Venus in Pompeian Gardens

Venus was originally an Italic goddess of gardens and vegetation; she was only identified with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, during the second or third century B.C. E. While Aphrodite had always been a goddess of love, she was also a goddess of gardens; mainly because the Greeks felt that there was a strong connection between fertility in humans and the fertility of the land.

Pompeii was originally a Greek colony, so it is difficult to tell whether the early Pompeians were worshiping Venus or Aphrodite, but the connection of Venus with gardens is clearly shown on a vase which was found at Pompeii. This vase has an inscription which was written on the wet clay before the vase was fired; the inscription says "Allow me pure wine: then may Venus who guards the garden love you".

The patron deity of Pompeii was Venus Pompeiana; she was always shown as being fully clothed and wearing a crown. The statues and frescos which have been found in Pompeian gardens always show Venus either scantily clothed or totally nude. Pompeians seem to have referred to these nude images of Venus as "Venus fisica"; this may be from the Greek word "physike", which meant "related to nature".

All of these nude images are in styles which we call Hellenistic; this refers to styles which developed after the conquests of Alexander the Great (326 - 324 B.C.E.). It is hardly surprising that none of the images are in earlier styles, since Aphrodite was almost never portrayed in the nude before Praxiteles sculpted his Aphrodite of Cnidus around the year 330 B.C.E. This statue was very controversial when first displayed, because many Greeks felt that depicting a goddess in the nude was impious.

So far, no life-sized statues of Venus have been found in Pompeian gardens; the largest statuette of her is 1.04 meters high and was found in a shrine-like structure which was located against the eastern wall of a garden in the southeastern part of the city. No altar was found in front of this shrine, but a portable altar and incense burners may have been used.

Many statuettes of Venus have been found in niches similar to those which house images of the Virgin Mary in modern Italian gardens. It is not certain that these images were devotional objects, but they were probably regarded as more than just decorative.

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