VENUS. - A goddess of unquestionably Italic origins, though foreign to the most ancient Roman pantheon, since, according to some Roman historians, she was not mentioned in the ancient Carmen Saliare, nor was she yet known in the time of the kings.
Prior to any Greek influence, the figure of Venus was essentially rural, being the goddess who protected fields, gardens, and their cultivators (Varro, *De lingua latina*, VI, 20; Pliny, *Natural History*, XIX, 50). For these characteristics, Venus belongs to that type of female divinity associated with flourishing nature, spring, etc., widespread