Our next piece is inspired by the figure of Venus, goddess of love, beauty and fertility. Today, we honor her on our blog by reviewing this mythological image that is undoubtedly a source of inspiration for us.
Birth:
This part is perhaps the best known thanks to the famous painting by Botticelli. Legend has it that Saturn he cut off his genitals Uranus to later throw them into the sea and when the semen came into contact with the foam, the goddess of love that is born from the sea arose on the shell of a clam. Guided by the zephyr winds and accompanied by a shower of roses, she reached Cyprus, where the Hours dressed her to take her to the world of the immortals.
Marriage and infidelity:
According to mythology, when they saw her, all the gods were impressed with her beauty and sensuality and competed for her love, pretending to marry her. Jupiter he fell in love with her and courted her, but when he found himself rejected by her, he decided to punish her and marry her to Vulcan , blacksmith of the gods. However, Venus she did not accept this decision, she despised the blacksmith and thought that he was not worthy of her beauty, which led her to perform in one of its best known characteristics, infidelity. That is why it symbolizes the unleashed passion that destroys unions and incites mortals to all kinds of voluptuousness, jealousy and vices.
He had numerous lovers, including: Mars , the god of war, with whom he had many children, one of them Eros , god of love. When divorcing Vulcan , had romances with many other gods such as Neptune and Hermes , with whom he procreated the famous god Hermaphrodite who possessed both sexes. In addition, numerous normals of the goddess's love also enjoyed, among them Adonis and Anchises .
Curses:
She was also especially known for her curses and anger. For example, he punished Myrrh because her mother hurt the goddess by telling her that her daughter was the most beautiful, and cursed her, making her fall in love with her father and sleep with him for twelve nights in a row, without him recognizing her. When Myrrh saw what happened, invoked the protection of the gods and they transformed her into the aromatic tree that bears her name. He also punished the women of Lemnos , since they did not honor her and impregnated them with an unbearable odor in their genitals that caused men to reject them. In the same way, he forced the daughters of cyrinas with foreigners who were passing through the island of Cyprus. People say that cyrinas was protected by the Goddess and that he disobeyed her by marrying metarme and have children with her.
Representation:
This Goddess is perhaps one of the most represented in art history, and although the way of representing her has changed a lot throughout history, an attempt is always made to extol feminine beauty and sensual beauty. In Christianity, the figure of Venus, associated with lust, is opposed to the Virgin Mary, a sign of purity. Appears dressed or associated with the planet Venus. But after the Renaissance it appears as a young, naked woman, with erotic features and a sweet smile . Her representation evolved into a lady of the time or a prostitute. Venus had no childhood; in all the images and historical references she is seen as an adult.
Worship Festivals:
In the festivals of worship that were held for this deity, as you can imagine, excesses and pleasures abounded. When syphilis spread through Europe, people started talking about it. venereal disease, the disease that is spread by worshiping Venus . When they later realized that more diseases could be spread through sexual contact, the term was expanded to venereal diseases.