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Venus
was a major Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty
and fertility,who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals
and myths. From the third century BC, the increasing Hellenization
of Roman upper classes identified her as the equivalent of the
Greek goddess Aphrodite. In this way Venus was the consort of
Vulcan. Virgil, in compliment to his patron Augustus and the
gens Julia made Venus, whom Julius Caesar adopted as his protectress,
the ancestor of the Roman people by way of its legendary founder
Aeneas and his son Iulus. |
