Venus ( / ˈ v iː n ə s / ) is a Roman goddess whose functions encompass love, beauty, desire, sex , fertility , prosperity , and victory. In Roman mythology , she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas , who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals , and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles.
146-465: The aisling ( Irish for 'dream' / 'vision', pronounced [ˈaʃl̠ʲəɲ] , approximately / ˈ æ ʃ l ɪ ŋ / ASH -ling ), or vision poem, is a mythopoeic poetic genre that developed during the late 17th and 18th centuries in Irish language poetry . The word may have a number of variations in pronunciation, but the is of the first syllable is always realised as
292-474: A [ ʃ ] ("sh") sound. Many aisling poems are often still sung as traditional sean-nós songs . In the aisling, Ireland appears to the poet in a vision in the form of a woman from the Otherworld : sometimes young and beautiful, other times old and haggard. This female figure is generally referred to in the poems as a spéirbhean ( pronounced [ˈsˠpʲeːɾʲvʲanˠ] , 'heavenly woman'). She laments
438-404: A Georgian square at the northern end of O'Connell Street where the paramilitary Irish Volunteers were founded in 1913. In 1976, a contest was held to find a poem which could express the appreciation and inspiration of the generations that fought and died in the struggle for Irish independence. The winner of the contest was Dublin-born author Liam mac Uistín, whose poem An Aisling ("We Saw
584-410: A Proto-Italic form reconstructed as *wenos- ('desire'), itself from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *wenh₁-os ('desire'; cf. Messapic Venas , Old Indic vánas 'desire'). Derivatives include venustus ('attractive, charming'), venustās ('charm, grace'), venerius ('of Venus, erotic'), venerāre ('to adore, revere, honor, venerate, worship'), and venerātiō ('adoration'). Venus
730-612: A Punic statue of Astarte captured from Eryx , in Sicily , and worshiped in Romanised form by the elite and respectable matrons at a temple on the Capitoline Hill . A later temple, outside the Porta Collina and Rome's sacred boundary , may have preserved some Erycine features of her cult. It was considered suitable for "common girls" and prostitutes . Venus Euploia (Venus of
876-571: A fishing rod , and sits amidst landscape scenery, accompanied by at least one cupid . Venus' signs are for the most part the same as Aphrodite's. They include roses , which were offered in Venus' Porta Collina rites, and above all, myrtle (Latin myrtus ), which was cultivated for its white, sweetly scented flowers, aromatic, evergreen leaves and its various medical-magical properties. Venus' statues, and her worshipers, wore myrtle crowns at her festivals. Before its adoption into Venus' cults, myrtle
1022-540: A unique dialect of Irish developed before falling out of use in the early 20th century. With a writing system , Ogham , dating back to at least the 4th century AD, which was gradually replaced by Latin script since the 5th century AD, Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe . On the island, the language has three major dialects: Connacht , Munster and Ulster Irish . All three have distinctions in their speech and orthography . There
1168-421: A Romano-Syrian form of Venus at Baalbek , variously identified with Ashtart , Dea Syria and Atargatis , though inconsistently and often on very slender grounds. She has been historically identified as one third of a so-called Heliopolitan Triad , and thus a wife to presumed sun-god "Syrian Jupiter" ( Baal ) and mother of "Syrian Mercury" ( Adon ). The "Syrian Mercury" is sometimes thought as another sun-god, or
1314-1112: A Vision"), is now written in Irish, French and English upon the stone wall of the monument. During Queen Elizabeth II 's state visit to Ireland in May 2011 , Liam mac Uistín's poem was read out in Irish during the Queen's visit to the Garden of Remembrance. In Irish, the poem reads: "An Aisling" I ndorchacht an éadóchais rinneadh aisling dúinn. Lasamar solas an dóchais agus níor múchadh é. I bhfásach an lagmhisnigh rinneadh aisling dúinn. Chuireamar crann na crógachta agus tháinig bláth air. I ngeimhreadh na daoirse rinneadh aisling dúinn. Mheileamar sneachta na táimhe agus rith abhainn na hathbheochana as. Chuireamar ár n-aisling ag snámh mar eala ar an abhainn. Rinneadh fírinne den aisling. Rinneadh samhradh den gheimhreadh. Rinneadh saoirse den daoirse agus d'fhágamar agaibhse mar oidhreacht í. A ghlúnta na saoirse cuimhnígí orainne, glúnta na haislinge. "We Saw A Vision" In
1460-697: A bargaining chip during government formation in Northern Ireland, prompting protests from organisations and groups such as An Dream Dearg . Irish became an official language of the EU on 1 January 2007, meaning that MEPs with Irish fluency can now speak the language in the European Parliament and at committees, although in the case of the latter they have to give prior notice to a simultaneous interpreter in order to ensure that what they say can be interpreted into other languages. While an official language of
1606-512: A better future for Ireland and all her citizens." The Strategy was produced on 21 December 2010 and will stay in action until 2030; it aims to target language vitality and revitalization of the Irish language. The 30-page document published by the Government of Ireland details the objectives it plans to work towards in an attempt to preserve and promote both the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. It
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#17328912859231752-544: A clear shot at the animal. Dòmhnall slowly took aim and ignited the gunpowder with a spark, only to find that the stag was gone. He had been replaced by Dòmhnall's Captain shouting retreat, as the Imperial German Army had swept behind the Cameron Highlanders and were about to cut off all opportunity to escape. Dòmhnall recalled that he had awakened not a moment too soon and that he barely escaped "the net" before
1898-653: A colonia named Colonia Veneria Cornelia after his family and Venus, following his siege and capture of Pompeii from the Samnites . Venus also had a distinctive, local form as Venus Pescatrice ("Venus the Fisher-woman") a goddess of the sea, and trade. For Sulla's claims of Venus' favour, see Venus Felix above). Pompeii's Temple of Venus was built sometime in the 1st century BC, before Sulla's colonisation. This local form of Venus had Roman, Oscan and local Pompeiian influences. Like Venus Physica , Venus Physica Pompeiana
2044-472: A cultural and social force. Irish speakers often insisted on using the language in law courts (even when they knew English), and Irish was also common in commercial transactions. The language was heavily implicated in the "devotional revolution" which marked the standardisation of Catholic religious practice and was also widely used in a political context. Down to the time of the Great Famine and even afterwards,
2190-541: A degree course in the NUI federal system to pass the subject of Irish in the Leaving Certificate or GCE / GCSE examinations. Exemptions are made from this requirement for students who were born or completed primary education outside of Ireland, and students diagnosed with dyslexia . NUI Galway is required to appoint people who are competent in the Irish language, as long as they are also competent in all other aspects of
2336-456: A fertility deity, was established in 181 BC, in a traditionally plebeian district just outside Rome's sacred boundary , near the Colline Gate . The temple, cult and goddess probably retained much of the original's character and rites. Likewise, a shrine to Venus Verticordia ("Venus the changer of hearts"), established in 114 BC but with links to an ancient cult of Venus-Fortuna, was "bound to
2482-460: A fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history. Before Irish became an official language it was afforded the status of treaty language and only the highest-level documents of the EU were made available in Irish. The Irish language was carried abroad in the modern period by a vast diaspora , chiefly to Great Britain and North America, but also to Australia , New Zealand and Argentina . The first large movements began in
2628-660: A goddess of sloth and laziness. Venus Obsequens ("Indulgent Venus" ), Venus' first attested Roman epithet. It was used in the dedication of her first Roman temple, on August 19 in 295 BC during the Third Samnite War by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges . It was sited somewhere near the Aventine Hill and Circus Maximus, and played a central role in the Vinalia Rustica . It was supposedly funded by fines imposed on women found guilty of adultery . Venus Physica , Venus as
2774-657: A grieving widow due to the defeat and exile of her lawful king. Since being popularised by Sean O Riada , "Mo Ghile Mear" has become one of the most popular Irish songs ever written. It has been recorded by The Chieftains , Mary Black , Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh , Sting , Sibéal , and many other artists. In 1753, John Cameron ( Scottish Gaelic : An Taillear Mac Alasdair ) of Dochanassie in Lochaber , composed ( Scottish Gaelic : Òran d'on Doctair Chamshròn ) "A Song to Doctor Cameron", an Aisling poem in Scottish Gaelic lamenting
2920-503: A lament over the recent death by hanging of Irish clan chief , poet, and folk hero Piaras Feiritéar at Cnocán na gCaorach in Killarney , for leading his clansmen in war against the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland . The lament begins, Do chonnac aisling are maidin an lar ghil ("I saw a vision on the morning of the bright day"). The vision was the goddess Erin bewailing the death of
3066-403: A large temple to Venus Victrix as part of his lavishly appointed new theatre , and celebrating his triumph of 54 BC with coins that showed her crowned with triumphal laurels. Pompey's erstwhile friend, ally, and later opponent Julius Caesar went still further. He claimed the favours of Venus Victrix in his military success and Venus Genetrix as a personal, divine ancestress – apparently
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#17328912859233212-456: A libation of the previous year's vintage, sacred to Jupiter, was poured into a nearby ditch. Common girls ( vulgares puellae ) and prostitutes gathered at Venus' temple just outside the Colline gate, where they offered her myrtle, mint, and rushes concealed in rose-bunches and asked her for "beauty and popular favour", and to be made "charming and witty". Vinalia Rustica (August 19), originally
3358-489: A long-standing family tradition among the Julii . When Caesar was assassinated, his heir, Augustus , adopted both claims as evidence of his inherent fitness for office, and divine approval of his rule. Augustus' new temple to Mars Ultor , divine father of Rome's legendary founder Romulus , would have underlined the point, with the image of avenging Mars "almost certainly" accompanied by that of his divine consort Venus, and possibly
3504-526: A magnificent temple as reward for her defection. They captured her image, brought it to Rome and installed it in a temple on the Capitoline Hill , as one of Rome's twelve dii consentes . Shorn of her more overtly Carthaginian characteristics, this "foreign Venus" became Rome's Venus Genetrix ("Venus the Mother"), Roman tradition made Venus the mother and protector of the Trojan prince Aeneas , ancestor of
3650-560: A man who had overthrown hundreds. The first of the aisling poets was Aodhagán Ó Rathaille , athair na haisling e ('father of the aisling'). In the hands of Ó Rathaille, the aisling tradition was bound up for the first time with the cause of the House of Stuart and of the Jacobite risings . It was Ó Rathaille who, for the first time, made the woman from the Otherworld lament the continued exile of
3796-566: A nightmare and feeling a sense of foreboding and dread about thousands of men marching away, through the newly fallen snow, to a conflict they will never return from. Literary scholar Ronald Black wrote that Ceum nam Mìltean deserved to be "first in any anthology of the poetry of World War I " and "would not have been in any way out of place, with regard to style or substance" in Sorley MacLean 's groundbreaking 1943 Symbolist poetry collection Dàin do Eimhir . In modern poetry composed in
3942-599: A once-famous painting by the Greek artist Apelles showing the birth of Aphrodite from sea-foam, fully adult and supported by a more-than-lifesized scallop shell. The Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli used the type in his The Birth of Venus . Other versions of Venus' birth show her standing on land or shoreline, wringing the sea-water from her hair. Venus Barbata ("Bearded Venus"), mentioned in Servius ' commentary on Virgil's Aeneid . Macrobius 's Saturnalia describes
4088-574: A paper suggested that within a generation, non-Gaeltacht habitual users of Irish might typically be members of an urban, middle class, and highly educated minority. Parliamentary legislation is supposed to be available in both Irish and English but is frequently only available in English. This is notwithstanding that Article 25.4 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that an "official translation" of any law in one official language be provided immediately in
4234-554: A pass in Leaving Certificate Irish or English, and receive lessons in Irish during their two years of training. Official documents of the Irish government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone (in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, enforced by An Coimisinéir Teanga , the Irish language ombudsman). The National University of Ireland requires all students wishing to embark on
4380-611: A religious context. An Irish translation of the Old Testament by Leinsterman Muircheartach Ó Cíonga , commissioned by Bishop Bedell , was published after 1685 along with a translation of the New Testament. Otherwise, Anglicisation was seen as synonymous with 'civilising' the native Irish. Currently, modern day Irish speakers in the church are pushing for language revival. It has been estimated that there were around 800,000 monoglot Irish speakers in 1800, which dropped to 320,000 by
4526-538: A result of linguistic imperialism . Today, Irish is still commonly spoken as a first language in Ireland's Gaeltacht regions, in which 2% of Ireland's population lived in 2022. The total number of people (aged 3 and over) in Ireland who declared they could speak Irish in April 2022 was 1,873,997, representing 40% of respondents, but of these, 472,887 said they never spoke it and a further 551,993 said they only spoke it within
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4672-406: A rustic Latin festival of wine, vegetable growth and fertility. This was almost certainly Venus' oldest festival and was associated with her earliest known form, Venus Obsequens . Kitchen gardens and market-gardens, and presumably vineyards were dedicated to her. Roman opinions differed on whose festival it was. Varro insists that the day was sacred to Jupiter, whose control of the weather governed
4818-473: A shrine on the Capitoline Hill , and festivals on August 12 and October 9. A sacrifice was annually dedicated to her on the latter date. In neo-classical art, her epithet as Victrix is often used in the sense of 'Venus Victorious over men's hearts' or in the context of the Judgement of Paris (e.g. Canova 's Venus Victrix , a half-nude reclining portrait of Pauline Bonaparte ). The first known temple to Venus
4964-486: A statue of Venus in Cyprus , bearded, with male genitalia but in female attire and figure (see also Aphroditus ). Her worshippers cross-dressed - men wore women's clothes, and women wore men's. Macrobius says that Aristophanes called this figure Aphroditos . The Latin poet Laevius wrote of worshipping "nurturing Venus" whether female or male ( sive femina sive mas ) . Several examples of Greek and Roman sculpture show her in
5110-595: A statue of the deceased and deified Caesar . Vitruvius recommends that any new temple to Venus be sited according to rules laid down by the Etruscan haruspices , and built "near to the gate" of the city, where it would be less likely to contaminate "the matrons and youth with the influence of lust". He finds the Corinthian style, slender, elegant, enriched with ornamental leaves and surmounted by volutes , appropriate to Venus' character and disposition. Vitruvius recommends
5256-412: A syncretised form of Bacchus as a "dying and rising" god , and thus a god of Springtime. No such Triad seems to have existed prior to Baalbek's 15 BC colonisation by Augustus' veterans. It may be a modern scholarly artifice. Venus Kallipygos ("Venus with the beautiful buttocks"), a statue, and possibly a statue type, after a lost Greek original. From Syracuse , Sicily. Venus Libertina ("Venus
5402-731: A temple to Venus and Roma Aeterna (Eternal Rome) on Rome's Velian Hill , underlining the Imperial unity of Rome and its provinces, and making Venus the protective genetrix of the entire Roman state, its people and fortunes. It was the largest temple in Ancient Rome. Venus was offered official (state-sponsored) cult in certain festivals of the Roman calendar . Her sacred month was April (Latin Mensis Aprilis ) which Roman etymologists understood to derive from aperire , "to open", with reference to
5548-730: A temple to Venus Felix et Roma Aeterna on the Via Sacra . The same epithet is used for a specific sculpture at the Vatican Museums . Venus Genetrix ("Venus the Mother"), as a goddess of motherhood and domesticity, with a festival on September 26, a personal ancestress of the Julian lineage and, more broadly, the divine ancestress of the Roman people. Julius Caesar dedicated a Temple of Venus Genetrix in 46 BC. This name has attached to an iconological type of statue of Aphrodite/Venus . Venus Heliopolitana ("Venus of Heliopolis Syriaca "),
5694-699: A temple was dedicated to Venus Libitina in Libitina's grove on the Esquiline Hill , "hardly later than 300 BC". Venus Murcia ("Venus of the Myrtle"), merging Venus with the little-known deity Murcia (or Murcus, or Murtia). Murcia was associated with Rome's Mons Murcia (the Aventine's lesser height ), and had a shrine in the Circus Maximus . Some sources associate her with the myrtle-tree. Christian writers described her as
5840-518: A twin, named Anteros. Xenophon 's Socratic Symposion 8. 1, features a dinner-guest with eros (love) for his wife; in return, she has anteros (reciprocal love) for him. Some sources suggest Anteros as avenger of "slighted love". In Servius ' 4th century commentary on Virgil's Aeneas , Cupid is a deceptive agent of Venus, impersonating Aeneas' son and making Dido , queen of Carthage , forget her husband. When Aeneas rejects her love, and covertly leaves Carthage to fulfill his destiny as ancestor of
5986-414: A universal, natural creative force that informs the physical world. She is addressed as "Alma Venus" ("Mother Venus") by Lucretius in the introductory lines of his vivid, poetic exposition of Epicurean physics and philosophy, De Rerum Natura . She seems to have been a favourite of Lucretius' patron, Memmius . Venus Physica Pompeiana was Pompeii's protective goddess, antedating Sulla's imposition of
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6132-537: A wider meaning, including the Gaelic of Scotland and the Isle of Man , as well as of Ireland. When required by the context, these are distinguished as Gaeilge na hAlban , Gaeilge Mhanann and Gaeilge na hÉireann respectively. In English (including Hiberno-English ), the language is usually referred to as Irish , as well as Gaelic and Irish Gaelic . The term Irish Gaelic may be seen when English speakers discuss
6278-584: Is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family . It is a member of the Goidelic language group of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous to the island of Ireland . It was the majority of the population's first language until the 19th century, when English gradually became dominant, particularly in the last decades of the century, in what is sometimes characterised as
6424-448: Is also An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , a standardised written form devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet , a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters , has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet (albeit with 7–8 letters used primarily in loanwords ). Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of
6570-443: Is also cognate with Latin venia ('favour, permission') and vēnor ('to hunt') through to common PIE root *wenh₁- ('to strive for, wish for, desire, love'). Venus has been described as perhaps "the most original creation of the Roman pantheon", and "an ill-defined and assimilative" native goddess, combined "with a strange and exotic Aphrodite". Her cults may represent the religiously legitimate charm and seduction of
6716-630: Is also a regal form of "Nature Mother" and a guarantor of success in love. Venus Urania ("Heavenly Venus"), used as the title of a book by Basilius von Ramdohr , a relief by Pompeo Marchesi , and a painting by Christian Griepenkerl . (cf. Aphrodite Urania ) Venus Verticordia ("Venus the Changer of Hearts"), celebrated at the Veneralia for her ability to transform untethered desire ( libido) into pudicitia , sexuality expressed within socially permitted bounds, hence marriage. Venus Victrix ("Venus
6862-511: Is also famed for his works in the genre. The wildly popular sean-nós song " Mo Ghile Mear ", which was composed by County Cork bard Seán "Clárach" Mac Domhnaill , is a lament for the defeat of the Jacobite rising of 1745 at the Battle of Culloden . The poem is a soliloquy by the Kingdom of Ireland , whom Seán Clárach personifies as the goddess Erin bewailing her state and describing herself as
7008-489: Is croidhe ("My sorrow, my gloomy weariness of breast and heart") and his elegy for the 1626 death of John Fitzgerald are both Aislingí . In the latter poem, Fr. Keating awakens from a slumber that has overtaken him along the banks of the River Slaney and is confronted by a vision of the pre-Christian Irish goddess Cliodhna weeping for the death of John Fitzgerald. In Corca Dhuibhne in 1653, an anonymous bard composed
7154-511: Is divided into four separate phases with the intention of improving 9 main areas of action including: The general goal for this strategy was to increase the number of daily speakers from 83,000 to 250,000 by the end of its run. By 2022, the number of such speakers had fallen to 71,968. Before the partition of Ireland in 1921, Irish was recognised as a school subject and as "Celtic" in some third level institutions. Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland had devolved government. During those years
7300-584: Is evidence of his cult, shared with Venus at her Temple just outside the Colline Gate and elsewhere. He would also have featured in many private household cults. In private and public areas alike, statues of Venus and Mars attended by Cupid, or Venus, Cupid and minor erotes were sometimes donated by wealthy sponsors, to serve both religious and artistic purposes. Cupid's roles in literary myth are usually limited to actions on behalf of Venus; in Cupid and Psyche , one of
7446-567: Is only in Gaeltacht areas that Irish continues to be spoken as a community vernacular to some extent. According to data compiled by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht , Sport and Media , only 1/4 of households in Gaeltacht areas are fluent in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology , described
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#17328912859237592-418: Is only saved from being the first single man to be flogged by waking up and realizing that his arrest and the trial were a nightmare . In his poem Aisling an t-Saighdeir ("The Soldier's Dream"), Scottish Gaelic bard and World War I veteran Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna recalls seeing a full-grown red deer stag in the rush-covered glens of North Uist and how he scrambled over rocks and banks trying to get
7738-593: Is she Helen ? Or Venus ? He questions her, and learns that she is Erin ; and her sorrow, he is told, is for her true mate who is in exile beyond the seas. This true mate is, according to the date of the composition, either the Old or Young Pretender ; and the poem ends with a promise of speedy redemption on the return of the King's son." Among the most famous examples of aisling poetry are Gile na gile by Ó Rathaille and Ceo draíochta i gcoim oíche by Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin , who
7884-412: Is still spoken daily to some extent as a first language . These regions are known individually and collectively as the Gaeltacht (plural Gaeltachtaí ). While the fluent Irish speakers of these areas, whose numbers have been estimated at 20–30,000, are a minority of the total number of fluent Irish speakers, they represent a higher concentration of Irish speakers than other parts of the country and it
8030-540: Is the embodiment of Irish republicanism and can only be transformed back into a young woman if a young man gives his life for her sake. She also symbolically represents The Morrígan , the goddess of war and sovereignty, from Irish mythology . In later years, like his fellow Irish-language poets Diarmuid na Bolgaí Ó Sé and Máire Bhuidhe Ní Laoghaire , Ballymacoda -born poet and Deerfield, New York homesteader Pádraig Phiarais Cúndún updated aisling poetry from Jacobitism to more recent religious and political causes of
8176-510: Is unclear where the offering is made, and others say this gift is to the Lares. In dice-games played with knucklebones , a popular pastime among Romans of all classes, the luckiest, best possible roll was known as " Venus ". Like other major Roman deities, Venus was given a number of epithets that referred to her different cult aspects, roles, and her functional similarities to other deities. Her "original powers seem to have been extended largely by
8322-659: The Fíor-Ghaeltacht (true Gaeltacht ), a term originally officially applied to areas where over 50% of the population spoke Irish. There are Gaeltacht regions in the following counties: Gweedore ( Gaoth Dobhair ), County Donegal, is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland. Irish language summer colleges in the Gaeltacht are attended by tens of thousands of teenagers annually. Students live with Gaeltacht families, attend classes, participate in sports, go to céilithe and are obliged to speak Irish. All aspects of Irish culture and tradition are encouraged. The Act
8468-537: The Vinalia rustica festival. In 217 BC, in the early stages of the Second Punic War with Carthage , Rome suffered a disastrous defeat at the battle of Lake Trasimene . The Sibylline oracle suggested that Carthage might be defeated if the Venus of Eryx ( Venus Erycina ), patron goddess of Carthage's Sicilian allies, could be persuaded to change her allegiance. Rome laid siege to Eryx and promised its goddess
8614-497: The gens Julia , embellished an existing connection between Venus, whom Julius Caesar had adopted as his protectress, and the Trojan prince Aeneas , refugee from Troy's destruction and eventual ancestor of the Roman people. Virgil's Aeneas is guided to Latium by Venus in her heavenly form, the morning star, shining brightly before him in the daylight sky; much later, she lifts Caesar's soul to heaven. In Ovid 's Fasti Venus came to Rome because she "preferred to be worshipped in
8760-525: The Freedwoman "), probably arising through the semantic similarity and cultural links between libertina (as "a free woman") and lubentina (possibly meaning "pleasurable" or "passionate"). Further titles or variants acquired by Venus through the same process, or through orthographic variance, include Libentia, Lubentina, and Lubentini. Venus Libitina links Venus to a patron-goddess of funerals and undertakers , Libitina , who also became synonymous with death;
8906-606: The Irish language outside Ireland , a major figure remains. Seán Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin was a native of the now-abandoned island of Inishfarnard off the Beara Peninsula of County Cork . Ó Súilleabháin emigrated to the United States in 1905 and settled in the heavily Irish-American mining city of Butte, Montana , where he continued to both collect and compose Modern literature in Irish until his death in 1957. In his pre- Easter Rising aisling poem Cois na Tuinne ("Beside
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#17328912859239052-553: The Irish people . Cúndún's aisling poems helped inspire the more recent Irish-language poetry of Seán Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin, who adapted the aisling tradition to the experiences of the Irish diaspora , the events of the Easter Rising of 1916, and the Irish War of Independence . In Scottish Gaelic literature , Fr. Allan MacDonald 's eerily prophetic Aisling poem Ceum nam Mìltean ("The March of Thousands"), describes waking up after
9198-619: The Republic of Ireland , and is also an official language of Northern Ireland and among the official languages of the European Union . The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. Irish has no regulatory body but An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , the standard written form, is guided by a parliamentary service and new vocabulary by a voluntary committee with university input. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official [Written] Standard ")
9344-554: The attitude anasyrmene , from the Greek verb anasyromai , "to pull up one's clothes" to reveal her male genitalia. The gesture traditionally held apotropaic or magical power. Venus Caelestis (Celestial or Heavenly Venus), used from the 2nd century AD for Venus as an aspect of a syncretised supreme goddess. Venus Caelestis is the earliest known Roman recipient of a taurobolium (a form of bull sacrifice), performed at her shrine in Pozzuoli on 5 October 134. This form of
9490-465: The "fair voyage"), also known as Venus Pontia (Venus of the Sea"), because she smooths the waves for mariners. She is probably based on the influential image of Aphrodite by Praxiteles , once housed in a temple by the sea but now lost. Most copies of its Venus image would have been supported by dolphins, and worn diadems and carved veils, inferring her birth from sea-foam, and a consequent identity as Queen of
9636-558: The 17th century, largely as a result of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland , which saw many Irish sent to the West Indies . Irish emigration to the United States was well established by the 18th century, and was reinforced in the 1840s by thousands fleeing from the Famine . This flight also affected Britain. Up until that time most emigrants spoke Irish as their first language, though English
9782-604: The 1998 Good Friday Agreement , the language gradually received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, and then, in 2003, by the British government's ratification in respect of the language of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . In the 2006 St Andrews Agreement the British government promised to enact legislation to promote the language and in 2022 it approved legislation to recognise Irish as an official language alongside English. The bill received royal assent on 6 December 2022. The Irish language has often been used as
9928-403: The 6th century, used the Latin alphabet and is attested primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts. During this time, the Irish language absorbed some Latin words, some via Old Welsh , including ecclesiastical terms : examples are easpag (bishop) from episcopus , and Domhnach (Sunday, from dominica ). By the 10th century, Old Irish had evolved into Middle Irish , which
10074-466: The Act all detailing different aspects of the use of Irish in official documentation and communication. Included in these sections are subjects such as Irish language use in official courts, official publications, and placenames. The Act was recently amended in December 2019 in order to strengthen the already preexisting legislation. All changes made took into account data collected from online surveys and written submissions. The Official Languages Scheme
10220-423: The Ark's decks after being purged of their Whiggery by first swallowing a heavy dose of seawater. Redcoats from the Campbell of Argyll Militia and a long list of Campbell tacksmen are to be tied with millstones and thrown overboard, or even much worse. Due to the militant Jacobitism of this poem and many others in the same book with it, all known copies of the collection were rounded up and publicly burned by
10366-410: The Elder , having a Stoic's outlook, sees Cupid as a deity of greed and blind passion, morally inferior to Amor. The Roman playwright Plautus , however, has Venus, Cupid and Amor working together. In Roman cult inscriptions and theology, "Amor" is rare, and "Cupido" relatively common. No Roman temples seem dedicated to Cupid alone but the joint dedication formula Venus Cupidoque ("Venus and Cupid")
10512-463: The European Union , only co-decision regulations were available until 2022, due to a five-year derogation, requested by the Irish Government when negotiating the language's new official status. The Irish government had committed itself to train the necessary number of translators and interpreters and to bear the related costs. This derogation ultimately came to an end on 1 January 2022, making Irish
10658-516: The Fisher-woman") are almost exclusive to Pompeii. Both forms of Venus are represented within Pompeian homes of the well-off, with Venus Pompeiana more commonly found in formal reception spaces, typically depicted in full regalia , draped with a mantle, standing rigidly upright with her right arm across her chest. Images of Venus Pescatrice tend to be more playful, usually found in less formal and less public "non-reception" areas: here, she usually holds
10804-719: The Germans "pulled it together." Some members of his unit, however, were not so lucky and were taken away to POW camps in the German Empire . In Paul Muldoon 's 1983 satirical poem Aisling , which was written in response to the 1981 hunger strike campaign by Bobby Sands and other incarcerated members of the Provisional IRA , the goddess Erin was recast to symbolize Anorexia . Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish : Gaeilge ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ l ɪ k / GAY -lik ),
10950-404: The Greek word for "dart", "needle", "arrow", whence "love's arrows" and love's bitter "cares and pangs". Ovid uses acidalia only in the latter sense. Venus Acidalia is likely a literary conceit, formed by Virgil from earlier usages in which acidalia had no evident connection to Venus. It was almost certainly not a cultic epithet. Venus Anadyomene (Venus "rising from the sea"), based on
11096-536: The Irish language policy followed by Irish governments as a "complete and absolute disaster". The Irish Times , referring to his analysis published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse , quoted him as follows: "It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but
11242-597: The Republic of Ireland ), new appointees to the Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland , including postal workers , tax collectors , agricultural inspectors, Garda Síochána (police), etc., were required to have some proficiency in Irish. By law, a Garda who was addressed in Irish had to respond in Irish as well. In 1974, in part through the actions of protest organisations like the Language Freedom Movement ,
11388-417: The Roman pantheon, Vulcan and Mars , are active and fiery. Venus absorbs and tempers the male essence, uniting the opposites of male and female in mutual affection. She is essentially assimilative and benign, and embraces several otherwise quite disparate functions. She can give military victory, sexual success, good fortune and prosperity. In one context, she is a goddess of prostitutes; in another, she turns
11534-591: The Roman people, Dido is said to invoke Anteros as "contrary to Cupid". She falls into hatred and despair, curses Rome, and when Aeneas leaves, commits suicide. Ovid 's Fasti, Book 4, invokes Venus not by name but as "Mother of the Twin Loves", the gemini amores . "Amor" is the Latin name preferred by Roman poets and literati for the personification of "kindly" love. Where Cupid (lust) can be imperious, cruel, prone to mischief or even war-like, Amor softly persuades. Cato
11680-455: The Romans, so as far as the Romans were concerned, this was the homecoming of an ancestral goddess to her people. Soon after, Rome's defeat of Carthage confirmed Venus's goodwill to Rome, her links to its mythical Trojan past, and her support of its political and military hegemony. The Capitoline cult to Venus seems to have been reserved to higher status Romans. A separate cult to Venus Erycina as
11826-619: The Sea, and patron of sailors and navigation. Roman copies would have embellished baths and gymnasiums. Venus Frutis honoured by all the Latins with a federal cult at the temple named Frutinal in Lavinium. Inscriptions found at Lavinium attest the presence of federal cults, without giving precise details. Venus Felix ("Lucky Venus"), probably a traditional epithet, combining aspects of Venus and Fortuna , goddess of both good and bad fortune and personification of luck, whose iconography includes
11972-502: The Stuart heir. According to Daniel Corkery, "The Aisling proper is Jacobite poetry; and a typical example would run something like this: The poet, weak with thinking of the woe that has overtaken the Gael , falls into a deep slumber. In his dreaming a figure of radiant beauty draws near. She is so bright, so stately, the poet imagines her one of the immortals. Is she Deirdre ? Is she Gearnait ? Or
12118-559: The Victorious"), a Romanised aspect of the armed Aphrodite that Greeks had inherited from the East, where the goddess Ishtar "remained a goddess of war, and Venus could bring victory to a Sulla or a Caesar". Pompey vied with his patron Sulla and with Caesar for public recognition as her protégé. In 55 BC he dedicated a temple to her at the top of his theater in the Campus Martius . She had
12264-557: The Wave"), Seán Gaelach describes pondering the woes of the Gael when he encounters the goddess Érin. Stunned, Seán Gaelach asks whether she is the heroine Medea from Greek mythology or perhaps the lover of 17th-century Irish clan chief Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare . Although Érin laments her state, Seán Gaelach promises her that the Irish Volunteers will soon rise up and drive the English from
12410-477: The absence from the lands of Clan Cameron of Dr. Archibald Cameron of Lochiel , who had just become the last Jacobite to be executed for high treason at Tyburn . Cathleen ni Houlihan was based on a figure from aisling poetry but adapted into a stage play by leading members of the Irish Literary Revival in 1902. Cathleen Ni Houlihan is an old and poor woman, a seemingly otherworldly figure that
12556-625: The aisling genre in his anti- Whig and anti- Campbell satirical poem , An Airce ("The Ark"), which was published for the first time in Edinburgh as part of its author's groundbreaking poetry collection Ais-Eiridh na Sean Chánoin Albannaich ("The Resurrection of the Old Scottish Language"). Instead of a female deity, the Bard describes a meeting with the ghost of a member of Clan Campbell who
12702-731: The beginning of the following academic year. For a number of years there has been vigorous debate in political, academic and other circles about the failure of most students in English-medium schools to achieve competence in Irish, even after fourteen years of teaching as one of the three main subjects. The concomitant decline in the number of traditional native speakers has also been a cause of great concern. In 2007, filmmaker Manchán Magan found few Irish speakers in Dublin , and faced incredulity when trying to get by speaking only Irish in Dublin. He
12848-484: The city of her own offspring". In Virgil's poetic account of Octavian 's victory at the sea- battle of Actium , the future emperor is allied with Venus, Neptune and Minerva . Octavian's opponents, Antony , Cleopatra and the Egyptians, assisted by bizarre and unhelpful Egyptian deities such as "barking" Anubis , lose the battle. Cupid (lust or desire) and Amor (affectionate love) are taken to be different names for
12994-648: The course of the 20th century in Ireland as they were commissioned by the government of the Irish Free State . During the semicentennial of the Easter Rising in 1966, the Garden of Remembrance , which is dedicated to the memory of "all those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish Freedom", was formally opened by Eamon de Valera . It is located in the northern fifth of the former Rotunda Gardens in Parnell Square ,
13140-554: The current state of the Irish people and predicts an imminent revival of their fortunes, usually linked to the restoration of the Roman Catholic House of Stuart to the thrones of Great Britain and Ireland. The form developed out of an earlier, non-political genre akin to the French reverdie , in which the poet meets a beautiful, supernatural woman who symbolizes the spring season, the bounty of nature, and love. Another source
13286-535: The darkness of despair we saw a vision, We lit the light of hope and it was not extinguished. In the desert of discouragement we saw a vision. We planted the tree of valour and it blossomed. In the winter of bondage we saw a vision. We melted the snow of lethargy and the river of resurrection flowed from it. We sent our vision aswim like a swan on the river. The vision became a reality. Winter became summer. Bondage became freedom and this we left to you as your inheritance. O generations of freedom remember us,
13432-416: The divine by mortals, in contrast to the formal, contractual relations between most members of Rome's official pantheon and the state, and the unofficial, illicit manipulation of divine forces through magic. The ambivalence of her persuasive functions has been perceived in the relationship of the root *wenos- with its Latin derivative venenum ('poison'; from *wenes-no 'love drink' or 'addicting'), in
13578-713: The education system. Linguistic analyses of Irish speakers are therefore based primarily on the number of daily users in Ireland outside the education system, which in 2022 was 20,261 in the Gaeltacht and 51,707 outside it, totalling 71,968. In response to the 2021 census of Northern Ireland , 43,557 individuals stated they spoke Irish on a daily basis, 26,286 spoke it on a weekly basis, 47,153 spoke it less often than weekly, and 9,758 said they could speak Irish, but never spoke it. From 2006 to 2008, over 22,000 Irish Americans reported speaking Irish as their first language at home, with several times that number claiming "some knowledge" of
13724-430: The end of the Irish War of Independence in 1922, interest in the aisling form and its use by poets continues. Lady Hazel Lavery posed for portraits as the personification of a number of aisling figures from Irish history such as James Clarence Mangan 's Dark Rosaleen and W.B. Yeats's Cathleen Ni Houlihan . The portraits were painted by her husband Sir John Lavery and appeared on bank notes in numerous forms over
13870-468: The end of the famine, and under 17,000 by 1911. Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of Republic of Ireland (English being the other official language). Despite this, almost all government business and legislative debate is conducted in English. In 1938, the founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League), Douglas Hyde , was inaugurated as
14016-439: The epithet and its attendant responsibilities represented a change of heart in the goddess herself. Vinalia urbana (April 23), a wine festival shared by Venus and Jupiter , king of the gods. It offered opportunity to supplicants to ask Venus' intercession with Jupiter, who was thought to be susceptible to her charms, and amenable to the effects of her wine. Venus was patron of " profane " wine, for everyday human use. Jupiter
14162-487: The first President of Ireland . The record of his delivering his inaugural Declaration of Office in Roscommon Irish is one of only a few recordings of that dialect. In the 2016 census, 10.5% of respondents stated that they spoke Irish, either daily or weekly, while over 70,000 people (4.2%) speak it as a habitual daily means of communication. From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see History of
14308-554: The fondness of the Romans for folk-etymology, and by the prevalence of the religious idea nomen-omen which sanctioned any identifications made in this way." Venus Acidalia , in Virgil 's Aeneid (1.715–22, as mater acidalia ). Servius speculates this "rare" and "strangely recondite epithet" as reference to a mooted "Fountain of Acidalia" ( fons acidalia ) where the Graces (Venus' daughters) were said to bathe; but he also connects it to
14454-417: The generations of the vision. The Queen then laid a wreath at the Garden in honor of glúnta na haislinge ("the generations of the vision"), to whom Liam mac Uistín's poem both praises and gives a voice. The Queen's gesture was widely praised by the Irish media. In 1751, Jacobite war poet Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair , whose poetry remains an immortal part of Scottish Gaelic literature , poked fun at
14600-566: The goddess, and the taurobolium, are associated with the "Syrian Goddess", understood as a late equivalent to Astarte , or the Roman Magna Mater , the latter being another supposedly Trojan "Mother of the Romans", as well as "Mother of the Gods". Venus Calva ("Venus the bald one"), a legendary form of Venus, attested only by post-Classical Roman writings which offer several traditions to explain this appearance and epithet. In one, it commemorates
14746-408: The hearts of men and women from sexual vice to virtue. Varro 's theology identifies Venus with water as an aspect of the female principle. To generate life, the watery matrix of the womb requires the virile warmth of fire. To sustain life, water and fire must be balanced; excess of either one, or their mutual antagonism, is unproductive or destructive. Prospective brides offered Venus a gift "before
14892-688: The land. He predicts that the post-independence Irish economy will boom and bring everyone prosperity, the Irish language will be restored to the people, and that Ireland will be re-forested and filled with singing birds in all the branches of the trees. In the 1917 aisling poem Bánta Mín Éirinn Glas Óg ("The Lush Green Plains of Ireland"), Seán Gaelach describes meeting Érin again, proposing marriage to her, and trying to convince her to emigrate with him overseas to tíribh an cheóil ("the land of music"). When Seán Gaelach promises never to abandon her, Érin finally agrees to marry him and join him in America. Despite
15038-698: The language family, is derived from the Old Irish term. Endonyms of the language in the various modern Irish dialects include: Gaeilge [ˈɡeːlʲɟə] in Galway, Gaeilg / Gaeilic / Gaeilig [ˈɡeːlʲəc] in Mayo and Ulster , Gaelainn / Gaoluinn [ˈɡeːl̪ˠən̠ʲ] in West/Cork, Kerry Munster , as well as Gaedhealaing in mid and East Kerry/Cork and Waterford Munster to reflect local pronunciation. Gaeilge also has
15184-410: The language was in use by all classes, Irish being an urban as well as a rural language. This linguistic dynamism was reflected in the efforts of certain public intellectuals to counter the decline of the language. At the end of the 19th century, they launched the Gaelic revival in an attempt to encourage the learning and use of Irish, although few adult learners mastered the language. The vehicle of
15330-425: The language. For most of recorded Irish history , Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people , who took it with them to other regions , such as Scotland and the Isle of Man , where Middle Irish gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx . It was also, for a period, spoken widely across Canada , with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish in 1890. On the island of Newfoundland ,
15476-465: The literary concept of Venus is mantled in whole-cloth borrowings from the literary Greek mythology of her counterpart, Aphrodite, but with significant exceptions. In some Latin mythology, Cupid was the son of Venus and Mars , the god of war. At other times, or in parallel myths and theologies, Venus was understood to be the consort of Vulcan or as mother of the "second cupid", fathered by Mercury . Virgil , in compliment to his patron Augustus and
15622-508: The mid-18th century, English was becoming a language of the Catholic middle class, the Catholic Church and public intellectuals, especially in the east of the country. Increasingly, as the value of English became apparent, parents sanctioned the prohibition of Irish in schools. Increasing interest in emigrating to the United States and Canada was also a driver, as fluency in English allowed
15768-461: The most pudica (sexually pure) in Rome by a committee of Roman matrons. At first, this statue was probably housed in the temple of Fortuna Virilis , perhaps as divine reinforcement against the perceived moral and religious failings of its cult. In 114 BC Venus Verticordia was given her own temple. She was meant to persuade Romans of both sexes and every class, whether married or unmarried, to cherish
15914-453: The myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art and Latin literature . In the later classical tradition of the West , Venus became one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. As such, she is usually depicted nude . The Latin theonym Venus and the common noun venus ('love, charm') stem from
16060-771: The name of the language is Gaeilge , from the South Connacht form, spelled Gaedhilge prior the spelling reform of 1948, which was originally the genitive of Gaedhealg , the form used in Classical Gaelic . The modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent ⟨dh⟩ in Gaedhilge . Older spellings include Gaoidhealg [ˈɡeːʝəlˠəɡ] in Classical Gaelic and Goídelc [ˈɡoiðʲelɡ] in Old Irish . Goidelic , used to refer to
16206-463: The new immigrants to get jobs in areas other than farming. An estimated one quarter to one third of US immigrants during the Great Famine were Irish speakers. Irish was not marginal to Ireland's modernisation in the 19th century, as is often assumed. In the first half of the century there were still around three million people for whom Irish was the primary language, and their numbers alone made them
16352-639: The number now is between 20,000 and 30,000." In the 1920s, when the Irish Free State was founded, Irish was still a vernacular in some western coastal areas. In the 1930s, areas where more than 25% of the population spoke Irish were classified as Gaeltacht . Today, the strongest Gaeltacht areas, numerically and socially, are those of South Connemara , the west of the Dingle Peninsula , and northwest Donegal, where many residents still use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as
16498-498: The other official language, if not already passed in both official languages. In November 2016, RTÉ reported that over 2.3 million people worldwide were learning Irish through the Duolingo app. Irish president Michael D. Higgins officially honoured several volunteer translators for developing the Irish edition, and said the push for Irish language rights remains an "unfinished project". There are rural areas of Ireland where Irish
16644-515: The outfall of the Cloaca Maxima , originally a stream, later covered over to function as Rome's main sewer. The rites conducted at the shrine were probably meant to purify the culvert's polluted waters and noxious airs . In some traditions, Titus Tatius was responsible for the introduction of lawful marriage to Rome, and Venus-Cloacina promoted, protected and purified sexual intercourse between married couples. Venus Erycina (" Erycine Venus"),
16790-768: The peculiar milieu of the Aventine and the Circus Maximus" – a strongly plebeian context for Venus's cult, in contrast to her aristocratic cultivation as a Stoic and Epicurian "all-goddess". Towards the end of the Roman Republic , some leading Romans laid personal claims to Venus' favour. The general and dictator Sulla adopted Felix ("Lucky") as a surname, acknowledging his debt to heaven-sent good fortune and his particular debt to Venus Felix , for his extraordinarily fortunate political and military career. His protégé Pompey competed for Venus' support, dedicating (in 55 BC)
16936-539: The political party holding power in the Stormont Parliament , the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), was hostile to the language. The context of this hostility was the use of the language by nationalists. In broadcasting, there was an exclusion on the reporting of minority cultural issues, and Irish was excluded from radio and television for almost the first fifty years of the previous devolved government. After
17082-403: The public hangman at Edinburgh in 1752. In around 1780, County Clare poet and hedge school teacher Brian Merriman similarly parodied aisling poetry in his comic masterpiece Cúirt An Mheán Oíche ("The Midnight Court"). Instead of a pre-Christian goddess, Merriman describes being arrested by a hideous giant hag while dozing along the shores of Lough Graney . The hag then takes the Bard to
17228-487: The relationship between the three Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx). Gaelic is a collective term for the Goidelic languages, and when the context is clear it may be used without qualification to refer to each language individually. When the context is specific but unclear, the term may be qualified, as Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Manx Gaelic. Historically the name "Erse" ( / ɜːr s / URS )
17374-432: The requirement for entrance to the public service was changed to proficiency in just one official language. Nevertheless, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools in the Republic of Ireland that receive public money (see Education in the Republic of Ireland ). Teachers in primary schools must also pass a compulsory examination called Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge . As of 2005, Garda Síochána recruits need
17520-625: The revival was the Gaelic League ( Conradh na Gaeilge ), and particular emphasis was placed on the folk tradition, which in Irish is particularly rich. Efforts were also made to develop journalism and a modern literature. Although it has been noted that the Catholic Church played a role in the decline of the Irish language before the Gaelic Revival, the Protestant Church of Ireland also made only minor efforts to encourage use of Irish in
17666-472: The ripening of the grapes; but the sacrificial victim, a female lamb ( agna ), may be evidence that it once belonged to Venus alone. A festival of Venus Genetrix (September 26) was held under state auspices from 46 BC at her Temple in the Forum of Caesar , in fulfillment of a vow by Julius Caesar , who claimed her personal favour as his divine patron, and ancestral goddess of the Julian clan . Caesar dedicated
17812-494: The rudder of a ship, found in some Pompeian examples of the regal Venus Physica . A form of Venus usually identified as Venus Felix was adopted by the dictator Sulla to legitimise his victories over his domestic and foreign opponents during Rome's late Republican civil and foreign wars; Rives finds it very unlikely that Sulla would have imposed this humiliating connection on unwilling or conquered domestic territories once allied to Samnium, such as Pompei. The emperor Hadrian built
17958-443: The ruined church at Moynoe , where the women of Ireland are suing the men for their unwillingness to marry and father children. After self-justifying arguments by the morally bankrupt lawyers for both genders, the judge, the pre-Christian goddess Aoibheal , rules that all men except Roman Catholic priests must marry before the age of 20 on pain of flogging at the hands of Ireland's understandably angry and frustrated women. The poet
18104-428: The same Roman love-god, the son of Venus, fathered by Mercury , Vulcan or Mars. Childlike or boyish winged figures who accompany Venus, whether singly, in pairs or more, have been variously identified as Amores, Cupids , Erotes or forms of Greek Eros . The most ancient of these is Eros, whom Hesiod categorises as a primordial deity , emerging from Chaos as a generative power with neither mother nor father. Eros
18250-422: The sense of "a charm, magic philtre ". Venus seems to have had no origin myth until her association with Greek Aphrodite. Venus-Aphrodite emerged, already in adult form, from the sea foam (Greek αφρός, aphros ) produced by the severed genitals of Caelus - Uranus . Roman theology presents Venus as the yielding, watery female principle, essential to the generation and balance of life. Her male counterparts in
18396-540: The springtime blossoming of trees and flowers. In the interpretatio romana of the Germanic pantheon during the early centuries AD, Venus became identified with the Germanic goddess Frijjo , giving rise to the loan translation " Friday " for dies Veneris . Veneralia (April 1) was held in honour of Venus Verticordia ("Venus the Changer of Hearts"), and Fortuna Virilis (Virile or strong Good Fortune )), whose cult
18542-633: The stories within The Golden Ass , by the Roman author Apuleius , the plot and its resolution are driven by Cupid's love for Psyche ("soul"), his filial disobedience, and his mother's envy. Images of Venus have been found in domestic murals, mosaics and household shrines ( lararia ). Petronius , in his Satyricon , places an image of Venus among the Lares (household gods) of the freedman Trimalchio 's lararium . The Venus types known as Venus Pompeiana ("Venus of Pompeii") and Venus Pescatrice ("Venus
18688-508: The temple during his extraordinarily lavish quadruple triumph. At the same time, he was pontifex maximus and Rome's senior magistrate; the festival is thought to mark the unprecedented promotion of a personal, family cult to one of the Roman state. Caesar's heir, Augustus, made much of these personal and family associations with Venus as an Imperial deity. The festival's rites are not known. As with most major gods and goddesses in Roman mythology ,
18834-454: The traditional sexual proprieties and morality known to please the gods and benefit the State. During her rites, her image was taken from her temple to the men's baths, where it was undressed and washed in warm water by her female attendants, then garlanded with myrtle. Women and men asked Venus Verticordia's help in affairs of the heart, sex, betrothal and marriage. For Ovid , Venus's acceptance of
18980-705: The vacancy to which they are appointed. This requirement is laid down by the University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3). In 2016, the university faced controversy when it announced the planned appointment of a president who did not speak Irish. Misneach staged protests against this decision. The following year the university announced that Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh , a fluent Irish speaker, would be its 13th president. He assumed office in January 2018; in June 2024, he announced he would be stepping down as president at
19126-520: The virtuous offer by Roman matrons of their own hair to make bowstrings during a siege of Rome. In another, king Ancus Marcius ' wife and other Roman women lost their hair during an epidemic; in hope of its restoration, unafflicted women sacrificed their own hair to Venus. Venus Cloacina ("Venus the Purifier"); a fusion of Venus with the Etruscan water goddess Cloacina , who had an ancient shrine above
19272-507: The wedding"; the nature of the gift, and its timing, are unknown. The wedding ceremony itself, and the state of lawful marriage, belonged to Juno – whose mythology allows her only a single marriage, and no divorce from her habitually errant spouse, Jupiter – but Venus and Juno are also likely "bookends" for the ceremony; Venus prepares the bride for "conubial bliss" and expectations of fertility within lawful marriage. Some Roman sources say that girls who come of age offer their toys to Venus; it
19418-538: The widest possible spacing between the temple columns, producing a light and airy space, and he offers Venus's temple in Caesar's forum as an example of how not to do it; the densely spaced, thickset columns darken the interior, hide the temple doors and crowd the walkways, so that matrons who wish to honour the goddess must enter her temple in single file, rather than arm-in arm. In 135 AD the Emperor Hadrian inaugurated
19564-594: The work of such writers as Geoffrey Keating , is said to date from the 17th century, and was the medium of popular literature from that time on. From the 18th century on, the language lost ground in the east of the country. The reasons behind this shift were complex but came down to a number of factors: The change was characterised by diglossia (two languages being used by the same community in different social and economic situations) and transitional bilingualism (monoglot Irish-speaking grandparents with bilingual children and monoglot English-speaking grandchildren). By
19710-478: Was beheaded for Jacobitism . The ghost then prophesies that Clan Campbell will be punished for committing high treason against their lawful King during the Jacobite rising of 1745 , first by a repeat of the Ten Plagues of Egypt and then by a second Great Flood upon Argyllshire . The Bard is instructed to emulate Noah and build an Ark for carefully selected Campbells. The moderates are to be welcomed aboard
19856-526: Was vowed to Venus Obsequens by Q. Fabius Gurges in the heat of a battle against the Samnites . It was dedicated in 295 BC, at a site near the Aventine Hill , and was supposedly funded by fines imposed on Roman women for sexual misdemeanours. Its rites and character were probably influenced by or based on Greek Aphrodite 's cults, which were already diffused in various forms throughout Italian Magna Graeca . Its dedication date connects Venus Obsequens to
20002-539: Was a tradition rooted in Irish mythology in which a god or goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann , the pre-Christian pantheon , is seen weeping for the recent death of a local hero. According to Daniel Corkery , the first aisling poems in the Irish language were composed during the early 17th century by the Roman Catholic priest , historian, and poet Geoffrey Keating . Fr. Keating's poem Mo bhrón mo cheótuirse cléibh
20148-523: Was also sometimes used in Scots and then in English to refer to Irish; as well as Scottish Gaelic. Written Irish is first attested in Ogham inscriptions from the 4th century AD, a stage of the language known as Primitive Irish . These writings have been found throughout Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. Primitive Irish underwent a change into Old Irish through the 5th century. Old Irish, dating from
20294-643: Was enacted 1 July 2019 and is an 18-page document that adheres to the guidelines of the Official Languages Act 2003 . The purpose of the Scheme is to provide services through the mediums of Irish and/or English. According to the Department of the Taoiseach, it is meant to "develop a sustainable economy and a successful society, to pursue Ireland's interests abroad, to implement the Government's Programme and to build
20440-505: Was establishing itself as the primary language. Irish speakers had first arrived in Australia in the late 18th century as convicts and soldiers, and many Irish-speaking settlers followed, particularly in the 1860s. New Zealand also received some of this influx. Argentina was the only non-English-speaking country to receive large numbers of Irish emigrants, and there were few Irish speakers among them. Venus (mythology) The Romans adapted
20586-511: Was passed 14 July 2003 with the main purpose of improving the number and quality of public services delivered in Irish by the government and other public bodies. Compliance with the Act is monitored by the An Coimisinéir Teanga (Irish Language Commissioner) which was established in 2004 and any complaints or concerns pertaining to the Act are brought to them. There are 35 sections included in
20732-410: Was patron of the strongest, purest, sacrificial grade wine, and controlled the weather on which the autumn grape-harvest would depend. At this festival, men and women alike drank the new vintage of ordinary, non-sacral wine (pressed at the previous year's vinalia rustica ) in honour of Venus, whose powers had provided humankind with this gift. Upper-class women gathered at Venus's Capitoline temple, where
20878-414: Was probably by far the older of the two. Venus Verticordia was invented in 220 BC, in response to advice from a Sibylline oracle during Rome's Punic Wars , when a series of prodigies was taken to signify divine displeasure at sexual offenses among Romans of every category and class, including several men and three Vestal Virgins . The statue of Venus Verticordia was dedicated by a young woman, chosen as
21024-527: Was spoken throughout Ireland, Isle of Man and parts of Scotland . It is the language of a large corpus of literature, including the Ulster Cycle . From the 12th century, Middle Irish began to evolve into modern Irish in Ireland, into Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and into the Manx language in the Isle of Man . Early Modern Irish , dating from the 13th century, was the basis of the literary language of both Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland. Modern Irish, sometimes called Late Modern Irish, as attested in
21170-483: Was the patron deity of Thespiae , where he was embodied as an aniconic stone as late as the 2nd century AD. From at least the 5th century BC he also had the form of an adolescent or pre-adolescent male, at Elis (on the Peloponnese ) and elsewhere in Greece, acquiring wings, bow and arrows, and divine parents in the love-goddess Aphrodite and the war-god Ares. He had temples of his own, and shared others with Aphrodite. At Elis, and in Athens , Eros shared cult with
21316-442: Was unable to accomplish some everyday tasks, as portrayed in his documentary No Béarla . There is, however, a growing body of Irish speakers in urban areas, particularly in Dublin. Many have been educated in schools in which Irish is the language of instruction. Such schools are known as Gaelscoileanna at primary level. These Irish-medium schools report some better outcomes for students than English-medium schools. In 2009,
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