If you have read any Greek and Roman mythology (and you're here reading this, so I'm willing to bet that you have), you have probably encountered a very simple equation:

Aphrodite = Venus.

Greek goddess of love. Roman goddess of love.

Different name, but same goddess. Simple.

And historically, the Romans did identify Venus with Aphrodite. Venus took on many of Aphrodite's stories, imagery and associations, although the Roman goddess also had her own history and some distinctly Roman characteristics. In particular, Venus had important associations with fertility, warfare and victory, and Julius Caesar co-opted her as Venus Genetrix, divine ancestress of the Julian family (more on all this below). 

But there is something more layered, older, and interesting going on that I want to explore in this Grimoire entry, which has implications for modern pagans who want to connect with this goddess - whether that is Venus, or Aphrodite - today.

(card on header image is from Goddess Knowledge Cards by Susan Eleanor Boulet Trust)

 

The Star Goddesses - Venus, Aphrodite, Inanna, Ishtar

It often happens that one culture encounters another culture's goddess, recognises something familiar in her, gives her a new name (or blends her into an existing name), and folds her into its own mythology.

And often it isn't simply a matter of one culture copying another. Gods and goddesses are identified with one another, translated into new religious systems, given new stories - or adapted into existing stories - and understood through the cultural language of the people encountering them.

Venus/ Aphrodite is a perfect example of this - a goddess who transcends borders.

But with this goddess we can go back even further, before Aphrodite we find Inanna and Ishtar. All of these goddesses were explicitly associated with the planet Venus. (As was Astarte).

Long before Venus and the rise of Rome, Mesopotamian cultures were watching the planet we now call Venus closely. The famous Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa records observations of the planet's appearances, and the British Museum holds Neo-Assyrian copies of this astronomical tradition. 

Inanna/Ishtar was associated with Venus as both the morning and evening star. In Sumerian tradition, the planet also had its own divine personification, Ninsi'anna, who was understood as an aspect of Inanna/Ištar as Venus. And we have surviving Sumerian hymns addressing Ishtar specifically in her manifestation as the planet Venus.

Why are these goddesses, from different time periods and geographies, all associated with this planet?

 

There is a historical story here involving cultural contact, identification and syncretism. But I believe there is also another deeper answer. 

This goddess - the one who is associated with the planet - is real. And there is something about her energy which is highly resonant with the energetics associated with the planet Venus. 

I don't mean “real” in the sense of an archetype or an idea that human cultures independently invented and dressed up in different stories.

I mean a real, personified divine presence. A being who can be encountered through relationship.

This is my personal gnosis, and not something I can prove empirically. But my experience is that these are not entirely different goddesses who happen to have similar characteristics and correspondences. When I connect with them, I am experiencing the same - or at least very similar - divine presence, wearing different cultural clothes.

And yes, the clothes matter. The cultures matter. The specific stories matter. I am not saying that Inanna is Aphrodite, or Ishtar is Venus, collapsing them all into one. But rather that there is a larger presence that these all are part of, or emanate from. They are all faces, or avatars, of the same Great Goddess. 

And that is the thread I want to tug on in this piece. 

 

 

Where did Aphrodite/ Venus come from?

One of the things that fascinates me about Aphrodite is her "birth" story.

In Hesiod's Theogony, he says that not long after the world came into being, Ouranos, the sky god, has his genitals severed and cast into the sea. From this "foam" Aphrodite emerges, fully grown. Not Ouranos' daughter, not really. (Though Homer gives her a more "normal" geneology and parents in their poetry). To me this reads as if this goddess was already present as a force in the universe and was just awaiting the correct conditions to take a physical form. 

It is an extraordinary birth story, even for a goddess.

And Hesiod makes a great deal of the moment, giving Aphrodite several names and explaining them through the circumstances of her emergence. Elsa Bouchard argues that these are literary, contextual etymologies rather than attempts to preserve the historical origins of the goddess's name. 

But the myth surrounding the mutilation of Ouranos has parallels in much older Near Eastern traditions, and scholars have proposed various explanations for Aphrodite's connection to the ancient Near East. Craig Jendza, for example, argues that there is strong evidence for Aphrodite's appearance in Greece being connected with cultural adoption from the Near East, while stressing that the etymology of her name remains unresolved. 

Homer knew Aphrodite as Kypris, the goddess of Cyprus, and her sanctuary at Paphos. Yet the cult of Aphrodite is not securely attested on mainland Greece until the 7th century BCE. Meanwhile, the religious tradition at Paphos itself was considerably older than the Greek identification: archaeological evidence points to a long-established cult of a Cypriot goddess, and early inscriptions use names and titles such as Paphia, Golgía and Anassa (“Queen”). 

It seems that across time and space, particularly around this area of the world, there was a strong divine feminine presence recognised by many. There was an ancient goddess in Cyprus. There was a Greek Aphrodite. The two became increasingly identified with one another over time.

The goddess appears to pre-date the name. 

Following the thread east

It is tempting to draw the lineage like this:

Inanna → Ishtar → Astarte → Aphrodite → Venus

But that is far too neat.

Inanna and Ishtar themselves have a complicated relationship. Inanna is the Sumerian goddess and Ishtar her Akkadian counterpart; over time the two traditions became closely identified, but their genealogies and local manifestations were not completely uniform. The Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses project notes several different traditions for Inanna/Ishtar's parentage, for example.

Astarte belongs to another related but distinct Near Eastern tradition.

And Aphrodite is Greek (probably).

So I'm not suggesting that one goddess simply travelled neatly from Sumer to Akkad to Phoenicia to Greece and then Rome.

The history is much more interwoven than that.

There was contact between cultures. There was borrowing and adaptation. There was identification between gods and goddesses. There were local traditions that retained their own characteristics. And there is a lot we do not know because it is so long ago. 

And yet the similarities are still striking.

Importantly, Inanna/Ishtar is not simply a goddess of romantic love. She encompasses sexuality, sovereignty, warfare and immense divine power. Rivkah Harris famously explored the paradoxical nature of Inanna-Ishtar, describing the way apparently contradictory qualities coexist within her. 

Astarte likewise appears in different places with different emphases, including sexuality, warfare and royal power.

And Aphrodite, too, is considerably more complicated than the modern image of the pretty goddess of romance.

She can make gods and mortals desire one another.

She can humiliate.

She can deceive.

She can destroy.

She can create.

She can confer legitimacy.

She can inspire devotion.

And it seems she is not particularly interested in staying in one neat category.

In modern times this ambivalence is often either played down or interpreted harshly as a moral failing of the goddess, which is interesting in itself. 

What happens when the goddess is "translated"?

To be clear, I don't think cultural transformation or inter-relationship is a bad thing. Gods and goddesses have always crossed boundaries. Religious traditions have always changed. That is what happens in living cultures. 

What I find really interesting is what happens when a deity is "fitted" into a new cultural framework.

Oftentimes, some aspects become more prominent. Others become less visible. With goddesses (and most pagan deities under Christianity) they become more simplified and sanitised - or demonised - for the new cultural context. 

There are two stories about Aphrodite that are interesting in terms of this "translation".

In Homer's Odyssey, Aphrodite is married to Hephaestus, but agrees to an affair with Ares. Hephaestus is not impressed and so traps the lovers in an invisible net and then calls the other gods to come and look at them. It seems he is hoping to humiliate Aphrodite and shame her into fidelity (and also get his bride price back). But instead of being offended, the other gods laugh seeing the lovers caught in the net and make it clear that most would happily suffer the same fate for the opportunity to sleep with Aphrodite.

Perhaps it is funny. But I find it uncomfortable.

Aphrodite's sexuality becomes a spectacle for other people - the male gods specifically (the goddesses remained in their own houses and did not come and look, for shame). 

What interests me about this story isn't that she is sexual - that is undoubtedly part of her lore. It is the way that her sexuality becomes something that other people can watch, judge and laugh at. The contrast I feel with Inanna is not that her sexuality is somehow more private or protected (it definitely isn't), but that she so often remains the desiring subject within it, not an object.

And then we have the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite.

In this poem we hear that Zeus is fed up with Aphrodite causing the gods and goddesses to desire mortals, and so he punishes her by causing her to desire a mortal man herself. He causes her falls for Anchises. She lays with him, and later gives birth to Aeneas. The hymn explicitly presents this as punishment for the way Aphrodite makes gods and goddesses desire mortals, and Aphrodite forbids Anchises to tell anyone what has happened. 

I don't want to impose modern categories of consent onto an ancient text, but this sits uncomfortably with me. The goddess who makes others desire is made to desire. And she feels ashamed about the outcome. She understands that it has undermined her power.

The extension of this story into Venus's legacy is interesting too in terms of patriarchy and how the goddess was co-opted to confer legitimacy onto humans wanting power. The child that is born from the union - Aneaes - becomes part of the genealogy that will eventually allow Rome to claim Venus/ Aphrodite as its divine ancestress. Julius Caesar's dedication of the Temple of Venus Genetrix in 46 BCE explicitly connected Venus with the Julian family's claimed descent from Aeneas.

So, what do we do with all of this?

After all of this history, uncertainty, cultural translation and personal gnosis, we arrive back where we started:

Is Venus just the Roman Aphrodite?

Historically, the answer is more complicated than it seems. Venus was not simply a renamed Roman copy of the greek goddess. She was already an Italic goddess before her identification with Aphrodite, although exactly what her earliest character was remains debated. Ancient and modern sources associate her with charm and grace, fertility and the fecundity of nature, and particularly with gardens and cultivated growth. 

And then, by the first century BCE, Venus had become strongly associated with warfare and military victory. Sulla claimed her as his patron, Pompey worshipped her as Venus Victrix - Venus the Victorious - and, as already mentioned, Julius Caesar claimed her as Venus Genetrix, divine ancestress of his family.

These martial Venus qualities are particularly interesting to me because it looks less like the modern image of Aphrodite as simply the goddess of romantic love, and rather more like the older, complicated goddess we encounter in Inanna and Ishtar: sexual, powerful, sovereign, fertile, and capable of both giving life and conferring victory. This is a goddess with strategy, charm, and wiles/ cunning. 

Spiritually I don't think the is Aphrodite Venus answer is simple either. I experience all of these star/ Venus goddesses as having both their own distinct identities and as manifestations of a larger, unified, divine presence. It is both/ and not either/ or. Or it is for me. I would encourage you to follow your own gnosis to find what is true for you. 

 

Meeting the Goddess Today

So, what are the implications of all of this for modern pagans who want to connect with Venus, or Aphrodite, today? My relationship with the goddess/ these goddesses tells me that there is an underlying energy that is shared. And I see this in their shared association with Venus the planet. And I believe that this also helps us to understand how we can connect authentically with this goddess in modern times. 

Because although thousands of years have passed, Venus is still here.

Still the morning star. Still the evening star. Still moving through the heavens in a pattern that our ancestors watched and recorded.

And in astrology, Venus has retained her ancient associations with love, beauty, pleasure, attraction, relationship and value. (Though I believe there is also room to reclaim some of the "lost" qualities of strategy, cunning, persuasion). 

She has two home signs in the zodiac: Taurus and Libra. And I believe that these two signs offer us two ways into connecting with her.

Venus in Taurus

Taurus is how we meet Venus in our own bodies. It is the Empress from the tarot. Fixed earth, solid, grounded, connected. Sensual, and also sexual in some contexts. 

She is pleasure that doesn't need to be justified or earned. We meet her in:

• Food that tastes good.
• Warmth.
• Touch.
• Music.
• Flowers.
• Perfume.
• Beautiful things made slowly and well.
• The pleasure of being alive in a body.
• Everyday Magic

Basically in everything that we experience as pleasurable and soothing. She asks us to find what feels good. 

What nourishes you? What do you love enough to tend? What beauty catches your attention?

There is something deeply sacred about that to me.

Because we live in a culture that is remarkably good at separating us from pleasure. We are taught we must earn rest, earn beauty, earn food, earn our bodies, earn our right to enjoy ourselves.

Venus in Taurus says:

You don't have to earn the sweetness of being alive.

We can simply receive it. And in doing so we are connecting with her. Doing her work. 

 

Venus in Libra

Libra is how we meet Venus in relationship with others. It is the Justice card in tarot, and seeks balance and fairness. Cardinal air, relational, social, attentive to ethics, beauty and reciprocity.

She is the pleasure of being met and understood. We find her in:

• Flowing conversation that connects thoughts
• Mutual attraction
• Flirting and courtship
• Friendship and companionship
• Created Art and beauty (as opposed to Venus Taurus' natural beauty)
• The pleasure of making something beautiful with another person
• Sweet manners and thoughtful gestures
• Fairness and reciprocity
• Strategy and diplomacy

Basically in everything that we experience as relational harmony and connection. She asks us to find what feels good between us.

Who do you feel most yourself with?
Where is there genuine reciprocity in your relationships?
What kind of relationship feels beautiful to you?
What are you willing to give, and what do you need to receive?

Because we live in a capitalist culture that can turn relationships into transactions, meeting this Venus can be hard. We are taught to perform, please, accommodate, compete, win people over, or make ourselves desirable enough to be chosen. We can become so focused on being liked that we forget to ask whether we actually like the relationship we are in.

Venus in Libra says:

Relationship is something we create together. The sum is greater than the parts.

We don't have to earn our place by becoming what someone else wants us to be.

We can meet one another as equals, with curiosity and desire, and discover what becomes possible between us. We can also set boundaries and even instigate conflict if that is what is called for. Venus is goddess of love and war. 

And I think this is what it means to meet her and be in relationship with her today. 

We find her in our bodies. We find her in pleasure. We find her in beauty.

We find her in relationship with other people and with the world around us.

We find her in the things we value, desire, create and cultivate.

Different cultures have given her different names. Many stories have grown up around her.

She has been dressed (and undressed) in various cultural clothes throughout time and space. But she is still there.

And perhaps that is what it means to follow a star goddess.

Not to decide which name is the “real” one. But to follow the thread wherever she leads.

That is the path I am on. (If you are on it too you may be interested in MoonWise). 

 

Follow the Thread

For those wanting to explore further, here are some starting points:

• Craig Jendza, “The Etymology and Origins of Aphrodite” — Society for Classical Studies — particularly useful for the uncertain etymology of Aphrodite and the evidence for Near Eastern cultural influence.
• Elsa Bouchard, “Wile-loving Aphrodite in archaic poetry” — on Hesiod's wordplay and the names he gives Aphrodite.
• “Aphrodite, Goddess of Cyprus” — Kyprios Character — for the archaeology and complicated history of Aphrodite in Cyprus.
• ORACC, “Inana/Ištar” — a useful scholarly overview of Inanna/Ishtar, including her different genealogical traditions and syncretisms.
  
• The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite — Center for Hellenic Studies — the primary source for Aphrodite and Anchises.
• The British Museum's Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa — for the ancient Mesopotamian astronomical observation of Venus.
• “The Identification of Inanna with the Planet Venus” — for the history and evidence surrounding Inanna's identification with Venus
  

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