Venus - All about Venus. The goddess Venus in Greek mythology - who is she and what did she patronize? History of Venus de Milo

Venus progenitor. With this goddess (who eventually came to be considered a likeness of the Greek Aphrodite), the Romans had a special relationship. Once she was just the patroness of spring and the awakening of the spring forces of nature. But there were other goddesses, for example, Flora, no less popular than Venus. But when the Romans began to derive their family from the Trojan hero Aeneas, the position of Venus became special: after all, Aphrodite-Venus was his mother, and therefore the ancestor of the Roman people. So Venus took a very honorable place among the Roman gods and became known as Venus Genetrix ("Progenitor").

Venus — The goddess of love. As the goddess of awakening nature, she began to patronize any awakening of forces, including the forces of love. Here, according to the Romans, she was helped by her winged son, armed with a bow and arrows - Cupid or Cupid (Greek Eros). The very name of Venus began to be used by the Romans as a replacement for the word "love." The power of Venus, the Romans believed, fills the whole world: without it, not a single living creature is born, it alone makes everyone desire to procreate, without it there is no joy and beauty in the world, it pleases people with peaceful peace.

Nicknames for Venus. But if we thought that Venus is only the goddess of love, we would make a big mistake. Venus also helped the Romans during the war, so she was honored as Venus the Victorious; she was also revered as Venus the Bald - such an unusual nickname was a reminder of how, during one of the wars, Roman women cut off their long hair so that ropes for military weapons were woven from them. Venus was also the goddess of luck, in this case being called Venus Felix ("Happy"). This luck was different: a politician or a commander could get it in their public affairs, or ordinary people could get it in their daily affairs and entertainment. For example, dice players believed that Venus Felix brings them winnings. Therefore, the best throw, when sixes fell out on all the bones, was called “Venus” (the worst, when only ones fell out, was called “dog”).

"Father" Mars. Mars roughly corresponds to the Greek Ares, but there are perhaps more differences between them than similarities. Among the Greeks, Ares was considered the most violent and bloodthirsty of the gods; he was feared, honored, but not loved. Mars was not so bloodthirsty, and besides, he was considered the father of Romulus and Remus, the founders of the Eternal City. Therefore, the descendants of Romulus respectfully called him "father."

Spring patron. Once Mars was a completely peaceful god, and the farmers prayed to him that he averted crop failure, hunger, disease, bad weather from them and sent growth to cereals growing in the fields, offspring to livestock, health and prosperity to people. Spring was under the auspices of Mars, and the first month of the year in ancient times, when the year did not yet begin from January, was dedicated to him and bore his name - March. Traces of this beginning have survived to this day. The names of the months September, October, November and December, translated into Russian, mean "seventh", "eighth", "ninth" and "tenth"; it is easy to make sure that their numbers will be like this if they are counted not from January, but from March.

Military defender of Rome. So, Mars was the protector of people and the land on which they lived, from evil natural forces. But after all, the threat lurked not only in natural phenomena, but also in people, in neighbors who constantly encroached on the lands of Rome. Therefore, Mars gradually became the military defender of Rome, and then took under his protection all the wars waged by his descendants, the Romans. The Romans prayed to him for good luck before leaving for the war, and when they returned with another victory, in gratitude for it, they sacrificed part of their booty to him. It is not surprising, therefore, that the main holidays in honor of Mars were in March, the time when military campaigns began, and in October, the time when military activity ceased until the next spring.

Temple of Mars and its weapons. The temple of Mars kept his spear and twelve sacred shields. It was said that during the reign of the second Roman king Numa Pompilius, one such shield fell from the sky right into his hands. The king announced that this weapon had been brought to save the city from the plague that was raging then, and that it must be protected so that it would not fall into the wrong hands. The skillful craftsman Veturius Mamurius made eleven more of the same shields, so that not a single thief could distinguish a real shield from a fake.

"Dancers". The guardians and guardians of these shields were the priests-salias (their name in translation means "dancers"). Once a year, on March 1, the salii, dressed in purple clothes, girded with a copper belt, with a copper helmet on their heads, taking these shields, go around the city along its city limits - the pomerium, performing their dance, which is accompanied by sword strikes on the shields. This dance was simple, in three counts, and symbolized that the Romans were ready for military operations, their military forces woke up from hibernation.

"Mars, wake up." But it was necessary to awaken not only the military power of people, but also Mars itself. Before setting off on a campaign, the commander set in motion the sacred shields and spear hanging on the wall in the temple of Mars, exclaiming: “Mars, wake up!” Everything that happened then in the war was connected with the name of Mars. The gods Pavor (“Horror”) and Pallor (“Fear”) accompanying him made the spirit of the enemy tremble, and Virtus (“Valor”) and Honos (“Honor”) inspired the Romans to exploits. Gloria (“Glory”) circled over their army, and after the battle, the warriors who distinguished themselves in it received awards, as it were, from Mars itself.

Mars field. An undeveloped space in Rome, the Campus de Mars, was dedicated to Mars. It was the only place in the city where a person was not forbidden to be armed. Therefore, from ancient times, Roman youths competed here in the ability to wield weapons, military reviews took place here, the army went on a campaign from here, and a ritual of purification of the Roman people was held here every five years. And every year, on the day of the holiday of Equirius (February 28 and March 14), the Romans gathered on the Field of Mars became spectators of horse races. The large size of the Field of Mars allowed the simultaneous holding of many competitions, so everyone could find a spectacle to their taste there, and it was always full of people.

Diana — patroness of the Latins. The Roman goddess Diana is very similar to the Greek Artemis, with whom she was identified. She was also depicted as a young maiden surrounded by animals and was honored as the patroness of forests, animals, an assistant to women during childbirth, and a healer. Once Diana was the patroness of the union of Latin tribes, and when Rome became the head of this union in Rome, a temple was built for her. Captive Latins often came here, who did not submit to Rome and were turned into slaves. The anniversary of the founding of the temple was considered their holiday, the holiday of the slaves. In the temple of Diana, cow horns of unusual size hung, and the following story was told about them.

Unusual chick. A man from the Sabines tribe, neighboring Rome, somehow had a heifer of an unusual appearance and size. The soothsayers told him that the city whose citizen would sacrifice this heifer to Diana would rule over all the tribes. Delighted by such a prophecy, the Sabine drove the heifer to the Roman temple of Diana, placed it in front of the altar, and was ready to perform the sacrifice. Then the Roman priest, who had heard both about the miraculous animal and about the prediction, exclaimed: “How? Are you going to make a sacrifice without bathing in running water? The gods will not accept your sacrifice!" The embarrassed Sabine went to the Tiber to bathe, and the Roman quickly performed a sacrifice, thereby securing dominance for his city. As a memory of this cunning and as a sign of this domination, the horns of an extraordinary heifer hung in the temple.

Three roads, three worlds. The Romans revered Diana at the crossroads of three roads, calling her Trivia ("Three-road"). These three roads symbolized her power over the three worlds, heaven, earth and the underworld. But perhaps the most unusual was the veneration of Diana of Aricia, in Aricia near Rome. Here, on the shore of the lake, there was a sacred grove of the goddess, which served as a refuge for runaway slaves and criminals. A person hiding in a grove could become a priest of Diana of Aric, "the king of the forest", but for this it was necessary to pluck a branch from a sacred tree. The difficulty was that the “king of the forest” already existed, and he would not have given this branch so easily. It had to be broken by defeating its predecessor, and then it was painful to wait for a new, stronger newcomer to take away both power in this grove and life from you.

Volcano — master of fire. This god was originally the master of fire, both beneficial for people and destructive, both earthly and heavenly. The fire of the Volcano produces fires during which entire cities burn out, but the same god can also protect against a fire. Therefore, although there were no temples of Vulcan in the city of Rome, an altar was arranged for him on a special site near the forum, which was called Vulcanal. The holiday in honor of Vulcan (Vulcanalia) was celebrated on August 23, and on this day, according to tradition, live fish were sacrificed to the god - creatures associated with water, an element that is opposite to fire and can tame it.

God of blacksmiths. Over time, when craft began to develop in Rome, Vulcan became the god of blacksmiths and became like the Greek Hephaestus. His images also became similar to the images of Hephaestus - a bearded man in the clothes of an artisan, with a hammer, anvil and tongs. The forge of Vulcan, as the Romans believed, is underground, and if fire and smoke break out from the top of the mountain, it means that God is working in it. Therefore, all fire-breathing mountains began to be called the name of this god - volcanoes, and their eruptions were also attributed to his activity.

God Mercury

God Mercury. The name of this god comes from the Latin word "merx" - goods. This alone makes it clear that we are talking about a deity associated with trade. Indeed, the Roman Mercury (identified with the Greek Hermes) was primarily the god of trade and merchants. Mercury gave merchants profit, he took care of their safety, he could point out treasures buried in the ground. The symbol of this side of Mercury's activity was the purse, with which he was often depicted. In gratitude for all this, the merchants gave a tenth of their income to the temple of Mercury, and with this money a public meal was arranged in August.

Holidays of Mercury. Especially revered among the merchants was a holiday in honor of Mercury, celebrated on May 15th. On this day, they scooped up water in the source of Mercury near the Kapensky Gate, and then, dipping a palm branch into this water, sprinkled their goods, turning to Mercury with such a prayer: “Wash away my former treachery, wash away the false speeches that I spoke! If I falsely swore, hoping that the great gods would not hear my lies, let the swift winds blow away all my lies! May the door be opened wide today to my tricks, and may the gods not care about my oaths! Give me a good profit and help me to deceive the buyer well!”

In addition to trade, Mercury patronized secret knowledge and was considered the founder and patron of the secret science of alchemy, with the help of which they tried to turn various substances into gold. Such Mercury was honored with the epithets "knowing", "wise". The Roman Mercury borrowed some of the functions from the Greek Hermes, like which he began to be considered the messenger of the gods and the guide of the souls of the dead to the underworld.

God Neptune. It is generally believed that the Roman Neptune, like the Greek Poseidon, is the god of the seas. It is both so and not so. So - because after identification with the Greek god, Neptune really received the seas into his knowledge; not so - because initially it was not connected with the sea. This is understandable: among the Greek sailors, Poseidon was the brother of Zeus himself, as powerful as the Father of gods and people, and very revered, since it depended on him whether the voyage would be successful.

But the Romans were a land people! The expanses of the sea interested them very little, but the patron god of all moisture and the protector from drought was important. That god was Neptune. He especially patronized springs and other flowing water, which nourishes fields, animals, and people themselves. Neptunalia, Neptune's holiday, was celebrated on July 23, when the summer heat is especially strong, the streams dry up, the fields wither away without moisture. On this day, they prayed to God to send saving water, to revive drying plants.

As the god of the seas, Neptune is formidable and indomitable. It is in his power to send a storm, he can stop it; the winds raging on the sea immediately calm down when they hear his formidable cry: “Here I am!”

Fons and Fontanalia. Many other gods were associated with Neptune, one way or another related to moisture. So, the goddesses of the springs were stones, and all the springs were in charge of the god Fons, in whose honor on October 13, when the springs began to revive again after the summer heat, the Fontanalia festival was celebrated. The goddess Salacia, whose name can be translated as "Movement of the Sea", was considered the wife of Neptune, the god Portun was in charge of all ports, both river and sea, and each river had its own separate god.

However, Neptune was not only the god of moisture. Like the Greek Poseidon, he was considered the patron saint of horses, whence his epithet "equestrian" comes from. Equestrian Neptune was considered the patron saint of horsemen, and races were held in his honor in Rome. Romulus introduced them for the first time, and it was during this holiday that the famous abduction of the Sabine women took place.

Venus was the primary Roman goddess, mainly associated with love, beauty, and fertility, as well as agriculture, arable land, and gardens. She was considered the ancestor of the Roman people through her mythological function as the progenitor of Aeneas, and therefore played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths. Because many of the figures in Roman mythology were largely derived from the Greek tradition, Venus bears a close resemblance to Aphrodite, the goddess of love in the Greek pantheon.

Origin and etymology

Venus continues a long line of female deities, which in their features has similar features with Indo-European mythological systems, as well as with the culture of the Middle East. These include goddesses such as Ishtar of Mesopotamia, the goddess Hathor of ancient Egypt, Astarte of Phoenician mythology, the Etruscan goddess Turan, and Ushas, ​​the ancient Indian goddess of the dawn.

Venus is also identified with the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and is described as a beautiful woman with the power to love, sexuality, fertility, and sometimes cult prostitution. Venus borrowed significant aspects from the attributes of surrounding goddesses and even distant Indo-European celestial characters. For example, she carries a certain linguistic connection with the goddess Ushas, ​​the Sanskrit epithet vanas referring to "beauty", "desire". Vanas, is related to Venus (Venus years), it is assumed that Venus was associated with the Proto-Indo-European linguistic tradition through the reconstructed root - "to desire".

The myth of birth

The story of the birth of Venus, borrowed directly from the Greeks, explains that the goddess arose from the foam of the seashore. This miraculous creation took place after Saturn castrated his tyrant father, the supreme god of heaven, Caelus (equivalent to the Greek Uranus). After Saturn cut off Caelus's genitals, he promptly threw them into the sea. As the genitals drifted through the water, the blood (in some variants, semen) that came out of the torn flesh mixed with the sea water allowed the fetus to develop. This child was the goddess Venus.

Venus and Vulcan

Venus was the wife of Vulcan, who was a famous blacksmith. Vulcan was not handsome, but he was madly in love with his wife, and in order to bring her joy, he forged the most beautiful jewelry for her. His calm nature, unsightly appearance and banal life with him repelled Venus, and she was constantly dissatisfied. Venus and Vulcan had no children together, but her extramarital love affairs with both gods and mortals allowed her to become a mother.

Vulkan was jealous of his wife and was often disgusted by her shameless behavior. One day he decided to take revenge on her. He forged a thin strong net and placed it in the bedroom where Venus usually received lovers. One of her constant favorites was Mars, the god of war. After waiting for the young couple in the bedroom and waiting for their fiery embrace, Vulkan pulled the ropes holding the net from above, and it fell on the lovers completely capturing them in an unsightly state.

Such revenge seemed not enough to Vulcan, and he invited the other gods to admire the scandalous couple. The gods liked what they saw, they began to laugh and mock Venus and Mars. On Olympus, for a long time, with laughter and rude jokes, they recalled the humiliation of the captured couple. Mars, unable to bear the shame, as soon as he was freed from the trap, hid in a safe place, leaving Venus alone.

Son of Aeneas

Significant among the many children of Venus was Aeneas, the legendary Trojan hero whose wanderings enabled him to find the city that would one day become Rome. Aeneas was born as a result of the love affair of Venus with the mortal king of the Dardani, Anchises. Venus seduced him in the guise of a Phrygian princess (a myth borrowed directly from the Greeks). Legend claims that it was Venus who helped Aeneas escape from the burning city of Troy, protecting him from the wrath of Juno. Later he met the goddess Dido, queen of Carthage. She provided him with a safe haven, and then fell in love with Aeneas.

In one of the regular battles, Aeneas finds his death near the Numicius River. Heartbroken, Venus asked the god Jupiter to resurrect her son. Jupiter agreed, and after the god of the river Numicius collected the remains of Aeneas from it, Venus anointed him with the immortal amrita nectar made from ambrosia. Aeneas immediately assumed the lost form. Since he is a distant descendant of Romulus and Remus, the mythological founders of Rome, Venus was also considered the divine ancestor of the entire Roman people. In addition, the most famous emperors Julius Caesar and Augustus also traced their lineage back to Aeneas and therefore to Venus.

Venus in art

Given the idea that Venus was the epitome of beauty and sexuality, it is not surprising that she was a common subject of classical, medieval, and modern art. Roman and Hellenistic art produced many variations on the goddess, often based on the Greek Aphrodite of Cnidus, Praxiteles' most famous sculpture. Many female nude sculptures that have found their way into modern art history are commonly referred to as "Venuses", even though they may have originally served as a depiction of a mortal woman rather than as a cult statue of a goddess. Examples of this type of work are the famous Venus Milo (130 BC), Venus Medici, Venus Caspitolina and Venus Callipyga, a goddess form popular in Syracuse.

Venus regained its popularity as a subject of painting and sculpture during the Renaissance in Europe. As a "classic" figure, for whom nudity was her natural state, it was socially acceptable to portray Venus unsullied. As a goddess of sexual heritage, the degree of erotic beauty in her performance was also justified, an obvious appeal to many artists and their patrons. Examples of such works are Botticelli's Birth of Venus (1485), Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (1501) and Urbino's Venus (1538). Over time, the generic term venus meant any postclassical female nude art, even if there was no indication that the artwork was a goddess.

veneration

The worship of Venus was centered around her main temples, most notably during the two Vinalia festivals that celebrated the bountiful harvest. August 15, 293 BC one of the oldest temples was erected in her honor. The temple was built with money collected from the fines levied on women who were found guilty of adultery. The day of worship was set for August 19, after which the celebration of the festival began.

April 23, 215 BC BC, another temple dedicated to Venus was built, which was located outside the gates of Collina on the Capitoline Hill in order to celebrate the defeat of the Romans in the battle of Lake Trasimene. This day has been celebrated for centuries, followed by another Vinalia festival.

In her role as the ancestor of the Roman people, Venus, the mother, was celebrated at a festival on 26 September. Since the goddess was considered the mother of the Julian lineage, in particular, Julius Caesar also dedicated a temple to her in Rome.

The similarity of the plots of Greek and Roman mythology, despite the fact that the same heroes are called differently, often confuses the stories themselves. Therefore, I will tell about today's heroes with information taken from the site of Greco-Roman mythology.

Mars (Greek Ares) is the unloved son of Jupiter-Zeus and Juno-Hera, the god of war, insidious, treacherous, war for the sake of war, unlike Pallas Athena, the goddess of fair and just war.
Roman Venus (aka Greek Aphrodite) is the goddess of love and beauty.
Aphrodite's husband is Vulcan (aka Hephaestus) - the most skilled blacksmith and the ugliest among the gods. The lame-legged Vulcan worked at the anvils in his forge and did not feel much attraction to his wife, finding true satisfaction in working with a hammer at a flaming forge.

Diego Velázquez The Forge of Vulcan 1630 Museo del Prado

Frans Floris Venus at Vulcan's Forge 1560-64

Paolo Veronese Vulcan and Venus 1560-61 Fresco Villa Barbaro, Maser.

Jan Brueghel the Elder Venus at the Forge of Vulcan (An Allegory of Fire) 1606-23

Palma Giovane Venus and Cupid at Vulcan's Forge 1610

Jan van Kessel I Venus at the Forge of Vulcan 1662

Georg Raphael Donner Venus in Vulcan's Workshop 1730

Sigismund Christian Hubert Goetze Venus Visits Vulcan 1909

Francesco Albani Summer Venus in Vulcan's Forge 1616-17

Giorgio Vasari Vulcan's Forge 1567-68 Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Bartholomaeus Spranger Venus and Vulcan 1610

Brothers Le Nain Venus at the Forge of Vulcan 1641

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Venus and Vulcan 1762-66 Fresco Halberdiers" Room, Palacio Real, Madrid

François Boucher The Visit of Venus to Vulcan 1754 Wallace Collection, London

The goddess of love, however, was much less interested in the outstanding abilities of her husband than the masculine beauty of Mars (aka Ares), the god of war. And one day she became his mistress. The madness of war combined with the madness of love, and nothing good could be expected from this. From their connection, Deimos (Horror) and Phobos (Fear), eternal companions of wars, were born. Also from this connection was born the god of love Eros, who always accompanies Aphrodite and sends love experiences to people along with his arrows, and Harmony.

Sandro Botticelli Venus and Mars circa 1445-1510

Nicolas Poussin Mars and Venus 1626-28

Having learned about his wife's connection from the all-seeing Helios, the legal husband of Venus - Aphrodite, Vulcan decided to punish the unfaithful in his own way. Frustrated and offended, he forged the thinnest, invisible to the eye, but very strong net and attached it to the bed. Unlucky lovers got into it.
During a date, Venus and Mars were trapped - and then Hephaestus appeared and, at the sight of lovers floundering in the net, began to laugh. The peals of his laughter were heard on the ground, and mortals could take them for thunder. The gods fled.
- Look, Jupiter (aka Zeus)! shouted Vulcan-Hephaestus. - That's how I punish infidelity.
The goddesses giggled, pointing fingers at those caught, the gods also cheered, although many of them themselves would not mind taking the place of Mars - Ares.
Released by Vulcan at the request of Neptune (aka Poseidon), the lovers immediately broke up. Mars rushed off to Thrace, where he immediately ignited a new bloody war, and Venus-Aphrodite - to Crete in Paphos, where she was bathed and rubbed with imperishable oil of Charita.

Homer in the eighth song of the Odyssey tells how Venus cheated on her husband Vulcan with the young god of war Mars. But the lovers were caught in a net by a jealous husband and made a mockery of the summoned gods.

Tintoretto Venus, Mars, and Vulcan 1551 Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Maerten van Heemskerck Vulcan Showing the Gods His Net with Mars and Venus. 1536-40

Diego Velázquez Mars 1639-41 Museo del Prado

Like other gods, Venus - Aphrodite patronizes heroes, but this patronage extends only to the sphere of love. Aphrodite is trying to interfere in the military events near Troy, being a principled defender of the Trojans. She is trying to get the Trojan hero Aeneas, her son from her beloved Anchises, out of the battle, and before the battle she asks her husband Vulcan-Hephaestus to forge a sword for Aeneas.
In Rome, the Greek Aphrodite was revered under the name of Venus and was considered the progenitor of the Romans through her son, the Trojan Aeneas, father of Yul, the legendary ancestor of the Julius clan, to which Julius Caesar belonged. Therefore, Venus - "the kind of Aeneas mother" - the constant patroness of Aeneas, not only near Troy, but mainly after his arrival in Italy, is especially glorified in the era of the principate of Augustus.

Venus(lat. Venus) - one of the 12 deities of the Greco-Roman Olympus, Aphrodite among the Hellenes, the goddess of love and beauty, the mother of Cupid (Eros), the queen of nymphs and graces. According to Homer, Aphrodite, the daughter of Zeus and Dione, has a belt that can make any woman or goddess "more beautiful than beauty itself." Thus, according to the initial idea, Aphrodite is the personification of beauty, the highest bewitching female power. Such is the golden-haired with a brilliant and wet look and a sweet (φιλομειδής) smile on her lips Aphrodite in the Iliad, accompanied by Charites and causing surprise and delight of the whole Olympus. The Iliad also knows Aphrodite the victorious (νικηφόρος), militant (Αρεια) and regal (Βασίλεια), who is the patroness of the Trojans. Only later, other features begin to be added to these images: Aphrodite becomes the goddess of love, the patroness of marriages, and the female productive force is personified in her (Α. γεννητείρα, γαμόστολος). stories about her marriage with the ugly Hephaestus (Vulcan) and about love affairs with Ares (Mars) appear for the first time in the Odyssey; they are of later origin. From the story of Hesiod about the birth of Aphrodite from sea foam, an idea arises of her as the patroness of navigation; hence her epithets: θαλασσιά, πελαγία (sea) and Αναδυoμένη (coming out of the sea foam), Ευπλοια, Λιμνησία (giving a safe voyage). Under Phoenician influence, Aphrodite approaches Astarte and becomes the goddess of passion and sensuality. In Athens, Aphrodite Pandemos (nationwide) was revered, who, as the patroness of marriage, was considered the personification of the people's union and unity. Then she was reduced to Aphrodite Hetera (Εταίρα), and in Corinth and Ephesus she even had the epithet πόρνη, i.e., a representative of coarse and unbridled sensuality. The latter is contrasted with Aphrodite Urania (heavenly), who was especially revered in Sicyon and Argos and identified with the eldest of the three Parks, the goddess of fate.

When the cult of Aphrodite was transferred to Rome and identified with Venus is not known; but it is probable that he moved there from Sicily, where the temple of Aphrodite of Ericene was erected very early. The ancient Roman Venus was the goddess of gardens, spring, growth and prosperity; but then V. in Rome receives all the epithets of Aphrodite and the corresponding heterogeneous cults; hence Venus genitrix, V. Victrix, vulgivaga, libitina, celestis. Caesar and Augustus especially patronized the cult of V., as the progenitors (through Anchises and Aeneas) of the Roman people and the Julius family. In 46 BC, Caesar erected a magnificent temple on the new Forum. In areas where the cult of Venus-Aphrodite enjoyed special honor, she was called Citherea, Cyprida, Cnida, Pathia, Amathusia, Idalia, Erycine, etc. V. are dedicated as symbols of love, myrtle (hence the epithet Myrtia), rose, apple, as symbols of fertility - a poppy, a dove, a sparrow and a hare, as a sea goddess - a dolphin and a swan.

In ancient Greek art, the type of images of Venus went through a series of successive changes. The first plastic personifications of this goddess, like her cult itself, penetrated into Greece from the island. Cyprus; but their origin must be sought in more distant countries - in Babylonia, Chaldea and Susiana, where worship was paid to deities close in meaning to the Greek Aphrodite, and from where terracotta, barbarically naturalistic statuettes of the goddess, the culprit of the birth and reproduction of all living things, depicting her in the form of a naked woman, decorated with a headdress, necklaces and bracelets, squeezing her breasts with both hands so that milk flows out of them (for example, one of the statuettes of the Louvre Museum). Through the intermediary of the Phoenicians, this prototype of the statues of Aphrodite was brought from Asia to Cyprus, as is proved by several reproductions of it found on this island. A direct Asian origin should also be attributed to those Cypriot figurines in which the goddess appears in long clothes and holds an apple or flower in her right hand, and her left hand hidden under her clothes, near her chest. Having assimilated these types, the Greek art of the archaic period did not part with them for a long time, but then introduced into them a purely Hellenic strict grace. Apparently, at the beginning, Greece knew only one "Heavenly" Aphrodite, Aphrodite-Urania, whose power extends to all nature and, in the words of Euripides, brings down love and fertility to the earth. In her statues, she already ceases to be shamelessly naked, but is dressed in a tunic and tunic, in one hand she holds an apple, flower or dove to her chest, and with the other she slightly raises the hem of her clothes (a fragment of a statue in the Lyon Museum). In a short time, the concept of her enchanting beauty joins the previous ideas about the goddess; but even in the fifth century Greek plastic remains true to the strict archaic type. Unfortunately, no marble statues of Aphrodite have been preserved from this century, but other monuments related to it show her dressed quite modestly, in a long dress and an Attic tunic. This is how we see it, for example, in bronze figurines, many of which served as stands for mirrors (for example, one of the bronzes of the Copenhagen Music), in drawings on vases and in a fragment of the eastern Parthenon frieze of a magnificent relief belonging to the school of Phidias. This character, we can say with confidence, had three statues of Aphrodite, executed by the great Athenian sculptor himself and "Aphrodite in the gardens" (ένκήποις) of his student, Alkamen. As the art of the Greeks became less religious, the iconographic type of the goddess lost its severity, became more seductive, more sensual. Her very personality, so to speak, bifurcated: next to the former Aphrodite-Urania, another appeared, Aphrodite-Pandemos (popular), personifying the idea of ​​carnal love and voluptuousness. The gradual modifications that the iconographic type of Venus experienced at the same time can be traced by a significant number of her statues belonging to different eras: little by little she is freed from clothing; at first, a light chiton still envelops her body, outlining its young and slender forms and leaving only the right shoulder and right breast open; often the goddess with one hand puts on her shoulder a cloak fluttering from behind, and in the other she holds an apple (one of the statues of the Chiaramonti Museum, in the Vatican). This is the type of patroness of predominantly marriage unions. Venus the Parent (Venus Genetrix) subsequently acquires the same traits from the Romans, the best statues of which are kept in the gallery of the Villa Borghese, in Rome, and in Neapolitan. museum. A further step in this direction are half-dressed statues, the model of which is the Venus de Milo, in the Louvre Museum - a magnificent statue found in 1820 on the island. Milos and belonging, if not to Skopas himself, then to one of his most gifted students (see Sculpture of Table II). In it, the upper part of a charmingly beautiful woman is presented in complete nudity, and the lower part, starting from the hips, is elegantly covered with a drapery lowered from the body; with her broken and now lost hands, the goddess, as archaeologists suggest, supported a shield on her knees, in which she looked like in a mirror (see Ravaisson, "La Venus de Milo", (1871); v. Goeler, "Die Venus von Milo" (1879), as well as the studies of Gasse (1882) and Kiel (1882).Here the artist, having endowed the goddess with a military attribute, obviously wanted to express the idea of ​​​​her victorious power - the idea that nothing can stand against her power (Aphrodite- Nikiforos, i.e., the Winner). Judging by the significant number of variations of this type, repeated both in statues and in other monuments, it was in wide distribution. Of these variations, the so-called. Capuan Venus, a statue of the Neapolitan Museum, depicting the goddess also naked to the hips and trampling the helmet with her left foot. In IV table. the great sculptor of the neo-Attic school decides on an even more daring modification of the type of the goddess and removes all kinds of covers from her. The inhabitants of the island Kos ordered Praxiteles to sculpt Aphrodite for them, but instead of one of her statues, he performed two: one - dressed, the other - completely naked; customers chose the first one, as more consistent with religious tradition; the second was purchased by the Cnidians, who placed it in a small temple, open on all sides, in order to make it more convenient to admire it. The Knidos statue (see the article by S. Reinach "The Venus of Knidos" in the Herald of Fine Art., 1888, p. 189), the beauty of which the ancient writers lavish enthusiastic praises, depicted the goddess at the moment when, having thrown off takes off the last veil, puts it on a nearby vase and enters the bathing water. Neither the original work of Praxiteles, nor direct copies from it have survived, and we can judge the general appearance of the Cnidian Aphrodite only from her images on some coins. But the type created by Praxiteles corresponded as well as possible to the sensual taste of the then Greeks and the generations that followed them, and therefore was repeated, one might say, in countless variations. The closest reproductions of this type can be considered Venus Palazzo Braschi now kept in the Munich Glyptothek, Vatican Venus and one of the statues of Villa Ludovisi. In later times, Praxiteles' imitators try to give this type an even more sensual character, modifying in different ways the theme of Venus emerging from the waves of the sea (V. Anadyomena) or going to bathe. Of the statues related to this, they are especially famous: 1) Venus Medicea, in the Uffizi Museum, in Florence, with a false signature of the Athenian Cleomenes, but actually executed in Rome, in the last table. to R. X.; the goddess is given in her the features of a very young, just blossoming beauty, bashfully covering her chest with one hand, and her bosom with the other. (see Sculpting, Table III) 2) Venus of the Capitoline Museum in Rome, similar in pose and gesture to the Medicean, but depicting the goddess in the form of a woman with fully developed forms. Repetitions of both of these statues are found in many museums, among other things, in Imp. Hermitage, where the so-called. Venus Tauride is a duplicate of V. Meditseyskaya, and recently retrieved from oblivion Gatchina Venus- a duplicate of the Capitol. The same motif of bathing, but in a different composition, is represented by statues of a goddess crouched on the ground, of which one can point out as the best, Venus accroupie of the Louvre Museum and on Farnese Venus Neapolitan. museum. It would be too long to dwell on all those concepts that expressed a sensual, devoid of any religiosity, look at the goddess of love and beauty of later Greco-Roman artists, who continued to depict her in nudity, either removing her sandal from her foot, or squeezing water from a wet braid (a statue of the Torlonia collection in Rome), then admiring himself in a mirror, etc. The category of such statues should include Venus-Calipiga Neapolitan. museum, although not throwing off her tunic, although charming in form, but, due to the motive of movement and the general design, falling into triviality. It is remarkable that ancient art, at the end of its existence, returned in relation to Aphrodite to its original, archaic type, despite the loss of faith in her and, in any case, the radical change that took place in the idea of ​​her. The image of the goddess developed by him passed into the new art, which, from the Renaissance to the present day, loved to convey in her person the ideal of female beauty and grace. In composite compositions and groups, ancient sculpture and painting accompanied Aphrodite either by Eros, then by Ares, then by Adonis, or by minor deities, which are: Paydia (fun), Peifo (persuasion), Eunomia (harmony) and Charita, or in plots from the cycle of legends about Three of them brought Paris with her to the stage, handing her the apple of the Hesperides, and Helen (an excellent relief of the Neapolitan Museum).

She was first carried by the sea waves to the shore of the island of Cythera, and then to the island of Cyprus, which became the favorite residence of this goddess. According to legend, wherever she appeared, beautiful flowers grew under her feet and all the gods, people and even animals obeyed the charm of her beauty. The cult of Aphrodite, according to many scholars and researchers, was brought to Greece from Syria, where they worshiped a similar goddess under the name Astarte.

Myths of ancient Greece. Aphrodite (Venus). Ruler of love desires

There are several conflicting stories about the birth of Venus. But the artists, depicting this birth, imagine her always emerging from the sea foam. In ancient paintings, the goddess usually lies in a simple shell. On coins, she is depicted on a chariot drawn by tritons; finally, in numerous bas-reliefs, the goddess appears accompanied by sea horses or sea centaurs. In the 18th century, French artists, and mainly Bush, loved to depict this poetic myth on plafonds and decorative paintings. Rubens painted the painting “The Feast of Venus”, remarkable for the freshness of color and brilliance of colors, it is in the Vienna Museum. Of the works of the latest artists, Bouguereau's painting "The Birth of Venus" is very famous.

The toilet of Venus is a favorite subject for artists and poets. Ora engaged in the education of a lovely goddess, and graces(charites) are present at her toilet and help her. “She is the most beautiful of all goddesses, forever young, forever captivating, her beautiful eyes promise one bliss, she has a magic belt that contains all the charms of love, and even proud Juno, wanting to return the love of Jupiter, asks Venus to lend her this belt . Her golden jewelry burns brighter than fire, and her beautiful hair crowned with a golden wreath is fragrant ”(Gotfried Müller). Many pictures depict the toilet of Venus and the graces attending her. All the best artists of later times wrote on this subject, including Boucher, Proudhon, Rubens, Albano, Titian and many others.

When Greek art passed from crude and formless primitive images of Venus to more perfect ones, it began to strive to create an ideal type in which all the charming qualities and beauty would be combined and embodied, which the imagination of the Greeks, those passionate admirers of beauty, so generously endowed this goddess with. The goddess began to be depicted sitting on a throne, she is usually covered with long clothes, the folds of which, gently falling, are distinguished by special grace. In general, the hallmark of all the statues of Venus is precisely the grace, elegance of draperies and movements. In all the works of the school of Phidias and his followers, the type of Venus expresses mainly the femininity of her nature, and the feeling of love that she must arouse is a pure and lasting feeling, which has nothing to do with sensual outbursts. And only later Attic art began to interpret and see in Venus only the personification of female beauty and sensual love, and not a powerful goddess, conquering the whole universe with the power of her charm and femininity.