The Birth of Venus, the Birth of Psyche

Pompei, Casa di Venus, before 79 CE

Sandro Botticelli…….The Birth of Venus ……..1486

The Symbolism of the Births of Venus and Psyche

Robert Johnson

She

Aphrodite’s birth was immortalized by Botticelli in his magnificent painting, the Birth of Venus: she, in all her feminine majesty, is being born upon a wave, standing on a shell.

This is the divine origin of the feminine principle in its archetypal form, which may be vividly contrasted with the human birth of Psyche who was said to have been conceived by dewdrops that fell from the sky.

What curious language! But this language is rich in psychological insight if you can hear its archaic, timeless message.

The difference between these two births, if properly understood, reveals the different natures of the two feminine principles. Aphrodite is a goddess born of the sea: she is primeval, oceanic in her feminine power.

She is from the beginning of time and holds court at the bottom of the sea. In psychological terms, she reigns in the unconscious, symbolized by the waters of the sea.

She is scarcely approachable on ordinary conscious terms; one might as well confront a tidal wave.

One can admire, worship, or be crushed by such archetypal femininity but it is extremely difficult to relate to it. It is Psyche’s task, from her human vantage point, to do just that — to relate and soften the great oceanic, archetypal feminine.

This is our myth.

On the Origins of Aphrodite/Venus

Hesiod, Theosophy

So he said: and vast Earth rejoiced greatly in spirit, and set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands a jagged sickle, and revealed to him the whole plot.

And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her.

Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own father’s members and cast them away to fall behind him.

And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round] she bore the strong Erinyes and the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae²all over the boundless earth

And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden

First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass [grew up about her beneath her shapely feet.

Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cyhhera, and Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philommedes because she sprang from the members.

And with her went Eros, and comely Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods.

This honor she has from the beginning, and this is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying gods,the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness.