Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/291

VENUS. CHAP. The flowers (the last lingering flowers of autumn) spring up from the nectar which she pours into it, but Adonis the beautiful must die. • Once again she carries the tale of her sorrow to Zeus, who grants her some portion of her prayer. Adonis may not, like Memnon or like Sarpedon (for in some versions he also is raised again), dwell always in the halls of Olympos, but for six months in the year he may return to cheer Aphrodite as, in the Eleusinian legend, Persephone is restored to the arms of Demeter. Of the love of Aphrodite for Boutes it is enough to say that Boutes, the shepherd, is a priest of the dawn-goddess Athene, who, as the Argonauts approach within hearing of the Seirens, throws himself into the sea, but is saved by Aphrodite and carried away to Lilybaion.^

Lastly, Aphrodite may assume a form as stern and awful as that The armed of Athene herself. As Duhita Divah, the daughter of the sky, is invincible, so Aphrodite, as the child of Ouranos and Hemera, the heaven and the day, has a power which nothing can resist, and the Spartan worshipped her as a conquering goddess clad in armour and possessing the strength which the Athenian poet ascribes to Eros the invincible in battle.^

The Latin Venus is, in strictness of speech, a mere name, to The Latin which any epithet might be attached according to the conveniences or the needs of the worshipper. The legends which the later poets applied to her are mere importations from Greek mythology, and seem to be wholly unnoticed in earlier Roman tradition. When the Roman began to trace his genealogy to the grandson of Priam, the introduction of the story of Anchises was followed naturally by other myths from the same source ; but they found no congenial soil in the genuine belief of the people, for whom a profusion of epithets supplied the place of mythical history. With them it was enough to have a Venus Myrtea (a name of doubtful origin), or Cloacina the purifier,'' barbata, the bearded, militans, equestris, and a host of others, whose personality was too vague to call for any careful dis- tinction.

The name itself has been, it would seem with good reason, con- Meaning nected with the Sanskrit root van, to desire, love, or favour. Thus, name. in the Rig Veda, girvanas means loving invocations, and yajnavanas loving sacrifices, while the common Sanskrit preserves vanita in the sense of a beloved woman. To the same root belong the Anglo-

^ From cluere = (cAu^eii/, to wash or to the practice of devoting to her a cleanse. Most of these epithets lie be- lock of the bride's hair on the day of yond the region of mythology. They marriage.
 * Apollod. i. 9, 25. are mere official names, like Venus
 * Soph. Ani. 781. Calva, which seemingly has reference