at her ritual cleansing ""(lavatio)"" on April 1 and at the wine festival (Vinalia) celebrated in her honor April 23. A lavish display of flowers was an expression of conviviality and liberal generosity. An Imperial-era business letter surviving on papyrus attempts to soothe"
"to be used as a symbol showing hostelries along the route and later as a sign of hospitality, food and lodging elsewhere. Roman myth has it that Venus, the goddess of love, was born in the sea and emerged accompanied by fish and dolphins, with Botticelli depicting her as arriving in a scallop shell. The Romans revered her and erected shrines in her honour in their gardens, praying to her to provide water and verdant growth. From this, the scallop and other bivalve shells came to be used as a symbol for fertility. Its depiction is used in architecture, furniture"
"born of sea-foam. 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 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 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."
"term Venusian is etymologically messy (similar to saying ""Earthian"" or ""Jupiterian""), and a ""cleaner"" version was desired. It was suggested that since Venus had a Greek name, as well as a Roman one, this should be used; however, the adjectival form of Aphrodite was ""aphrodisial"", which again was felt to be unfortunately close to ""aphrodisiac"", again evoking matters not directly pertaining to astronomy. A compromise was reached. In Greek mythology, the goddess Aphrodite was said to have been born from the sea, from which she emerged on a sea shell at the island of Cythera, and as such was sometimes"
"fertility goddess. From the 12th century BC onwards, adoration of this goddess becomes particularly resplendent. It appears that before the arrival of Achaeans, Palaepaphos was already a rich city with an ornate holy altar dedicated to the goddess. Tradition holds that King Kinyras of Paphos was both very rich and a priest of Venus. Another legend relates that Agapinoras, king of Tegea and Arcadia, came to Paphos after the Trojan War and founded both the city and the holy altar of Venus. The Greeks, seemingly impressed by the greatness of the goddess of Paphos, built a large altar dedicated to"
"her image, and brought it to Rome. It was installed in a temple on the Capitoline Hill, as one of Rome's twelve """". Shorn of her more overtly Carthaginian characteristics, this ""foreign Venus"" became Rome's ""Venus Genetrix"" (""Venus the Mother""), As far as the Romans were concerned, this was the homecoming of an ancestral goddess to her people. Roman tradition made Venus the mother and protector of the Trojan prince Aeneas, ancestor of the Roman 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"
"Tanit. Ovid's ""Metamorphoses"" offers a story accounting for her sacred association with the peacock. William Shakespeare briefly employs Juno as a masque character in ""The Tempest"" (Act IV, Scene I). Juno (mythology) Juno (; , ) was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. A daughter of Saturn, she is the wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona and Juventas. She is the Roman equivalent of Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology; like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to"
"Venus and Mars (Botticelli) Venus and Mars (or Mars and Venus) is a panel painting of about 1485 by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It shows the Roman gods Venus, goddess of love, and Mars, god of war, in an allegory of beauty and valour. The youthful and voluptuous couple recline in a forest setting, surrounded by playful baby satyrs. The painting was probably intended to commemorate a wedding, set into panelling or a piece of furniture to adorn the bedroom of the bride and groom, possibly as part of a set of works. This is suggested by the"
"a Venus de' Medici, a wolf (used to inspire nostalgic memories of the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus), a goat (symbolising the zodiac of Capricorn, the birth sign of the Emperor Augustus) and a boar located at the rear of the villa (symbolic of the great boar hunt). Inside the villa many references to the Roman goddess Venus abound, as she was the mother of Aeneas who fled Troy and co-founded Rome. On the forecourt to the villa are several 'term' statues that derive their forms from Terminus, the Roman god of distance and space. These are used"