Introduction | A Conversation with Venus
“Be friendly,” I said. “Kindly Mother of twin Cupids.” She turned her expressive eyes back to me, the poet:
“What do you want,” She said. “With me? Certainly by now you celebrate greater things. Surely you don’t have an old wound in your tender heart?”
“You know, Goddess,” I replied. “About the wound.”
She laughed, and immediately cheerful brightness radiated from Her face.
“Hurt or healthy, have I ever abandoned your banner? You are my purpose, you are always in my work. It was appropriate when we played together without guilt in my earliest years. Now a greater track is ground down by our horses: I celebrate the Seasons and their reasons, pulling them from Ancient Calendars. I celebrate the Constellations slipping beneath the Earth and rising again.
“We have come to the fourth month, in which You are most honored: You know, Venus, both the poet and the month to be Yours.”
Moved, She lightly crowned my temples with Venusian myrtle and said: “Finish the work that has been started.”
I understood, and suddenly the reasons for the days were obvious: while She allows me, and while the winds blow, our ship might sail.
Indeed, if any part of the calendar ought to interest you, Caesar, April holds that which might fascinate you. This month was handed down to you by a great ancestor, and became yours thanks to adopted nobility.
The Trojan father knew this, when he wrote out the long year, and he remembers his own ancestors:
And though he dedicated the first lot in the series to Wild Mars, who was the immediate cause for his own life, he later found Venus far back in his family tree, and he decided that She should have the honor of the second month. Having sought the origins of his conception and having unrolled the generations before him, he came right up to his godly relatives.
Doesn’t he know Dardanus, born of Electra, daughter of Atlas? Certainly she slept with Jupiter. His son is Ericthonius; and his is Tros. Continuing this family line, Tros begets Assaracus, and he fathers Capys. Anchises follows, with whom Venus does not disdain to share the name of ‘parent.’ From this union Aeneas was born, who scrupulous religiousness has been noted by the Gods. Through the fires of Troy’s destruction he carried Holy Images, and his father, among other sacred items, on his shoulders. We have come at last to the auspicious name of Julus, through whom Julia touches the Trojan ancestors of her house. The last in this bloodline, who was born in the great forests, was called Silvanius by the Latin clan. And he, Latinus, is your father. Alba follows Latinus: Epytus holds your royal title next, Alba. He gives the recurring Trojan name to his son Capys. And you two, Calpetus, share the same grandfather. While after this Tiberinus was granted his father’s kingdom, it is said he was pulled into the great whirlpool of the Tuscan river and drowned. However, before his death he fathered Agrippa, and even saw his grandson Remulus, who was struck dead by thrown thunderbolts. Aventinus follows these, after whom the place, and also the mountain, is named.
After him the kingdom was surrendered to Procas. Numitor, the elder brother of severe Amulus, followed him. Rhea Silvia and Lausus were conceived by Numitor. Lausus was felled by his uncle’s sword; Rhea Silvia satisfied Mars, and she brought you into the world, Romulus, along with your twin Remus.
He always said his own parents were Venus and Mars, and his words deserved credence. His descendants, about to succeed him, could not be ignorant of their heritage, and so he gifted back-to-back seasons to the Gods of his bloodline.
But, I suppose, the month of Venus was first written down in the Greek language (it is said that the Goddess was born of sea-foam, if you’ve never heard the Marvelous Goddess named in Greek), for, back then, the territory by Italy was Greater Greece.
Evander had come with ships full of his own people, so had Hercules, descendant of Alceus, both of them Greek in origin (the foreign guest, the Club-Bearer, pastured his herd on the Aventine grass; it is with so great a God that you drink the Tiber!), as well as the Ithacan leader, Odysseus. Laestragonians lurked over his witnesses, and still now that shore holds the name of Circe, the Goddess-Witch, and at one time, Telegonus her son by Odysseus. In fact, the walls of the wet Tiber, their stones laid by Greek hands, continue to stand tall.
Halesus had come here, driven by the curse on the descendants of Atreus (the Faliscan nation believes itself to be named after him). Add to the mix Antenor, Troy’s advocate for peace with the Greeks, and your son-in-law Oenides, Apulian Daunus. Later, after Antenor, Aeneas came out of Troy’s destruction, carrying his gods into our regions. One comrade of this group was Solymus, who hailed from Trojan Ida, from whom the walls of Sulmo get their name. He was of frosty Sulmo, of our homeland, Germanicus. I am miserable, how far Sulmo is from this Scythian dirt! I am so far off — but suppress my whining, Muse. Songs should not be played for You on a sorrowful lyre.
Where doesn’t Envy go? There are those who might wish to snatch away the honor of the month from You and who may give You the evil eye, Venus, certainly because Spring uncovers everything. A thick blanket of snow and the severity of coldness disappear, and the fertile soil is exposed. They say April is named after this time of snow-melt and exposure, over which kindly Venus asserts her claim by laying down her hand.
Indeed, Venus, the most worthy, rules the universe. She, the littler royalty, keeps no god, and She gives purpose to the sky, the earth, and the waters that birthed Her. She binds all species together by means of Her own beginning. She created all Gods (there are too many to count); She gives reasons to cultivate the trees. She has collected the unformed souls of men into one, and She has taught them how to connect with their own partners.
How does every type of bird reproduce, if not for delightful pleasure? Cattle wouldn’t come together if not for light love. Even though the fierce ram duals a male rival with his horns, he refrains from hurting the forehead of his beloved ewe. The bull, who shakes entire pastures and every grove, having set aside his ferocity, follows the heifer. That same power lies beneath the broad sea, protecting and filling up the waters with uncountable fish. This first force takes away the wild disposition of people: from it civilizations rose and man became anxious about his appearance. It is said that the first lover, his love having denied him, kept himself awake with song through the night, crooning his ballads at her shut doors. His performance persuaded her obstinate maid, as he argued everything for his own opportunity.
Uncountable works of art have been set in motion by this Goddess; and with enthusiasm those who feel they must please Her utilize many tools, most just discovered, which had previously been unknown.
Would anyone dare to strip this Goddess from the honor of the second month? Keep that madness far away from me, because while Her power extends everywhere, and Her shrines are packed with worshippers, in our City the Goddess holds greater power yet. On behalf of your Troy, Romans, Venus took up weapons, although when She was injured, She lamented Her hand, soft and untrained in war: according to a Trojan judge, She conquered two Celestials. (Oh, don’t let me remember Her defeat here!) It has been said that She was the daughter-in-law of Assaracus, so that, in due time, great Caesar might certainly have Julian ancestors.
Nor is any time more appropriate for Venus than Spring: truly the lands glitter with sprouts, truly the fields are restored, now the tips of grasses and herbs are poking out from cracked earth, now the bough is bursting with new leaf-buds on its swollen bark. And Beautiful Venus is suited to this beautiful time, as She is used to continuing on after Mars Himself: certainly She instructs a curved boat to go through Her maternal sea, no longer afraid of wintery menaces.
—
‘Alma, fave,’ dixi ‘geminorum mater Amorum!’
ad vatem voltus rettulit illa suos:
‘quid tibi’ ait ‘mecum? certe maiora canebas.
num vetus in molli pectore volnus habes?’
‘scis, dea,’ respondi ‘de volnere.’ risit, et aether
protinus ex illa parte serenus erat.
‘saucius an sanus numquid tua signa reliqui?
tu mihi propositum, tu mihi semper opus.
quae decuit, primis sine crimine lusimus annis,
nunc teritur nostris area maior equis:
tempora cum causis annalibus eruta priscis
lapsaque sub terras ortaque signa cano.
venimus ad quartum, quo tu celeberrima mense:
et vatem et mensem scis, Venus, esse tuos.’
mota Cytheriaca leviter mea tempora myrto
contigit et ‘coeptum perfice’ dixit ‘opus.’
sensimus, et causae subito patuere dierum:
dum licet et spirant flamina, navis eat.
Si qua tamen pars te de fastis tangere debet,
Caesar, in Aprili, quo tenearis, habes.
hic ad te magna descendit imagine mensis
et fit adoptiva nobilitate tuus.
hoc pater Iliades, cum longum scriberet annum,
vidit et auctores rettulit ipse suos:
utque fero Marti primam dedit ordine sortem,
quod sibi nascenti proxima causa fuit,
sic Venerem gradibus multis in gente repertam
alterius voluit mensis habere locum;
principiumque sui generis revolutaque quaerens
saecula cognatos venit adusque deos.
Dardanon Electra nesciret Atlantide natum
scilicet, Electram concubuisse Iovi?
huius Erichthonius: Tros est generatus ab illo:
Assaracon creat hic, Assaracusque Capyn.
proximus Anchises, cum quo commune parentis
non dedignata est nomen habere Venus,
hinc satus Aeneas, pietas spectata, per ignes
sacra patremque humeris, altera sacra, tulit,
venimus ad felix aliquando nomen Iuli,
unde domus Teucros Iulia tangit avos.
Postumus hinc, qui quod silvis fuit ortus in altis,
Silvius in Latia gente vocatus erat.
isque, Latine, tibi pater est. subit Alba Latinum:
proximus est titulis Epytus, Alba, tuis.
ille dedit Capyi recidiva vocabula Troiae
et tuus est idem, Calpete, factus avus.
cumque patris regnum post hunc Tiberinus haberet,
dicitur in Tuscae gurgite mersus aquae.
iam tamen Agrippan natum Remulumque nepotem
viderat: in Remulum fulmina missa ferunt,
venit Aventinus post hos, locus unde vocatur,
mons quoque, post illum tradita regna Procae.
quem sequitur duri Numitor germanus Amuli.
Ilia cum Lauso de Numitore sati.
ense cadit patruo Lausus: placet Ilia Marti
teque parit, gemino iuncte Quirine Remo.
ille suos semper Venerem Martemque parentes
dixit et emeruit vocis habere fidem;
neve secuturi possent nescire nepotes,
tempora dis generis continuata dedit,
sed Veneris mensem Graio sermone notatum
auguror: a spumis est dea dicta maris,
nec tibi sit mirum Graeco rem nomine dici;
Itala nam tellus Graecia maior erat.
venerat Evander plena cum classe suorum:
venerat Alcides, Graius uterque genus
(hospes Aventinis armentum pavit in herbis
claviger, et tanto est Albula pota deo):
dux quoque Neritius; testes Laestrygones extant
et quod adhuc Circes nomina litus habet,
et iam Telegoni, iam moenia Tiburis udi
stabant, Argolicae quod posuere manus,
venerat Atridae fatis agitatus Halesus,
a quo se dictam terra Falisca putat.
adice Troianae suasorem Antenora pacis
et generum Oeniden, Apule Daune, tuum.
serus ab Iliacis et post Antenora flammis
attulit Aeneas in loca nostra deos.
huius erat Solymus Phrygia comes unus ab Ida,
a quo Sulmonis moenia nomen habent,
Sulmonis gelidi, patriae, Germanice, nostrae.
me miserum, Scythico quam procul illa solo est!
ergo ego tam longe—sed subprime, Musa, querellas!
non tibi sunt maesta sacra canenda lyra.
quo non livor adit? sunt qui tibi mensis honorem
eripuisse velint invideantque, Venus,
nam quia ver aperit tunc omnia, densaque cedit
frigoris asperitas, fetaque terra patet,
Aprilem memorant ab aperto tempore dictum,
quem Venus iniecta vindicat alma manu.
illa quidem totum dignissima temperat orbem;
illa tenet nullo regna minora deo,
iuraque dat caelo, terrae, natalibus undis,
perque suos initus continet omne genus.
illa deos omnes (longum est numerare) creavit:
illa satis causas arboribusque dedit:
illa rudes animos hominum contraxit in unum
et docuit iungi cum pare quemque sua.
quid genus omne creat volucrum, nisi blanda voluptas?
nec coeant pecudes, si levis absit amor.
cum mare trux aries cornu decertat; at idem
frontem dilectae laedere parcit ovis.
deposita sequitur taurus feritate iuvencam,
quem toti saltus, quem nemus omne tremit.
vis eadem, lato quodcumque sub aequore vivit,
servat et innumeris piscibus implet aquas.
prima feros habitus homini detraxit: ab illa
venerunt cultus mundaque cura sui.
primus amans carmen vigilatum nocte negata
dicitur ad clausas concinuisse fores,
eloquiumque fuit duram exorare puellam,
proque sua causa quisque disertus erat.
mille per hanc artes motae; studioque placendi
quae latuere prius, multa reperta ferunt.
hanc quisquam titulo mensis spoliare secundi
audeat? a nobis sit furor iste procul,
quid, quod ubique potens templisque frequentibus aucta,
urbe tamen nostra ius dea maius habet?
pro Troia, Romane, tua Venus arma ferebat,
cum gemuit teneram cuspide laesa manum:
caelestesque duas Troiano iudice vicit
(a! nolim victas hoc meminisse deas!),
Assaracique nurus dicta est, ut scilicet olim
magnus Iuleos Caesar haberet avos.
nec Veneri tempus quam ver erat aptius ullum i
vere nitent terrae, vere remissus ager,
nunc herbae rupta tellure cacumina tollunt,
nunc tumido gemmas cortice palmes agit.
et formosa Venus formoso tempore digna est,
utque solet, Marti continuata suo est:
vere monet curvas materna per aequora puppes
ire nec hibernas iam timuisse minas.
—
P. Ovidius Naso, “Fastorum Libri Sex,” Lib. IV 1-132
translation by @zmaragdos