Venus is perhaps one of the most well known of Gods today, and one of the most popular. And one whom I have always held a strong admiration for.
Today she is understood to be the Goddess, of Love and Beauty though originally in earlier Rome, Venus was venerated as the Goddess of vegetation and patroness of gardens and vineyards.
It was not untill later, under the influence of Greek Civilization, that a connection was drawn between her and Aphrodite, in which Venus would then take on some of the traits of Aphrodite.
Venus is the daughter of Jupiter, and some of her lovers include Mars and Vulcan, modeled on the affairs of Aphrodite. Venus' importance rosethrough the influence of several Roman political leaders. The dictator Sulla made her his patroness, and both Julius Caesar and the emperor Augustus named her the ancestor of their (Julian) family: the 'gens Julia' was Aeneas, son of Venus and the mortal Anchises. Ceasar introduced the cult of Venus Genetrix, the goddess of motherhood and marriage, and built a temple for her in 46 BCE. She was also honored in the temple of Mars Ultor. The last great temple of Venus was built by the emperor Hadrianus near the Colusseum in 135 CE.
The oldest temple known of Venus dates back to 293 BCE and there were originally there were festivals celebrated in honor of Venus. On August 18th Vinalia Rustica was observed. A second festival, that of the Veneralia, was celebrated on April 1 in honor of Venus. On April 23 the festival Vinalia Priora was celebrated in honor of Venus.
Today Venus is often seen as the true symbol of femininty and female beauty, it has even been suggusted that the pentagram originaly came from Venus, because of the pattern in which the planet Venus orbits in the sky.