Why was the Greek goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, roman name Venus?
Author: Amy Johns / Category: planet beautyI have to do this english project that involves the choosing of a planet that relates to a figure in Greek mythology and i decided the planet venus, my fav planet, so we kind of have to explain the relationship between the planet and the Greek figure, in this case aphrodite. How about why she’s called that in Roman mythology. thank you all soooo much for answering. Please include a bib.
Here’s a bit from the Wiki on the naming of the Planet Venus…….
"As one of the brightest objects in the sky, Venus has been known since prehistoric times and as such has gained an entrenched position in human culture. It is described in Babylonian cuneiformic texts such as the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, which relates observations that possibly date from 1600 BC. The Babylonians named the planet Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna), the personification of womanhood, and goddess of love.
The Ancient Egyptians believed Venus to be two separate bodies and knew the morning star as Tioumoutiri and the evening star as Ouaiti. Likewise, believing Venus to be two bodies, the Ancient Greeks called the morning star Φωσφόρος, Phosphoros (Latinized Phosphorus), the "Bringer of Light" or Ἐωσφόρος, Eosphoros (Latinized Eosphorus), the "Bringer of Dawn". The evening star they called Hesperos (Latinized Hesperus) (Ἓσπερος, the "star of the evening"). By Hellenistic times, the ancient Greeks realized the two were the same planet. By the ascendancy of the Romans — Hesperos would be translated into Latin as Vesper and Phosphoros as Lucifer ("Light Bearer"), a poetic term later used to refer to the fallen angel cast out of heaven. The Romans would later name the planet in honor of their goddess of love, Venus, whereas the Greeks used the name of her Greek counterpart, Aphrodite (Phoenician Astarte). Pliny the Elder (Natural History, ii,37) identified the planet Venus with Isis.
powered by Yahoo Answers
5 Responses to “Why was the Greek goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite, roman name Venus?”
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:05 am
Because that’s the Latin translation or adaptation of Aphrodite. That’s also why Zeus is Jupiter Dionysus is Bacchus and so on and so forth. Why we have named the planet after her is probably because of the association of redish colors and love.
References :
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:10 am
well venus is the roman equivalent to the greek goddess venus…so they’re not the same.
also for some extra credit the greeks related the ancient egyptian goddess hathor with aprodite much in the same way they did with venus these are all separate. hope this helps! good luck on your project
References :
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:51 am
Aphrodite is names Venus because that is how it translated into Roman. The Greeks and Romans share many of the same gods due to economically trading goods and hearing about the gods the other place prays to and then they would adopt the gods but in their own language and sometimes modified. The Romans were the ones that mostly adopted the new gods from the Greeks, I don’t know why, that is just what I learned in my mythology class.
References :
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:56 am
If you look at it Geographically Italy "Rome" is very close to Greece. Since they live so close to each other the Greek culture started to rub off on them (among others), so they adopted the Polytheistic ways of Greece, and also modeled their gods after them, with a latin twist viola, and the planet is named Venus because we derive most of our scientific words from latin, I’m sure the Aztec, Chinese, Egyptian, Persian, Hebrew, and every other culture had a different name for it when it shined in the night sky.
Men tend to take culture already existent and make it their own. Greeks just happened to be the closest
References :
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:08 am
Here’s a bit from the Wiki on the naming of the Planet Venus…….
"As one of the brightest objects in the sky, Venus has been known since prehistoric times and as such has gained an entrenched position in human culture. It is described in Babylonian cuneiformic texts such as the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, which relates observations that possibly date from 1600 BC. The Babylonians named the planet Ishtar (Sumerian Inanna), the personification of womanhood, and goddess of love.
The Ancient Egyptians believed Venus to be two separate bodies and knew the morning star as Tioumoutiri and the evening star as Ouaiti. Likewise, believing Venus to be two bodies, the Ancient Greeks called the morning star Φωσφόρος, Phosphoros (Latinized Phosphorus), the "Bringer of Light" or Ἐωσφόρος, Eosphoros (Latinized Eosphorus), the "Bringer of Dawn". The evening star they called Hesperos (Latinized Hesperus) (Ἓσπερος, the "star of the evening"). By Hellenistic times, the ancient Greeks realized the two were the same planet. By the ascendancy of the Romans — Hesperos would be translated into Latin as Vesper and Phosphoros as Lucifer ("Light Bearer"), a poetic term later used to refer to the fallen angel cast out of heaven. The Romans would later name the planet in honor of their goddess of love, Venus, whereas the Greeks used the name of her Greek counterpart, Aphrodite (Phoenician Astarte). Pliny the Elder (Natural History, ii,37) identified the planet Venus with Isis.
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(planet)