Page 73 - All About History - Issue 186-19

How to build a Goddess
The Birth Of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel
was shown at the Paris Salon of 1863 and
bought immediately by Napoleon III
Image source: wiki/artrenewal.org
“ I just think that’s
so ahead of its time,
this notion that we all
have a bit of male and
female in us”
and with the Ptolemies in Egypt, so she was a
really big figure there. Cleopatra identified with
Aphrodite, dressing as her and kind of channelling
her. The Greeks claimed that they invented history
and therefore wrote themselves into it. Meanwhile
the Romans were very good at whitewashing the
record, brainwashing us as recipients of their
history and making claims that they had rights of
ownership over these goddesses. But it’s mad that
we don’t know that she’s an Eastern goddess who
sometimes has a beard!
Could you explain the links that are often
made between Venus and prostitution?
Obviously she’s the goddess of sexual love and
there’s been a lot of ink spilled describing how
all her sanctuaries are full of sacred prostitutes,
so it’s a rather appealing idea that probably male
connoisseurs would worship Aphrodite by having
sex with a prostitute. I think it did happen in some
instances – it would be weird in a way if it didn’t
– but I don’t think it was as widespread as we’ve
been led to believe. Aphrodite was
called protector of prostitutes, and there
was a convoluted idea in some circles
of the ancient world that she started
as a prostitute who was then turned
into a goddess. That’s a trope that
continues right the way down time,
so I think it’s really fascinating
that in the 16th to 19th centuries,
prostitutes were often called
Venuses. Of course, the gift of
prostitution, venereal disease, is
named after the goddess.
The idea of Venus seems
to be a bit at odds with
medieval Christian
Europe, especially early
medieval Christian
Europe. How was she
remembered during
this time?
People were actually very
loath to eradicate her, so she became
a kind of humanist muse. There
was this notion of a very romantic
love propagated by troubadours that
there was a good Venus and a bad
Venus, because she was perfect and
she had a kind of courtly love where a
woman with power denies her admirer
any sexual favours or charm. This is
the perfect lady – that banishing of
lust and longing from the love-making
Astarte, the equivalent of Venus and Aphrodite
that was worshipped in the ancient Levant
Image source: wiki/Louvre Museum
mathematical sum. On the face of it,
it’s sort of an empowering thing, but
actually it’s not because, of course, that
means that a woman has to be entirely
perfect in order to be taken seriously. It’s
very interesting that in the medieval
world you’ll see her represented a
lot, and she ends up being such
a popular figure in paintings. In
Botticelli’s Birth Of Venus, there’s
a lot of dark imagery. For
instance, you have the blood-
red colour representing the idea
of Aphrodite being born from
the castrated genitals of the sky god
Uranus – her start is obviously very
gruesome. She also gets turned into a
patroness not just of physical relations,
but also of philosophy.
For a long time, Venus was seen
as the ideal woman. Has her
figure changed as the perception
of the ‘perfect’ female body has
changed?
Not really. It’s almost as if a terrible
burden lays on women that there is a
sort of idea of the perfect woman. Venus
has long legs, smooth arms, not big but
definitely good breasts, and a lovely plump
bum – and all other women had to match
up to that. You couldn’t really be a proper
woman unless you looked like a Venus, and
everyone knew what a Venus looked like. It’s
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