Venus Barbata

{{Short description|Epithet of the goddess Venus}}

Venus Barbata ('Bearded Venus') was an epithet of the goddess Venus among the Romans.Servius. ad Aen, ii. 632. MacrobiusSaturnalia. iii. 8 also mentions a statue of Venus in Cyprus, representing the goddess with a beard, in female attire, but resembling in her whole figure that of a man (see also Aphroditus).Comp. Suidas, s. v. {{lang|el|Ἀφροδίτη}}; Hesych. s. v. {{lang|el|Ἀφρόδιτος}} The idea of Venus thus being a mixture of the male and female nature seems to belong to a very late period of antiquity.Voss, Mythol. Briefe, ii. p. 282, &c.

The idea of Venus having a double-sexed nature has the same double meaning, in the mythological sense, that there is not only a Luna, but also a Lunus. The name Venus in itself, is masculine in its termination, and it was perceived that the goddess becomes the god and the god the goddess sometimes.Hargrave 1884, p. 234