Venus (The Isle of), a paradise created by “Divine Love” for the Lusian heroes. Here Uranian Venus gave Vasco de Gama the empire of the sea. This isle is not far from the mountains of Imāus, whence the Ganges and Indus derive their source.--Camoens, Lusiad, ix. (1572).
⁂Similar descriptions of paradise are: “the gardens of Alcinŏus” (Odyssey, vii.); “the island of Circê” (Odyssey, x.); Virgil’s “Elysium” (Æneid[(Æneid], vi.); “the island and palace of Alci´na” (Orlando Furioso, vi., vii.); “the country of Logistilla” (Orlando Furioso, x.); “Paradise,” visited by Astolpho (Orlando Furioso, xxxiv.); “the island of Armi´da” (Jerusalem Delivered); “the bower of Acrasia” (Faëry Queen); “the palace with its forty doors” (Arabian Nights, “Third Calendar”), etc.
Venus (Ura´nian), the impersonation of divine love; the presiding deity of the Lusians.--Camoens, Lusiad (1572).
Venus and Adonis. Adōnis, a most beautiful boy, was greatly beloved by Venus and Proserpine. Jupiter decided that he should live four months with one and four months with the other goddess, and the rest of the year he might do what he liked. One day he was killed by a wild boar during a chase, and Venus was so inconsolable at the loss that the infernal gods allowed the boy to spend six months of the year with Venus on the earth, but the other six he was to spend in hell. Of course, this is an allegory of the sun, which is six months above and six months below the equator.
⁂ Shakespeare has a poem called Venus and Adonis (1593), in which Adonis is made cold and passionless, but Venus ardent and sensual.
Venus of Cleom´enes (4 syl.), now called the “Venus de’ Medici” or “Venus de Medicis.”
Venusberg, the mountain of fatal delights. Here Tannhäuser tarried, and when Pope Urban refused to grant him absolution, he returned thither, to be never more seen.--German Legend.
Ver´done (2 syl.), nephew to Champernal, the husband of Lami´ra.--Beaumont and Fletcher, The Little French Lawyer (1647).
Verdugo, captain under the governor of Segovia.--Beaumont and Fletcher, The Pilgrim (1621).
Vere (Mr. Richard), laird of Ellieslaw, a Jacobite conspirator.