Venus (mythology)

Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author

A - F

The force of the Virgin was still felt at Lourdes, and seemed to be as potent as X-rays; but in America neither Venus nor Virgin ever had value as force — at most as sentiment. No American had ever been truly afraid of either.
- Henry Adams in: Vassiliki Kolocotroni Modernism: An Anthology of Sources and Documents, University of Chicago Press, 1998, p. 44

Fair Venus shines
Even in the eye of day ; with sweetest beam
Propitious shines, and shakes a trembling flood
Of softened radiance with her dewy locks.
The shadows spread apace ; while meekened Eve,
Her cheek yet warm with blushes, slow retires
Through the Hesperian gardens of the west,
And shuts the gates of day.
- Anna Letitia Barbauld in “A Summer Evening's Meditation: in: A library of poetry and song: being choice selections from the best poets, J.B. Ford and Company, 1872, p. 315

For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of a Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a MaCaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
- Ethel Barrymore in: The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Columbia University Press, 1989, p. 3

When archaeologists discover the missing arms of Venus de Milo, they will find she was wearing boxing gloves.
- John Barrymore in Bert Randolph Sugar, Teddy Atlas The Ultimate Book of Boxing Lists, Running Press, 2011, p. 169

Hey, Venus, I have two words for you, Aphrodite said.
Venus hesitated and glanced over her shoulder at her ex-roommate. Aphrodite smiled her best mean-bitch sneer and said, 'Re. Bound.' She paused and gave a bithy smirk and then said, 'Good luck with that.'
- P.C. Cast in: Kristin Cast House of Night 06. Tempted, Macmillan, 2009, p. 143

I wol yow telle, as was me taught also,
The foure spirites and the bodies sevene,
By ordre, as ofte I herde my lord hem nevene.
The firste spirit quiksilver called is,
The seconde orpyment, the thridde, ywis,
Sal armonyak, and the firthe brimstoon.
The bodys sevene eek, lo! hem heer anoon:
Sol gold is, and [[w:Moon|Luna silver we threpe,
Mars iren, Mercurie quyksilver we clepe,
Saturnus leed, and Jupiter is tyn,
And Venus coper, by my fader kyn!
- Geoffrey Chaucer in: The Riverside Chaucer, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 273

G - L

Before the use of asteroids, the only significators of the feminine in traditional chart interpretation were the Moon and Venus. The socially acceptable roles for women were the Moon as mother and Venus as mate.
- Demetra George in: Douglas Bloch Asteroid Goddesses: The Mythology, Psychology, and Astrology of the Re-Emerging Feminine, Nicolas-Hays, Inc., 1 August 2003, p. 18

Aeneas' mother is a star?
No; a goddess.
I said cautiously, "Venus is the power that we invoke in spring, in the garden, when things begin growing. And we call the evening star Venus."
He thought it over. Perhaps having grown up in the country, among pagans like me, helped him understand my bewilderment. "So do we, he said. "But Venus also became more...With the help of the Greeks. They call her Aphrodite"...There was a great poet who praised her in Latin. Delight of men and gods, he called her, dear nurturer. Under the sliding star signs she fills the ship-laden sea and the fruitful earth with her being; through her the generations are conceived and rise up to see the sun; from her the storm clouds flee; to her the earth, the skillful maker, offers flowers. The wide levels of the sea smile at her, and all the quiet sky shines and streams with light...br>It was the Venus I had prayed to, it was my prayer, though I had no such words. They filled my eyes with tears and my heart with inexpressible joy.
- Ursula K. Le Guin in: Lavinia, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008, p. 69-70

Could any State on Earth Immortal be,
Venice by Her rare Government is She;
Venice Great Neptunes Minion, still a Mayd,
Though by the warrlikst Potentats assayed;
Yet She retaines Her Virgin-waters pure,
Nor any Forren mixtures can endure;
Though, Syren-like on Shore and Sea, Her Face
Enchants all those whom once She doth embrace,
Nor is ther any can Her bewty prize
But he who hath beheld her with his Eyes:
Those following Leaves display, if well observed,
How she long Her Maydenhead preserved,
How for sound prudence She still bore the Bell;
Whence may be drawn this high-fetchd parallel,
Venus and Venice are Great Queens in their degree,
Venus is Queen of Love, Venice of Policie.
- James Howell in “Vision of Venice” quoted in: Margaret F. Rosenthal The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice, University of Chicago Press, 1992, p. 14

The great beauty and striking presence of Venus led to an association by the Greeks with Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love. Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte and Venus are other names given to variations of this goddess in Western history, all associated with the planet. A knowledge of close coincidence between the cycles of Venus and human pregnancy may have contributed to the persistent, but nonexclusive of female characteristic to Venus. Western attributes The Venus de Milo and Botticelli's birth of Venus (popularly known as Venus on the Half Shell) are icons of this imagery in Western culture.
- Robert Hunter in Terrapin Station quoted in : David Harry Grinspoon Venus Revealed: A New Look Below the Clouds of Our Mysterious Twin Planet, Basic Books, 1998, p. 19

Nowhere in recorded history has an awareness of the short-and long-term Earth-sky polyrhythrns been as advanced and integrated into cultural life as in the knowledge and beliefs of the ancient Mesoamericans, and in particular the classic Maya of Central America, who flourished between AD 300 and 900. Maya felt that we owed our existence to Venus who they called Kukulcan and their astronomer-priests repaid the debt with the blood of human sacrifice. Unfortunately, almost everything we know about the Maya’s sophisticated and complex system of Venus observations/ computations/prediction/worship comes from only four books that escaped the book-burning frenzy of the invading Christians. Included in this meticulously painted bark paper books is an abundance of astronomical information, including table of solar and lunar motions and table of Venus ephemeris, or table of motions, which is accurate for over a hundred years. The entire Mayan calendar, as were those of all Mesoamerican civilizations, was based on the 260-days Venus appearance interval. The 260-day Mayan calendar is still in use today in many areas of Guatemala. The 260-day Venus interval and the 365-day year come into phase every 18,980 days, or 53 years.
- Robert Hunter in Terrapin Station quoted in “Venus Revealed: A New Look Below the Clouds of Our Mysterious Twin Planet”, p. 19

As long as Venus remained an object of distant observation in our sky, there was no way to be sure, and science fiction writers were free to populate Venus with ocean-dwelling beasts and evil dictators (news of the problematical microwaves was first published the same year that Zsa Zsa was thrilling audiences with her Venusian antics). We had to go there to demand some answers. This is where the rockets enter the story... the cold-war “space race” was on, science was along for the ride, onward to the planets.
- Robert Hunter in Terrapin Station quoted in “Venus Revealed: A New Look Below the Clouds of Our Mysterious Twin Planet”, p. 63

When their city was occupied by the Gauls, and the Romans, who were besieged in the Capitol, had made military engines from the hair of the women, they dedicated a temple to the Bald Venus.
- Lactantius in: The Sacred Writings of Lactantius (Extended Annotated Edition), Jazzybee Verlag, 2012, p. 69

M - R

Garcia: Venus has aligned with Mars, which means love is in the air and maybe we will have weekends off
- Criminal Minds in: Criminal Minds: The Bittersweet Science Episode Trivia - TV, tv.com

Among others, the fable of the Greeks, that the constellations of Piscis Australis, the Southern Fish, was the fish into which Venus transformed herself to escape from the terrible giant Typhon. This evidently arose from the astrological doctrine, that the sign Pisces is the exaltation of Venus. That this original intent of mythology was afterwards corrupted both by poets and priests, there needs no argument to prove, as it is abundantly evident in history; but that fact only serves to confirm its real and reasonable origin. Let it no longer be supposed that the sages of the East occupied themselves in inventing childish and unmeaning fables. When unlocked by the key of astrology, the secrets of ancient mythology are replete with science, harmony, and intelligence.
- Richard James Morrison in: The Metropolitan, Vol. 10 James Cochrane, 1834, p. 94.

If our squawking pacifists were rational, they would perceive that war can be ended only by abolishing the several species of mammals called human; our spacecraft have shown us that Mars and Venus are perfectly warless worlds.
- Revilo P. Oliver in: The Liberty Bell, Volume 15, Liberty Bell Publications, 1987, p. 17

S - Z

Venus, in our abstract North, in this chilly Christian world, must envelop herself in folds of heavy furs, so as not to freeze.
- Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus im Pelz (1870); translated by H. J. Henning, Venus in Furs (Senate, 1996), p. 116

From Venus, the goddess of love, this word [Venereal] refers to the reality of desire. With the rise of Protestantism and science the word “disease” was tacked on in a revealing combination of categorization and moralizing.
- John Ralston Saul in: The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense , Simon and Schuster, 6 November 2012, p. 303

It's nice that love comes on first thing in the evening, and goes out last in the morning. Love keeps the light on all night. Whoever thought to call it Venus ought to get full marks. We may forgive our girl for ignoring the sound at first.
- Catherynne M. Valente in: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, Macmillan, 2 October 2012

In the language of the New Platonists, the number seven is said to be a virgin, and without a mother, and it is therefore sacred to w:MinervaMinerva. The number six is a perfect number, and is consecrated to Venus. The relations of space were dealt with...
- William Whewell in: I. The Greek school philosophy, with reference to physical science. II. The physical sciences in ancient Greece. III. Greek astronomy. IV. Physical science in the middle ages. V. Formal astronomy after the stationary period. VI. Mechanics, including fluid mechanics. VII. Physical astronomy. Additions to the 3d ed, D. Appleton, 1874, p. 217

You may name a bronze statue 'Liberty,' or a painted figure in a city hall 'Commerce,' or a marble form in a temple 'Athene' or 'Venus;' but what is really there is only a representation of a single woman.
- George Edward Woodberry in: Two Phases of Criticism, Historical and Aesthetic: Lectures Delivered on the Larwill Foundation of Kenyon College, May Seventh and Eighth, 1913, Merrymount Press, 1914, p. 20

Venus (mythology)

Quotes

A - F

G - L

M - R

S - Z

See also

External links

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