VENERE. — Goddess of undoubtedly Italic origins, yet foreign to the most ancient Roman pantheon, since, according to certain Roman historians, she was not named in the ancient carmen saliare, nor was she yet known in the time of the kings.
Before any Greek influence, the figure of V. was essentially rustic, being the goddess who protected the fields, gardens, and those who cultivated them (Varro, De lingua latina, VI, 20; Pliny, Nat. hist., XIX, 50). By virtue of these characteristics V. nature, springtime, etc., widespread
VENERINI, ROSA, blessed — Contemporary portrait. Oil painting commissioned by Princess Laura Altieri for the school opened in her fief at Oriolo in 1699, whence it was transferred to the General House of the Institute — Rome.
among the Italic peoples, such as, for example, Feronia and Flora. The oldest traces of the cult of V. are found at Alba and Gabi, while it is known that at Ardea and Lavinium two temples were erected to the goddess, of great importance for the Latin peoples who gathered there.
In Rome the new goddess was interpreted as, and substituted for, archaic local divinities such as Murcia, Cloacina, and Libitina; indeed, the temple of the latter (in a sacred grove near the Circus Maximus), once the identification had taken place, was also dedicated to V.; and the anniversary of this temple was celebrated on the day of the Vinalia rustica (19 August), when the market gardeners (holitores) celebrated their festival (Varro, loc. cit.).
Aphrodite (v.), a goddess widely worshipped along the shores of the Mediterranean, is said to have occurred through the infiltration of this goddess’s cult from the famous Sicilian sanctuary of Venus Erycina, whose statue tradition held had been brought to Rome by Aeneas himself (Solinus, II, 14). In reality, although the Romans’ first contact with the Sicilian cult of Aphrodite occurred during the First Punic War (Diodorus, IV, 83), after the defeat at Lake Trasimene in 217 B.C. the Sibylline Books ordered a temple to be vowed to Venus Erycina, which was built on the Capitoline in the following two years (Livy, XXII, 9, 10; Ovid, Fasti, IV, 875); in the lectisternium held at the same time (217 B.C.), V. was associated with Mars (v.). Subsequently, again as a result of the growing influence of Aphrodite, there appeared V. Felix (to whom Sulla was especially devoted), V. Victrix (=Nikephoros), to whom Pompey erected a temple in 55 B.C., V. Salacia (patroness of prostitutes), etc. After Pharsalus, Caesar built the temple of Venus Genetrix; this cult, besides satisfying the dictator’s ambitions, became dear to the Romans who, through Aeneas (the Trojan tradition of Rome), considered themselves descendants of V., so that the cult became national and eventually supplanted the others. At the same time V. became more closely associated with Mars, the father of Romulus, and they were jointly worshipped not only in the temple erected by Caesar but also in that of Mars Ultor, consecrated by Augustus.