Venus
Venus names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Venus in Roman mythology
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in Roman mythology, the goddess of beauty and love, and more especially of sensual love, her principal seats being the island of Cyprus and Cythera. This goddess is generally supposed to have been of eastern origin, and to have been the same as the Phœnician Astarte. Before her identification with the Greek Aphrodite, the daughter of Zeus and Dione, who, according to some accounts, arose from the foam of the sea, Venus was one of the least important divinities. The Romans regarded her as the progenitress of their nation, which was fabled to have sprung from Æneas, the offspring of her union with the Trojan Anchises. She was married to Vulcan, but was not remarkable for fidelity to her husband, and her amour with Adonis has been celebrated by classic poets and by The rose, myrtle, and Shakespeare. apple were sacred to her; among birds, the dove, swan, and sparrow were her favorites. She is generally represented with her son Cupid upid in a chariot drawn by doves, or, at other times, by swans or sparrows. Among the most famous statues of Venus are the Venus of Cnidus, by Praxiteles (of which the Venus de Medici, found at Tivoli, is supposed to be a copy), the Venus of Capua, and Milo or Milos, found in the . In the best days of always represented as VENUS OF MILO
Venus Known to the Greeks as Aphrodite
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
Known to the Greeks as Aphrodite . One of the most celebrated deities of the ancients; the goddess of beauty, and mother of Love. She sprang from the foam of the sea, and was carried to heaven, where all the gods admired her beauty. Jupiter gave her in marriage to Vulcan, but she intrigued with some of the gods. and notably with Mars , their offspring being Hermione , Cupid, and Anteros. She became enamored of Adonis , which caused her to abandon Olympus . Her contest for the golden apple, which she gained against her opponents Juno and Minerva, is a prominent episode in mythology. She had numerous names applied to her, conspicuous among which may be named Anadyomene, under which cognomen she is distinguished in the picture by Apelles representing her as rising from the ocean. She was known under the Grecian name of Aphrodite. Venusia (Venosa). An ancient town of Apulia, south of the river Aufidus, and near Mount Vultur, situated in a romantic country, and memorable as the birthplace of the poet Horace.
Venus the Roman goddess of beauty and love
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the Roman goddess of beauty and love. Venus corresponds to the Greek Aphrodite. Undraped figures of Venus were favorite subjects of classical art. The Venus of Milo, found by a rustic in the Island of Melos, 1820, is preserved in the Louvre, Paris, as one of its chief treasures. The arms are broken off, but figure, drapery, pose, and face are chaste and impressive. The Venus de Medici preserved in a gallery at Florence is equally celebrated as exhibiting perfection of female form. Venus appears in the names of a large number of plants, animals, and shells noted for grace and beauty. Pomona loves the orchard; And Liber loves the vine; And Pales loves the straw-built shed Warm with the breath of Kine; And Venus loves the whispers Of plightful youth and maid, In April's ivory moonlight, Beneath the chestnut shade. --Macaulay.
Venus the most brilliant of the planets
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the most brilliant of the planets. It is the second in order from the sun and, like Mercury, is both an evening and a morning star . Venus flies around the sun in its orbit at a rate of about twenty-two miles a second. It is about four-fifths as heavy as the earth. Being nearer the sun it receives double the light and heat that the earth does. Astronomers say that Venus has an atmosphere, but they are uncertain whether the planet has water in its atmosphere. Venus passed between the earth and sun in 1874 and again in 1882, but the next transit will not occur for a hundred years. Among the ancients this planet was called Hesperus when an evening star, and Phosphor, or Lucifer, when a morning star.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The mythology is essentially as Collier's left it in 1921 — Venus is still the Roman goddess identified with Aphrodite, still the mother of Aeneas, and the Venus de Milo, found on Melos in 1820, is still armless in the Louvre. The planet is a different matter. Where Aiton's in 1910 could only say that "astronomers say that Venus has an atmosphere, but they are uncertain whether the planet has water in its atmosphere", spacecraft have since found a crushing envelope of carbon dioxide at about ninety times Earth's air pressure and a surface near 465 °C, hot enough to melt lead; the Soviet Venera 7 became the first probe to survive a landing on another planet in 1970, and NASA's Magellan radar-mapped almost the whole globe between 1990 and 1994. Aiton's forecast that the next transit would not come "for a hundred years" was near enough right — Venus crossed the Sun's face in 2004 and 2012, and will not do so again until 2117.
Written for this edition, 2026.