XVIII
According to the more ancient Greek conception, Venus was the daughter of Jupiter and Dione, goddess of moisture; but Hesiod says that she came from the foam of the sea, and was therefore called by the Greeks Aphrodite—the foam-born. She was generally represented as a beautiful nude figure, or wearing her wonderful girdle, the Cestus—in which lay "love and desire and loving converse that steals the wits even of the wise." The most famous statue of Venus is the one that was found on the island of Melos (Milo), and is now in the Louvre, in Paris. It is probably the work of some sculptor of about the third century B.C. He followed an original of the age of Praxiteles, probably in bronze, which represented the goddess, partly draped, gazing at her reflection in an uplifted shield. A masterpiece of Praxiteles was the Venus of Cnidos, based upon which are the Venus of the Capitoline in Rome, the Venus de Medici in Florence, and the Venus of the Vatican, which is much superior to the other two.
Poems:—
| Chorus to Aphrodite in "Atalanta in Calydon" | Algernon C. Swinburne |
| Aphrodite in "Epic of Hades" | Lewis Morris |
| Venus of Milo | Edward R. Sill |
| Venus and Adonis | William Shakespeare |
| Adonis in "Epic of Hades" | Lewis Morris |
| Death of Adonis trans. by | Theocritus, Andrew Lang |
| Laus Veneris | Algernon C. Swinburne |
The "Lament for Adonis" by Bion has been translated by Andrew Lang, Edwin Arnold, and Mrs. Browning.
The following stanza is from Tennyson:—
"Idalian Aphrodite beautiful,
Fresh as the foam, new-bathed in Paphian wells,
With rosy slender fingers backward drew
From her warm brows and bosom her deep hair
Ambrosial, golden round her lucid throat
And shoulder; from the violets her light foot
Shone rosy-white, and o'er her rounded form
Between the shadows of the vine bunches
Floated the glowing sunlights, as she moved."