Venus

Also known as: Cytherea / Erycina / golden Venus · Family: divine · Role: goddess · First appears: Fable 12

Venus, also known as Cytherea, Erycina, and golden Venus, was connected with Cadmus as both his father-in-law and mother-in-law through Mars and herself. With Mars, she was involved in an affair while married to Vulcan, until Vulcan trapped them together and exposed them to the gods. Sun revealed the betrayal, and Venus later sought satisfaction against him. She was also named as the mother of Rhodos according to some accounts, and as the mother of Harmonia, making her the grandmother of Ino.

At Cupid’s side, Venus directed him to unite Pluto with Ceres’s daughter, while Diana and Minerva were said to have renounced her. Eryx was her son, and Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne attended her as the Graces. Juno persuaded Venus to inspire Medea with love for Jason, and Venus offered to renew the years of Anchises. At Cyprus, she punished the Cerastæ by transforming them into fierce bulls and changed the Propœtides into hard rocks. She answered Pygmalion’s prayer by giving life to his ivory statue and attended the marriage she thereby brought about.

Later, Venus became enamored of Adonis and followed him from her usual haunts. She aided Hippomenes in his race by giving him three golden apples, but after Adonis’s death she declared that his mourning would be remembered each year and changed his blood into a crimson flower. As the mother of Æneas and daughter of Jupiter, she intervened for her descendant; she hid Paris in a cloud and, as the ancestor of Julius Cæsar, carried his liberated soul from the Senate-house into the heavens, where it became a flaming star.