god
Venus
also: alma Venus
Roman goddess of love, generation, and growth. Lucretius opens the poem with a hymn to her as the creative life-force (voluptas) animating all nature; she is also invoked as bringer of peace, consort of Mars.
Reading notes
- On the Nature of Things §4.66 Venus
Here the physical force of sexual desire as much as the goddess; the word ranges across the whole closing section, from the act to its frenzy.