Venus (goddess)

Topics in Roman mythology
Important Gods:
Jupiter Mars Quirinus Vesta Juno Fortuna	Minerva Mercury Vulcan Ceres Venus Lares
Legendary History:
Aeneas Romulus	Numa Early Kings
Roman religion
The Flamens
Greek/Roman myth compared

Venus is the Roman goddess of love, equivalent to Greek Aphrodite and Etruscan Turan. Other figures possibly corresponding to Venus are:

• Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli in Aztec mythology
• Kukulcan in Maya mythology
• Vanadis in the Norse mythos
• Ushas in Vedic religion. Etymologically, Venus is cognate to Sanskrit vanas- "loveliness; longing, desire", an epitheton of Ushas, suggesting a Proto-Indo-European link.

Her cult began in Ardea and Lavinium, Latium. On August 18, 293 BC, her oldest temple was built. August 18 was then a festival called the Vinalia Rustica. On April 1, the Veneralia was celebrated in honor of Venus Verticordia, the protector against vice. On April 23 215 BC, a temple was built on the Capitol dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasum.

Julius Caesar introduced Venus Genetrix as a goddess of motherhood and domesticity.

Venus was often depicted in painting and in sculpture.

According to German legend, Tannhäuser was a knight and poet, who found the Venusburg, or subterranean home of Venus and spent a year there enchanted by Venus.

See also

• Aphrodite
• Freya
• Frigg
• Suadela
• Venus (planet)