Venus in the Dovecote (Part I)

Dovecote at Nymans Gardens, West Sussex, England.

(All images on this page have been altered for design continuity.)

Poems to Venus

written by Sappho, Lucretius, Empedocles, Arthur Rimbaud, Aleister Crowley,

Marina Tsvetaeva, and myself

“Golden Aphrodite Kypria, who stirs up sweet passion in the gods

and subdues the tribes of mortal men . . ." - Homeric Hymn 5 to Aphrodite

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From Hymn to Aphrodite

by Sappho

"Aphrodite, subtle of soul and deathless,

Daughter of God, weaver of wiles, I pray thee

Neither with care, dread Mistress, nor with anguish,

Slay thou my spirit!

But in pity hasten, come now if ever

From afar of old when my voice implored thee,

Thou hast deigned to listen, leaving the golden

House of thy father

With thy chariot yoked; and with doves that drew thee,

Fair and fleet around the dark earth from heaven,

Dipping vibrant wings down the azure distance,

Through the mid-ether;

Very swift they came; and thou, gracious Vision,

Leaned with face that smiled in immortal beauty,

Leaned to me and asked, What misfortune threatened?

Why I had called thee?"

- Excerpt from the Hymn to Venus, the only complete poem which has come down to us from the ancient Greek female poet, Sappho (630-570 BC). Via the same source we have another poem by Sappho (below) in its entirety, found on this page.

Although she was most often considered a lesbian icon in contemporary times - and, eventually a feminist icon - allegedly "she killed herself by leaping from the Leucadian cliffs due to her unrequited love for the ferryman Phaon."

The image (inset left) is a detail from an early Victorian confection by American illustrator, Walter Crane: The Renaissance of Venus (1840).

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Aphrodite's Doves

by Sappho

"When the drifting gray of the vesper shadow

Dimmed their upward path through the midmost azure,

And the length of night overtook them distant

Far from Olympus;

Far away from splendor and joy of Paphos,

From the voice and smile of their peerless Mistress,

Back to whom their truant wings were in rapture

Speeding belated;

Chilled at heart and grieving they drooped their pinions,

Circled slowly, dipping in flight toward Lesbos,

Down through dusk that darkened on Mitylene's

Columns of marble;

Down through glory wan of the fading sunset,

Veering ever toward the abode of Sappho,

Toward my home, the fane of the glad devoted

Slave of the Goddess;

Soon they gained the tile of my roof and rested,

Slipped their heads beneath their wings while I watched them

Sink to sleep and dreams, in the warm and drowsy

Night of midsummer."

- The image inset right is a detail from François Boucher's Venus on the Waves, 1769.

(Note: Paphos, Cyprus, is traditionally the birthplace of Venus Aphrodite.)

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 From Lucretius: On the Nature of Things

(De rerum natura)

"Mother of Rome, delight of Gods and men,

Dear Venus that beneath the gliding stars

Makest to teem the many-voyaged main

And fruitful lands - for all of living things

Through thee alone are evermore conceived,

Through thee are risen to visit the great sun -

Before thee, Goddess, and thy coming on,

Flee stormy wind and massy cloud away,

For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers,

For thee waters of the unvexed deep

Smile, and the hollows of the serene sky

Glow with diffused radiance for thee!

...And since 'tis thou alone

Guidest the Cosmos, and without thee naught

Is risen to reach the shining shores of light,

Nor aught of joyful or of lovely born,

Thee do I crave co-partner in that verse

Which I presume on Nature to compose..."

-  A fragment of De rerum natura by Roman poet and philosopher, Lucretius (99 – 55 BC). In it, we are informed that Venus Aphrodite was not merely a goddess, but, as in the case of her son, Eros, she was a primeval cosmic force. She was also Lucretius's chosen muse for his verse about "nature." Was his praise merely made in an attempt to court her?

From the Wiki entry we find that scholars tend to minimize the importance of Aphrodite's presence in the poem, finding the references to her as both goddess and Creatrix inconsistent and baffling. However, we are introduced to an obscure philosopher named Empedocles,* purportedly a Pythagorean: "The choice to address Venus may have been due to Empedocles's belief that Aphrodite represents 'the great creative force in the cosmos.'"

Incidentally, the quoted verses were taken from the William Ellery Leonard translation. For another translation, try Lamberto Bozzi's, (2019). 

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(More poems after the jump...)

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From Sun and Flesh (Soleil et chair)

By Arthur Rimbaud

" O Venus, O Goddess!

I long for the days of antique youth,

Of lascivious satyrs, and animal fauns,

Gods who bit, mad with love, the bark of the boughs,

And among water-lilies kissed the Nymph with fair hair!

I long for the time when the sap of the world,

River water, the rose-coloured blood of green trees

Put into the veins of Pan a whole universe!"

"I believe! I believe in you! divine mother,

Sea-born Aphrodite! - Oh! the path is bitter

Since the other God harnessed us to his cross;

Flesh, Marble, Flower, Venus, in you I believe!

- yes, Man is sad and ugly, sad under the vast sky.

He possesses clothes, because he is no longer chaste,

Because he has defiled his proud, godlike head

And because he has bent, like an idol in the furnace,

His Olympian form towards base slaveries!

Yes, even after death, in the form of pale skeletons

He wishes to live and insult the original beauty!

- And the Idol in whom you placed such maidenhood,

Woman, in whom you rendered our clay divine,

So that Man might bring light into his poor soul

And slowly ascend, in unbounded love,

From the earthly prison to the beauty of day..."

- Soleil et Chair was written in 1870, by French symbolist poet, Arthur Rimbaud, when he was 15 years of age. For the most part, the poet mourns the loss of humanity's primal and instinctive connection to the natural world, harkening back to the old gods, the pagan gods of the ancient world. Both English and French versions can be found here.

The beautiful image (inset right) is a detail of an extraordinary work by contemporary Chilean artist, Guillermo Lorca: The Birth of Venus, 2022.

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From The Hermaphrodite’s Dream

by Aleister Crowley

"So, Hermes, thou art wed,

So, Aphrodite, mine,

In one sweet spirit shed

In one ambrosial bed,

In one fair frame divine.

Like clouds in rain, like seas

Exultant as they roll,

We mix in ecstasies,

And, as breeze melts in breeze,

Thy soul becomes my soul.

I come to thee with tears,

Nameless immortal dove;

Forget the fleet-foot years

In the incarnate spheres

Of our mysterious Love.”

- Written in 1898 by the notorious mad genius and self-proclaimed magician, Aleister Crowley, known for his bisexual proclivity, this poem is seemingly an ode to Hermaphroditus, the son (and, eventually, also the daughter) of Hermes and Aphrodite. If one detects some alchemical references here, know that they most likely exist! For the full text to the poem, a related poem by Swinburne, and notes regarding Aphrodite and gender fluidity, see John Kruse's excellent post.

The photographic detail of the lovely statue of Aphrodite which introduces this section can be found here.

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 From Praise to Aphrodite

by Marina Tsvetaeva

"How many white doves, how many blue-grey ones

Eat from the hand?

Whole kingdoms coo

Around your lips, Baseness!

The golden goblet of deadly sweat

Will never run dry.

The crested leader clings

Like a little white dove.

Every cloud in evil times

Is curved like a breast.

Your face is in every innocent flower,

She-Devil!

Perishable foam, sea salt…

In reproach and in torment—

For how long do we obey you,

Armless stone?"

- Written in 1921 and translated from the Russian by John Cobley, Tsvetaeva's poem was inspired by the Venus de Milo statue in the Louvre. Seemingly, her disdain for Venus is a reflection of her political views.

The wonderful image (inset right and cropped for subject) is the work of contemporary Hungarian artist/photographer, Flora Borsi. Maybe it's just me, but I detect numerous references to the Goddess of Love in this collection of her iconic images... all masterfully conceived.

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The Dovecote, Athelhampton House, Dorset (interior)

Venus in the Dovecote

16th century "doo'cot" at Elcho Castle, Scotland

There's a glow in the dovecote;

the goddess has arrived.

Venus, the luminous,

Venus, the moon-white...

has descended tonight.

She moves languidly, nakedly,

with the unconscious finesse

of an open rose,

or a smooth-skinned beech

caressed by invisible winds.

(She has come to meet her messengers,

her spirit animals,

her guides.)

She curls up on the floor

amid drifts of fallen feathers;

tokens from those

huddled high up in the rafters...

Her darlings.

Some fluttering down,

nestling their soft ovals of flesh

between her breasts, her thighs

or settling within the triangles

of her folded limbs.

Together, they rest and dream.

Hearts thrumming, coo-cooing...

an unassuming communion,

no less divine

than all symmetries combined.

II

The Dovecote, Athelhampton House, Dorset

But, Love's work is never done...

It is her flame

which guides men to the dawn.

It is her unrelenting passion

which spurs them on.

She flashes a captivating smile

and, then, dipping her fingers

into the nearest warm crevice

plucks up one,

perfectly-formed egg.

("A pearl fit for an empress," she says.

"But, the hidden gold...

is mine.")

Venus leans from the dovecote.

A fine lacing of branches 

has been drawn

along the border.

The cavernous sky awaits her.

And, from the open doorway,

she bids her fond farewells

and, then, ascends...

as she has always done...

for millenniums.

- Dia Sobin, August 14, 2023.

-  "When Venus is at its brightest, it becomes visible just minutes after the Sun goes down. This is when Venus is seen as the Evening Star.

When Venus is on the other side of the Sun, it leads the Sun as it travels across the sky. Venus will rise in the morning a few hours before the Sun. Then as the Sun rises, the sky brightens and Venus fades away in the daytime sky. This is Venus the Morning Star." - Via this astronomy page.

In the long past, of course, the identity of the Morning Star was mistakenly attributed to Lucifer, a minor god and son of the dawn goddess Aurora; we know now that the planet Venus was both the Morning and Evening Star all along. Yes, it was this oversight on the part of some ancient astronomers that the twisted mythology of "Lucifer" and "Lucifer's Fall" came into prominence... effectively misleading some western minds till this very day.

Had this been otherwise, a Venus mythology might, instead, include the concept of resurrection and renewal... i.e., "Venus has Risen."

For more information about dovecotes, here are some excellent sources: John McCann's The Truth about Dovecotes, and The Pidgeon Cote, and two great articles about the French Pigeonnier, found here and here.

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* From the few fragments which remain of Empedocles' work... below are two examples sourced here. 

The Kypris Queen.

"Just so the Fire primeval once lay hid 

In the round pupil of the eye, enclosed 

In films and gauzy veils, which through and through 

Were pierced with pores divinely fashioned. 

And thus kept off the watery deeps around, 

Whilst Fire burst outward, as more fine and thin. 

From which by Aphrodite, the divine, 

The untiring eyes were formed. 

Thus Aphrodite wrought with bolts of love. 

One vision of two eyes is born."

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"Nor unto them 

Was any Ares god, nor Kydoimos, 

Nor Zeus, the king of gods, nor Kronos, nor 

Poseidon then, but only Kypris queen . . . 

Whom they with holy gifts were wont to appease. 

With painted images of living things. 

With costly unguents of rich fragrancy. 

With gentle sacrifice of taintless myrrh, 

With redolent fumes of frankincense, of old 

Pouring libations out upon the ground 

Of yellow honey; not then with unmixed blood 

Of many bulls was ever an altar stained; 

But among men 'twas sacrilege most vile 

To reave of life and eat the goodly limbs."

In the first stanza, it seems Aphrodite, with her "bolts of love," has created eyesight as we know it: "one vision of two eyes."

The "Kypris queen" in the second verse was another allusion to Venus Aphrodite, who, in one narrative of her birth, was the daughter of the god Ouranus... or, more specifically, the foam created from his severed genitals. We must assume that this was a Virgin Birth in reverse, that is, sans mother or egg... unless the ocean itself was her mother. In any case, Venus was born in the ocean and eventually washed up on the shore of Cyprus, which is considered the place of her birth. Kypros or Kypris are the classical spellings.

In this description, Empedocles seems to be describing sacrificial rites for Aphrodite in which bloodshed was taboo and eating the "goodly limbs" of bulls was sacrilege... in itself, a Pythagorean (vegetarian) principle.

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Limestone Dove, Cyprus, 600-480 BC

(8/16/23 Update: I've come across some interesting related material which will necessitate a supplementary post or two. When it's complete, the link below will become active.)

Venus in the Dovecote (Part II): Supplementary (a) - The Ancient Sanctuary