Motherhood, marriage and sexuality
If we are watching a film, and an attractive female starts to take her clothes off my husband always says ‘This film is very well directed’. I thought about this as I was looking at pictures of Venus today, as research for the book.
Mosaics of Venus generally show her rising from the water, naked, with a deliberately provocative gaze. She is often shown holding a mirror. Her nakedness has a symbolic quality; it stands for desire and fecundity. She is the goddess of plenty. But ideas about fertility (in which she becomes the goddess of motherhood and marriage) are also mixed with those of sexuality. The oldest Temple of Venus in Rome was built with money fined from adulturous women. She was also the patron goddess of prostitutes.
Some of the most beautiful Venus mosaics are found in the Bardo Museum in Tunis. She was a popular symbol in North Africa. She was a new incarnation of an older goddess of fertility, Astarte, symbol of divine plenty in pre-Roman North Africa.
Plenty as represented by the gardens of West Dean College, where I teach specialist courses in mosaic.
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