When I was in high school, I really didn’t care about English Class. For some reason I just couldn’t get into it. But now that I’ve finished my undergraduate degree, I find myself coming back to classical English literature and other genres that we talked about in high school English classes.
Mythology in particular I did not care about at all at a younger age. But now? This stuff is interesting! Did you know that thousands of years ago the Romans and the Greeks had their own mythology in order to understand the world around them? Mythology, philosophy and political thought are the three main surviving subjects from classical antiquity into modern times. And it’s not only the west (as some would have you believe!). These works influenced the Arab world too!
So, apparently way back in 146 BC the Romans conquered the Greeks with the Battle of Corinth and the definitive Roman occupation of the Greek world was established after the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Because it can take a long time to conquer people. The conquest led the Romans, who already had some innate mythology to adopt many narratives directly from the Greeks while at the same time preserving their own Latin names for their own gods.
Roman myths (where my name comes from!) are traditional stories with a strong sense of divine ordered destiny. Which makes sense because back before the turn of the common era they didn’t have the scientific advancement to understand the world around them. I mean some of these myths probably predate Plato and Socrates, before any type of dialectal thought was systematized.
So this is where my name is derived from, from classical Roman mythology that was mixed with Greco thought after the conquest of the Greek world. The first temple to Venus was built in 295 BC and supposedly funded by fines from Roamn women for sexual misdemeanours (will they ever stop trying to control our bodies?). Venus’ sacred month is April, which is derived from aperire which means ‘to open’. Probablly in reference to springtime blossoms.
Venus seems to be connected to her counterpart in Greek mythology, Aphrodite. The signs for both goddess’ are roses and myrtle. Apparently myrtle smells great and had various medical/magical properties before the scientific revolution. There is also a connection with wine and the inevitable illicit behavior begetting intoxication.
This is all incredible and I had no idea. Even the crossed copper symbol representing the feminine is from Venus.
Well stay tuned for love and beauty talk and also a good dose of history too!
