Who is Venus? Guide to the Roman Goddess of Love
Venus is the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and desire, but she is also something more that she is not in the Greek tradition: she is the ancestress of Rome. Through her son Aeneas, she is the divine origin of the Roman people, and through her descendant Julius Caesar she is the ancestress of the imperial line. The Romans took the Greek Aphrodite and made her both goddess and grandmother. Her temples were as much political as religious. To love Venus was, in a real sense, to love Rome.
Key Takeaways
- Venus is the Roman goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and desire, and one of the twelve principal Roman gods.
- She is the mother of Aeneas, the Trojan prince whose descendants founded Rome; the Julian family (Julius Caesar and the emperors from Augustus) claimed direct descent from her.
- She is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Aphrodite, and shares most of her mythology, but her role as ancestress of Rome is uniquely Roman.
- Her husband is Vulcan, the smith god; her most famous lover is Mars, god of war.
- Her son Cupid (Amor) is the archer of desire, and appears in the well-known love story of Cupid and Psyche.
- Her sacred animals include the dove, the swan, and the sparrow; her sacred plants include the myrtle and the rose.
- The planet Venus, the brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon, carries her name; the word “Venus” derives from Latin venus, meaning “love” or “desire.”
Who is Venus?
Venus is the Roman goddess of love, beauty, sex, and fertility, and one of the twelve principal Roman gods. She is the counterpart of the Greek Aphrodite, and inherited most of Aphrodite’s mythology.
Definition - Venus
The Roman goddess of love, beauty, and desire, and the mythological ancestress of the Roman people through her son Aeneas. Venus is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Aphrodite. Her name comes from Latin venus, meaning “love” or “desire,” and gives us the words “venereal” and “venerate.”
Her Roman character, though, is distinctive. Where Aphrodite is chiefly a goddess of erotic desire and its consequences, Venus expanded to become the patron goddess of Rome itself. She is Venus Genetrix - Venus the Mother, the one from whom the Roman people descend. She is Venus Victrix - Venus the Victorious, who grants military success. She is Venus Verticordia - Venus the Turner of Hearts, who guides Roman women toward virtue.
The multiplication of her epithets reflects her expansion. Aphrodite is a single figure who governs love. Venus is the divine name attached to almost every dimension of Roman life that involves attraction, generation, or continuity.
Venus and the founding of Rome
The story that most distinguishes Venus from Aphrodite is her role in the founding of Rome.
Venus was the mother, by the mortal Trojan prince Anchises, of Aeneas. When Troy fell to the Greeks, Aeneas escaped, carrying his father Anchises on his back and leading his son Ascanius by the hand. Guided by Venus and driven by fate, he journeyed across the Mediterranean, stopping in Carthage where he had a fated love affair with Queen Dido, and eventually arriving in Italy. There, after a war with the local Latins, he founded the settlement that would become the origin city of Rome. His son Ascanius, also called Iulus, was the ancestor of the Julian family - the family to which Julius Caesar and the emperor Augustus belonged. Read Aeneas and the founding of Rome and Aeneas’s journey to the underworld.
This is why Venus was so important to the Roman state. She was not just the goddess of love. She was the goddess through whom Rome existed. Julius Caesar dedicated a temple to Venus Genetrix (“Venus the Mother”) in his forum, publicly claiming her as his ancestress. Augustus continued the claim. For the entire Julio-Claudian dynasty, Venus was, in a genealogical sense, family.
Virgil’s Aeneid, commissioned by Augustus, is largely the story of Venus guiding her son Aeneas toward the founding of Rome. The Roman epic tradition made her not just a goddess but a matriarch.
Venus and Mars
Venus’s most famous romantic entanglement is with Mars, god of war. The pairing has an obvious symbolic weight: the goddess of love and the god of war, together, producing something between them.
The story of their affair follows the Greek pattern involving Aphrodite and Ares. Venus is married to Vulcan (the Roman equivalent of Hephaestus), the smith god. She takes Mars as a lover. Vulcan, informed of the affair, forges a net of golden chain finer than any spider silk and traps the lovers together in Venus’s bed. He calls the other gods to witness. Neptune eventually persuades him to release them. Read Venus and Mars caught in Vulcan’s net.
In the Roman context, the pairing had additional meaning. Rome was descended from Venus (through Aeneas) and also, through the founding twins Romulus and Remus, from Mars. If Venus was Rome’s mother, Mars was Rome’s father. Their union in myth was, in a sense, the divine union that produced the Roman people.
Cupid and Psyche
Venus’s son Cupid (Amor in Latin, Eros in Greek) is the archer of desire whose golden arrows cause love and whose lead arrows cause aversion. He is the Roman version of the Greek Eros.
His most famous story is the tale of Cupid and Psyche, preserved most fully in the Latin novel The Golden Ass by Apuleius (second century CE). Cupid falls in love with the mortal princess Psyche after his mother Venus, jealous of Psyche’s beauty, sends him to make Psyche fall in love with something monstrous. Cupid pricks himself with his own arrow and falls in love with her instead. What follows is a long story of trials, visits to the underworld, and Psyche’s eventual elevation to immortality so she can marry Cupid. Read Cupid and Psyche.
The story is Roman rather than Greek in its full form, and it preserves the Roman flair for elaborate narrative romance. It also preserves Venus’s role as a mother-in-law from hell, jealous of Psyche’s beauty even after her son marries her.
Venus compared to other love goddesses
Venus’s combination of love, fertility, and ancestral patronage is unusual for its scope.
| Tradition | Love goddess | Sphere | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roman | Venus | Love, beauty, ancestress of Rome | Mother of Aeneas; ancestress of the Julian line |
| Greek | Aphrodite | Love, beauty, desire | Directly cognate; less national |
| Sumerian | Inanna / Ishtar | Love, war, kingship | Also a war goddess |
| Egyptian | Hathor | Love, joy, motherhood | Cow-headed; goddess of music |
| Norse | Freyja | Love, sexuality, war, magic | Also war and death |
The parallel with Freyja is worth noting. Both are goddesses of love who also have a war dimension (Venus through her association with Mars and her aspect as Venus Victrix; Freyja through her role receiving half the battle-slain). The combination of love and war is more common in ancient traditions than the modern separation would suggest.
Read the stories
Venus appears throughout Roman myth. Some entry points:
- Aeneas and the Founding of Rome
- Aeneas’s Journey to the Underworld
- Venus and Mars Caught in Vulcan’s Net
- Cupid and Psyche
- The Tale of Pomona and Vertumnus
- Proserpina’s Abduction by Pluto
- The Tale of Bona Dea
Venus is the goddess who made Rome possible, in the Roman story of itself. Every emperor who claimed descent from her was making a specifically religious claim. Every temple built in her name was, in some sense, a temple to Rome’s own origin. She is Aphrodite plus a genealogy - the Greek goddess of love with a Roman lineage attached, and the tradition preserves both faithfully.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Venus the same as Aphrodite?
Yes, in essence. Venus is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Aphrodite, and the Romans identified the two goddesses early in their contact with Greek culture. Most Aphrodite myths were adopted as Venus myths with names translated. However, Venus took on additional Roman-specific roles that Aphrodite did not have, particularly her status as ancestress of the Roman people through her son Aeneas.
Why is Venus the mother of Rome?
Because she is the mother of Aeneas, the Trojan prince whose descendants founded Rome. Aeneas was Venus’s son by the mortal Anchises. After the fall of Troy, Venus guided Aeneas across the Mediterranean to Italy, where he founded the settlement that would become the origin city of Rome. His son Ascanius (also called Iulus) was the ancestor of the Julian family. Julius Caesar and the emperor Augustus both claimed direct descent from Venus through this lineage.
Who is Venus’s husband?
Vulcan, the smith god (equivalent to the Greek Hephaestus). The marriage was arranged and is generally treated in myth as unhappy. Vulcan is lame, industrious, and quiet; Venus is beautiful, restless, and repeatedly unfaithful, most famously with Mars. Vulcan knows about the affair, and in one famous story he traps Venus and Mars together in a net of golden chain and calls the other gods to witness.
Who is Cupid?
Cupid (also called Amor in Latin) is Venus’s son and the personification of desire. He is the Roman version of the Greek Eros. He is depicted as a winged child (in later Roman art) or a young man (in Greek art), carrying a bow and arrows. His golden arrows cause love; his lead arrows cause aversion. His most famous story is the tale of Cupid and Psyche, in which he falls in love with a mortal princess despite his mother Venus’s jealousy.
What planet is named after Venus?
Venus, the second planet from the Sun and the brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon. The Romans named it after the goddess of love because of its beauty. All the classical planets known to the ancient world are named after Roman gods: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The English weekday Friday, in the Romance languages, still carries her name (Italian venerdì, Spanish viernes, French vendredi), from Latin dies Veneris, “day of Venus.”
What does the name Venus mean?
Venus comes from Latin venus, meaning “love,” “desire,” or “charm.” The word derives from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to strive for, wish, desire.” The same root gives us the English words “venerate” (to hold in devoted respect), “venereal” (relating to sexual love), and “venerable” (worthy of veneration). The goddess and the emotion share the name.