Venus the goddess of love

As the Roman and Greek goddess of love, beauty and fertilty, Venus or Aphrodite holds great power over both mortals and immortals.

There are many myths, surrounding Venus, which deal with the themes of love and desire, but there are also myths, for example the story of Venus and her lover Adonis, which show that in mythology even the gods could suffer, and were not immune to the pains and passions that we, as mere mortals, experience.

The birth of Venus, which is told by the poet Hesiod (Theogony, 188-198), provides a fascinating explanation. Hesiod claims that the name Aphrodite is derived from aphros or foam, and that the goddess was born of this substance. The tale states that the Titan, Cronos, castrated his father Uranus (eek), and then cast the severed genitals into the sea. From the foam that gathered around the genitals, Venus or Aphrodite emerged, fully formed.

...and comely Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods. This honour she has from the beginning, and this is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying gods, -- the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness....

Hesiod's Theogeny

The attributes of Venus include the dove, the sparrow, and the dolphin, and among plants the myrtle, the rose, the apple, the poppy, and lime-tree, were sacred to her.

Venus is famously associated with the Golden Apple. This golden apple was presented to Venus by the Shepherd Paris, at the Judgement of Paris. The wedding of Thetis and Peleus was taking place, all the gods were invited, except Eris, the goddess of discord. Eris was not happy and decided to distrupt the wedding by throwing a golden apple among the goddesses, bearing the words, "for the fairest". Venus, Hera and Athena all claimed the apple as their own. Zeus was asked to decide who should keep the apple, but could not. Instead he ordered the three goddesses be taken to Paris so that he could choose which of the three was the fairest. All three tried to persuade Paris, Hera promised to make Paris king among men, Athena promised to make Paris victorious in war. But Venus, knowing the power of desire and love promised Paris the hand of the beautiful Helen of Troy. Paris chose Venus as the fairest and presented her with the golden apple. The subsequent abduction of Helen and her union with Paris led to the Trojan war.

Venus was married to Hephaistos who was the great Olympian god of fire, metalworking, building and the fine arts. Venus didn't love him, but the marriage was arranged by Zeus and Venus had to marry Hephaistos or risk the wrath of Zeus. However, Venus was not not faithful to her husband, she had many affairs with both gods and men. The most notable of these affairs were Ares, the god of War, whom Venus loved and had three children with, and Adonis, the youthful handsome man, who Venus tried to protect by hiding him away and warning him about the dangers of fierce animals. Despite this warning Adonis tried and failed to kill a wild boar, instead the boar killed Adonis, leaving Venus heartbroken and reproaching the Fates, the three goddesses who supervised the fates of the gods.

Some myths say that Venus threw herself off the Leucadian rock in grief for the beautiful youth, but another account gives a different version...

And Aphrodite unbinds her locks and goes wandering through the woodlands, distraught, unkempt, and barefoot. The thorns tear her as she goes, and gather her holy blood, but she sweeps through the long glades, shrieking aloud and calling on the lad, her Assyrian lord

Bion, Greek poet of c. 100 BC

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