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90-450: The ancient Portus Veneris is believed to date back to at least the middle of the 1st century BC. It has been said that the name refers to a temple to the goddess Venus which was sited on the promontory where the church of Peter the Apostle now stands. The name has also been linked to that of the hermit Saint Venerius . In Roman times the city was essentially a fishing community. After

180-410: 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

270-612: 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

360-571: 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

450-421: 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

540-653: 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

630-456: 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

720-660: 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

810-403: 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

900-456: 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

990-489: 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

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1080-526: 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

1170-599: 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

1260-406: 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

1350-473: 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

1440-486: 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

1530-595: 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

1620-412: 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

1710-731: 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

1800-730: 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 "),

1890-699: 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

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1980-809: A total length of about 350 km (218 miles). It is customarily divided into a western section, the Ponente Riviera, and an eastern section, the Levante Riviera, the point of division being the apex of the Ligurian arc at Voltri . It has about 1.6 million inhabitants, and most of the population is concentrated within the coastal area. Its mild climate draws an active tourist trade in the numerous coastal resorts , which include Alassio , Bonassola , Bordighera , Camogli , Cinque Terre , Lerici , Levanto , Noli , Portofino , Porto Venere , Santa Margherita Ligure , Sanremo , San Fruttuoso , and Sestri Levante . It

2070-518: 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

2160-472: A unique landscape with its high coasts, caves and vegetation that permeates the atmosphere in any season with the changing shades of color. An element that blends and harmonizes every detail is the sea, sometimes calm and clear, so as to reflect like a mirror enchanted multicolored rocks and seagulls, sometimes rough and almost angry. To crown the Park archipelago with three islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto, defying

2250-414: 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

2340-539: Is Genoa , which divides it into two main sections: the Riviera di Ponente (“the coast of the setting sun”), extending westwards from Genoa to the French border; and the Riviera di Levante (“the coast of the rising sun”) between Genoa and Capo Corvo. It is known for its mild climate and its reputation for a relaxed way of life, old fishing ports, and landscapes. It has been a popular destination for travellers and tourists since

2430-482: 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. The Romans adapted

2520-443: 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

2610-630: 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

2700-796: Is also known for its historical association with international celebrity and artistic visitors; writers and poets like Percy Bysshe Shelley , Lord Byron , Ezra Pound , and Ernest Hemingway were inspired by the beauty and spirit of Liguria. As a tourist centre, the Italian Riviera benefits from over 300 days of sunshine per year, and is known for its beaches, colourfully painted towns, natural environment, food, and luxury villas and hotels, as well as for its popular resort facilities, major yachting and cruising areas with several marinas, festivals , golf courses, sailing, rock climbing and scenic views of centuries old farmhouses and cottages. Industries are concentrated in and around Genoa, Savona, and along

2790-584: 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

Porto Venere - Misplaced Pages Continue

2880-667: Is the narrow coastal strip in Italy which lies between the Ligurian Sea and the mountain chain formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines . Longitudinally it extends from the border with France and the French Riviera (or Côte d'Azur ) near Ventimiglia (a former customs post) eastwards to Capo Corvo  [ it ] (also known as Punta Bianca) which marks the eastern end of

2970-510: 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

3060-537: 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

3150-497: 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

3240-525: 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;

3330-461: The Gulf of La Spezia and is close to the regional border between Liguria and Tuscany . The Italian Riviera thus includes nearly all of the coastline of Liguria. Historically the "Riviera" extended further to the west, through what is now French territory as far as Marseille . The Italian Riviera crosses all four Ligurian provinces and their capitals Genoa , Savona , Imperia and La Spezia , with

3420-519: The Riviera di Levante . In the municipal area, the weather station is located on Island of Palmaria , where data can be considered similar to those occurring in Porto Venere and the surrounding areas. The area of Portovenere-Palmaria Island is the only point behind in the Ligurian Sea between the Isle of Elba and the islands of Hyères , France . Hence the strategic role in the history of seafaring. In

3510-661: The Rolli in Genoa's historic center, one of only two Ligurian sites, and in 2001 established the eponymous Regional Natural Park . The municipal Coat of arms was approved by the special decree of the Head of the Government dated 19 April 1933. In addition to the emblem and banner of the city is the cross of St. George to be also a symbol of civic and historical community of Porto Venere, including banner bearing its coat of arms (the color of Genoa are

3600-554: 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

3690-465: 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

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3780-563: The Doria quay and the picturesque Alley and panoramic views to the church of St. Peter and the Doria Castle. The harbor of Portovenere, although the smallest of Liguria, is always sold out in the summer season and also hosts many celebrities. Natural places in Porto Venere include the famous sea caves Byron (Cala dell'Arpaia), Azzurra or Blue Cave (semi-submerged) and Tinetto; the cavity of the Doves and

3870-458: 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")

3960-516: 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

4050-404: 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

4140-625: The Gulf of Venus. From 13 June 1805 to 1814 it was included in the Department of the Apennines. It was at this point which, in 1812, it became part of the coastal route called "Route Napoleon" in honor of the French general and now known as localized road 530, which still connects the marine center with La Spezia via Fezzano, Le Grazie and Terizzo. In 1815 it was incorporated in the Kingdom of Sardinia , according to

4230-417: 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

4320-591: 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

4410-455: 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

4500-619: 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

4590-559: 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

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4680-615: The blue sea in a swirl of aromas and looks towards the infinite. But the park is not only Nature, History dwells here since prehistoric times with the Cave of the Doves, until the recent past in which Guglielmo Marconi experimented in front of the village his innovative studies. The 2021 Pixar animated film Luca was primarily based on the Cinque Terre towns, however the animation team visited Porto Venere as well for inspiration. Venus (mythology) Venus ( / ˈ v iː n ə s / )

4770-484: 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

4860-638: The decisions of the Congress of Wien of 1814, and subsequently in the Kingdom of Italy from 1861. From 1859 to 1927 the territory was included in the First district of La Spezia, part of the Eastern District of the Province of Genoa before and, with its establishment in 1923, the Province of La Spezia. In 1998 it obtained for its architectural heritage and natural entry in the list of protected World Heritage Site, with

4950-416: 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

5040-612: The early 12th century. In 1494, it suffered a devastating bombardment from the Aragonese fleet during their war with Genoa : subsequently the old part of the town declined in importance, giving way to the development of the Borgo Nuovo ("New District"), which had existed from 1139 and is centred on the church of St. Peter . On 2 December 1797, after the French established their domination in Italy ,

5130-439: 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

5220-593: The fall of the Western Roman Empire , Porto Venere became the base of the Byzantine fleet in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea , but was destroyed by the Lombards in 643 AD. Later, it was a frequent target of Saracen raids. First indications of the existence of a castle date from 1113, and in 1161 the walls were erected. Porto Venere became a fiefdom of a family from Vezzano before passing to Republic of Genoa in

5310-558: The flags of the three towers) and wants to emphasize the secular alliance of the village with the ancient Republic of Genoa . This "objective" is also mentioned in the municipal charter. The village lies at the southern end of a peninsula, which, breaking away from the jagged coastline of the Riviera di Levante, forming the western tip of the Gulf of La Spezia . At the end of this peninsula are three small islands: Palmaria , Tino and Tinetto ; only Palmaria Island, which lies directly opposite

5400-554: 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

5490-566: 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

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5580-408: 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

5670-465: 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

5760-414: 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

5850-403: The municipality of Porto Venere, in Panigaglia , into the Gulf of Spezia , there is a regasification plant, thanks to which it can import by sea, in the liquid state, natural hydrocarbon gas such as liquified natural gas . Portovenere's economy focuses on tourism. Hotels, bed and breakfasts, guest houses, and residences have become more important in recent years. The popular shopping promenade in

5940-406: 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

6030-460: 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"),

6120-604: 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)

6210-425: 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

6300-494: 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

6390-428: 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

6480-422: 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

6570-627: The shores of the Gulf of La Spezia. Genoa and La Spezia are Italy's leading shipyards; La Spezia is Italy's major naval base, and Savona is a major centre of the Italian iron industry. Chemical, textile, and food industries are also important. A number of streets and palaces in the center of Genoa and the Cinque Terre National Park (which includes Cinque Terre , Portovenere , and the islands Palmaria , Tino and Tinetto ) are two of Italy's 58 World Heritage Sites . The Riviera's centre

6660-540: 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

6750-633: 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

6840-461: 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 ,

6930-415: The time of Byron and Percy Shelley . Many villages and towns in the area are internationally known, such as Portofino , Bordighera , Lerici and the Cinque Terre . Many villages of Italian Riviera are counted among I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). The part of the Riviera di Ponente centred on Savona , is called the Riviera delle Palme (the Riviera of palms);

7020-399: The toe of St. Peter. The strong current and high depth of discharge, about 35 metres (115 ft), contribute to the rapid dispersion of the fluid. The beaches of the area are a tourist attraction. The climate is typically Mediterranean, with almost no excess heat in summer and no freezing in winter. However, rainfall can be abundant, especially in autumn and spring, due to the orography of

7110-686: The town became part of the Department of the Gulf of Venus , with the capital in La Spezia, in the Ligurian Republic annexed to the First French Empire . From 28 April 1798 with the new French law, the territory of Portovenere fell in the seventh canton, as the capital, the Jurisdiction of the Gulf of Venus since 1803 and the main center of the third State of the Gulf of Venus in the jurisdiction of

7200-454: 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

7290-531: The village of Porto Venere beyond a narrow strait, is partially inhabited. It is bordered to the north by the municipality of La Spezia , and to the south, west and east by the Mediterranean Sea . It is about 3.2 kilometres (2 mi) south of La Spezia and 72 kilometres (45 mi) southeast of Genoa . There is a conveyor system with the sewer grates and pumps that push the waste into a subsea pipeline that comes out to about 200 metres (660 ft) beyond

7380-520: 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

7470-535: The wall of Tino, the shoal of Dante and Small and Big creeks. Byron's cave, named after the English poet George Gordon Byron , who found inspiration and meditation for his literary works here. It is located at the spur of rock below the church of St. Peter and the old defensive position, the marine cave has a minimum depth of five meters and a maximum of twenty along the side. The Regional Natural Park in Portovenere offers

7560-507: 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

7650-538: 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

7740-526: 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

7830-410: 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

7920-414: 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

8010-633: 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

8100-628: Was used in the purification rites of Cloacina , the Etruscan-Roman goddess of Rome's main sewer ; later, Cloacina's association with Venus' sacred plant made her Venus Cloacina . Likewise, Roman folk-etymology transformed the ancient, obscure goddess Murcia into "Venus of the Myrtles, whom we now call Murcia". Riviera di Levante The Italian Riviera or Ligurian Riviera ( Italian : Riviera ligure [riˈvjɛːra ˈliːɡure] ; Ligurian : Rivêa lìgure [ɾiˈveːa ˈliɡyɾe] )

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