Venus - stock illustration

"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 gensJulia 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.illustration was published in 1884 ""Encyclopedic dictionary""scan by Ivan Burmistrov"