Our planet's namesake

Our planet, Venus, is named after the Roman goddess of love and fertility. Venus was based off of the Greek goddess, Aphrodite. Aphrodite was revered by the Greeks for her beauty, because of this she played a crucial role in many Greek myths.


"There were actually two different Aphrodites, one was the daughter of Uranus, the other the daughter of Zeus and Dione. The first, called Aphrodite Urania, was the goddess of spiritual love. The second, Aphrodite Pandemos, was the goddess of physical attraction."
Some people believed that there had been both a Greek and Roman "Aphrodite" co-existing.


Aphrodite was the great Olympian goddess of beauty, love, pleasure and and procreation. She was depicted as a beautiful woman usually accompanied by the winged godling Eros (Love). Her companion is more commonly known as Cupid. Her signs included a dove, apple, scallop shell, and mirror.


Venus has many overlapping qualities with Aphrodite, but is only slightly different. Not only is she the goddess of love and beauty, she also represents military victory.Venus' sacred signs include water, roses and above all, myrtle. Myrtle is a white, sweetly scented flower. It is aromatic and has evergreen leaves and amazing medical properties. The Romans planted this plant in order to keep its connections to the Greek goddess, Aphrodite. 


Both of these goddesses have un-deniable link with the sea. In 1488 a Greek refugee Demetrios Chalcondyles wrote:


Of august gold-wreathed and beautiful 
Aphrodite I shall sing to whose domain
belong the battlements of all sea-loved
Cyprus where, blown by the moist breath
of Zephyros, she was carried over the
waves of the resounding sea on soft foam.
The gold-filleted Horae happily welcomed
her and clothed her with heavenly raiment.

He believed this is how Aphrodite came to be. The artist Sandro Botticelli depicted the birth of Venus in his painting entitled "The Birth of Venus". It depicts Venus coming out of the ocean and arriving at the sea shore on a scallop shell along with her godling, Eros.