[1394] In favor of Ardea, twenty miles south of Rome, as her original seat, cf. Wissowa, Religion der Römer, p. 235.
[1395] Her identification with the Greek goddess was perhaps furthered by a supposed relation between her name and the noun venustas, 'grace, beauty,' the special quality of Aphrodite. If that was the original sense of 'Venus,' it could hardly have indicated an æsthetic perception of nature (Wissowa, op. cit.); such a designation would be foreign to early ways of naming deities. Whether the stem van might mean 'general excellence' (here agricultural) is uncertain; on the Greek epithets 'Kallisto,' 'Kalliste,' and so forth, cf. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie, p. 1270 f. The name 'Venus,' if connected with the root of venerari, might mean simply 'a revered object,' a deity; cf. Bona Dea and Ceres (creator).
[1396] Roscher's Lexikon, s.v. "Fortuna," col. 1518; Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 68. On licentious cults of Venus cf. J. Rosenbaum, Geschichte der Lustseuche im Altertume.
[1397] See above, § 671.
[1398] Articles in Roscher, Lexikon, and in Orientalische Studien Nöldeke gewidmet.
[1399] Inscriptions of Rammannirari and Nebuchadrezzar (Birs Nimrud); Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Index, s.v.; id., Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, Index, s.v. Adad.
[1400] There is no separate god of Sheol in the Old Testament. On Eve as such a deity see Lidzbarski, Ephmeris, i, 26; cf. Cook, North Semitic Inscriptions, 135.
[1401] Gen. vi, 4, cf. Ezek. xxxii, 27; Philo of Byblos; Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature.
[1402] Isa. lxiii, 16 ("God is our father, though Abraham and Israel do not acknowledge us") is regarded by some commentators as pointing to ancestor-worship. It seems, however, to be nothing more than the complaint of persons who were disowned by the community or by the leaders.
[1403] § 341 ff.