Introduction to the Planet Venus in Mythology
This is a June 2020 processing of a photograph of Venus taken by the Television Photography Experiment aboard Mariner 10 during its February 1974 flyby.
Venus, earth's closest planetary neighbor, is the second planet from the sun. Venus is similar to earth in both size and composition, but it's thick atmosphere has undergone a runaway greenhouse effect. Because of this greenhouse effect, the surface of venus is hellish, with intense heat and crushing pressure- as well as acidic rain.
The Morning and Evening Star
As the second planet from the sun, venus differs from most other planets by always appearing to be close to the sun from the viewpoint of earth. When venus appears on one side of the sun, it appears as a bright star right around sunset in the western sky. Various ancient peoples recognized this and named venus "The Evening Star."
When venus appears on the other side of the sun, it appears as a bright star in the eastern sky, and disappears just as the sun begins to rise. Various ancient peoples also noticed this and named venus "The Morning Star."
Many ancient peoples were unaware that the Morning Star and the Evening Star were actually the same astronomical body, but in different locations in the sky. By the later Hellenistic period though, the Greeks and Romans realized that they were, in fact, one and the same.
Because of the relationship between venus and the sun, it was easy for ancient peoples to create comparisons between the two astronomical bodies. This comparison, along with the habit of ancient peoples associating the sun, moon, planet and stars with spiritual beings such as deities or angels, allowed for the relationship between venus and the sun to be used as an analogy in their mythological stories.
Many Mythological Associations
Many deities and other mythological figures have been associated with venus over the millennia. For the ancient Egyptians, the Morning star was a deity called Tioumoutiri, while the Evening Star was the deity Ouaiti. The Sumerians associated venus with the goddess of love, sex, fertility and war, Inanna. The Babylonians associated venus with their version of Inanna, Ishtar. The Phoenicians also did the same by associating the planet venus with the goddess Astarte.
The ancient Greeks, like the Egyptians, first associated venus with two separate deities. The Morning Star was identified as Eosphoros and the Evening Star was identified as Hesperos. In the later Hellenistic times the Greeks began to refer to venus as their goddess of love and sex, Aphrodite, when they realized the Morning Star and the Evening Star were one and the same. The Romans, who borrowed greatly from the Greeks, then referred to the planet by their version of Aphrodite, Venus- hence where the modern name for the planet is derived.
After the rise of Christianity in Europe, the planet was associated with the Devil or Satan, who were sometimes considered synonymous with Lucifer, the fallen angel. Christians used the Morning Star's brightness and then disappearance with the rise of the sun as a metaphor for Lucifer's pride and then defeat by the forces of good, which are represented by the light of the sun.
Beyond Europe and the Middle East, many other peoples and cultures associated mythological figures with the planet venus. Continue to scroll below to learn more!
References
- Beliefnet | Lucifer: Satan, or Venus?
- NASA | In Depth | Venus
- Universe Today | Morning Star
- Universe Today | Venus, the Morning Star and Evening Star
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