Sex. Despite several
potentially hazardous side effects, people still seem to practice it
regularly, and pursue it with vigor when they are not receiving it.
What drives men and women to such madness? Scientists serve us some
tripe on hormones and biological impulses, but our ancestors knew the
truth. Love and beauty, and the all consuming desire they produce, are
the products of a sensual goddess and her boy archer. Really, who could
believe otherwise? Andrew Dalby leaves all doubt behind as he serves us
a highly readable biography of the goddess Venus.
Following up on his success with Bacchus,
Andrew Dalby follows a similar format in this work, Venus: A Biography.
He compiles the various, and often contradictory, primary sources on
the lives of the Olympian deities, those tales that fall under the
heading of mythology. He pulls from both the Greek and the Roman
literature, and when necessary also references the Near Eastern corpus
of mythology. Then thoughtfully he details the life and times of Venus
from birth in archaic Greece to her position as a celebrated motif of
Renaissance art or Elizabethan poetry.
Chapter one examines the competing tales of the birth of Venus, a
renowned subject of art. Nearly all agree she was born from the sea,
emerging in her full grown glory from a blanket of foam. However, she
is ascribed different parents depending on the poet, and the reader is
left to judge for himself what to believe. Chapter two examines the
newly arrived goddess' life in Olympus. Venus was married to the lame
smith god Vulcan. But that did not stop her from having affairs with
Ares. And Hermes. And Poseidon. And ... well, Venus seems to have
bestowed her blessings on quite a few deserving male divinities. As you
might expect, the end product of all these trysts was a diversified
line of children. The most famous of these, and nearly equal in fame to
his own mother, is Cupid (Eros). The mischievous boy with his quiver
full of arrows is responsible for many an illogical and doomed
attraction - both between mortals, and between mortals and gods. He
also has his own celebrated affair with a mortal female named Psyche.
The story of Adonis is the subject of chapter four. The goddess who
inspires passion is herself consumed with desire regarding a young male
hunter who has little time for lascivious pleasures. The mythology of
Adonis is complicated and rich, and Dalby walks us through its origins
in Ancient Mesopotamia, tracing its eventual adoption by the Greeks and
later Romans.
Chapters five and six become epic in scope as we see the Trojan War
unfold from its distant origins through its cataclysmic conclusion.
Venus sleeps with the immortal Anchises and begets Aeneas, destined to
become the progenitor of the Roman race and the Julian clan. In the
meantime, a beauty contest judged by another Trojan, Paris, yields some
unintended consequences when the Spartan princess Helen is brought into
the fold. Venus spends the Trojan War dutifully rescuing Aeneas and
Paris from harm, but is wounded in the process from a mortal, much to
the amusement of the other gods.
Chapter seven takes us beyond classical myth and views how Venus is
honored in a variety of ways. The lascivious Roman poet Ovid joked that
the ancestress of the Roman race still imparted her presence in the
capitol, if all the whores and sexual trysts were anything to judge by.
In cult, Venus has various shrines throughout the Greco-Roman world,
and she was identified with both Egyptian and Near Eastern deities.
Finally, as any stargazer knows, the brightest star in the sky bears
her name, an eternal sigil of her celestial grandeur.
Dalby gives notes on the sources used for this biography, as well a
bibliography for further reading. However, aside from that there are no
further resources. There are no photos or illustrations of sculptures,
paintings and temples to the goddess, which might have offered a
complimentary visual survey of this most beautiful subject.
That is a minor point, though. This emphasis of the work is on the
actual writing. Dalby is a classically trained scholar and his written
numerous books on the literature and culture of the ancient world. He
knows his material. But more to the point, he can deliver it with wit
and aplomb. As I mentioned in my review of Dalby's Bacchus: A
Biography, sometimes classical myth is treated with too much
scholarly
objectivity and whitewashing, which all too often wrings the colorful
life from what had been a hell of a story. Dalby, by contrast, sees the
humor, the verve, the sometimes sheer lewdness of classical myth, and
manages to convey this to a modern audience without being over the top
about it. He draws you into the magic and the mystery of it all.
Much like the goddess of love, Dalby is a wanton seducer. I spent an
enjoyable evening with Venus. And I am sure, if given a chance, she can
find ways to pleasure you as well.
