Venus in culture

What is now known as the planet Venus has long been an object of fascination for cultures worldwide. It is the second brightest object in the night sky, and follows a synodic cycle by which it seems to disappear for several days due to its proximity to the Sun, then re-appear on the opposite side of the Sun and on the other horizon. Depending on the point in its cycle, Venus may appear before sunrise in the morning, or after sunset in the evening, but it never appears to reach the apex of the sky. Therefore, many cultures have recognized it with two names, even if their astronomers realized that it was really one object. It was called Lucifer in classical Latin though the morning star was considered sacred to the goddess Venus. In Chinese the planet is called Jīn-xīng (金星), the golden planet of the metal element. It is known as "Kejora" in Indonesian and Malaysian Malay. Modern Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures refer to the planet literally as the "gold star" (), based on the Five elements.{{cite book == Ancient Near East==

Mesopotamia Because the movements of Venus appear to be discontinuous (it disappears due to its proximity to the Sun, for many days at a time, and then reappears on the other horizon), some cultures did not recognize Venus as single entity; instead, they assumed it to be two separate stars on each horizon: the morning and evening star. Nonetheless, a cylinder seal from the Jemdet Nasr period indicates that the ancient Sumerians already knew that the morning and evening stars were the same celestial object. The Sumerians associated the planet with the goddess Inanna, who was known as Ishtar by the later Akkadians and Babylonians. She had a dual role as a goddess of both love and war, thereby representing a deity that presided over birth and death. Inanna's actions in several of her myths, including Inanna and Shukaletuda and ''Inanna's Descent into the Underworld appear to parallel the motion of the planet Venus as it progresses through its synodic cycle. For example, in Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, Inanna is able to descend into the netherworld, where she is killed, and then resurrected three days later to return to the heavens. An interpretation of this myth by Clyde Hostetter holds that it is an allegory for the movements of the planet Venus, beginning with the spring equinox and concluding with a meteor shower near the end of one synodic period of Venus. The three-day disappearance of Inanna refers to the three-day planetary disappearance of Venus between its appearance as a morning and evening star. An introductory hymn to this myth describes Inanna leaving the heavens and heading for Kur, what could be presumed to be the mountains, replicating the rising and setting of Inanna to the West. In the myth Inanna and Shukaletuda'', Shukaletuda is described as scanning the heavens in search of Inanna, possibly searching the eastern and western horizons. In the same myth, while searching for her attacker, Inanna herself makes several movements that correspond with the movements of Venus in the sky. The eight-pointed star seems to have originally borne a general association with the heavens, but, by the Old Babylonian Period ( 1830 – 1531 BC), it had come to be specifically associated with the planet Venus, with which Ishtar was identified. " Ninsi'anna" translates to "divine lady, illumination of heaven", which refers to Venus as the brightest visible "star". Earlier spellings of the name were written with the cuneiform sign si4 (= SU, meaning "to be red"), and the original meaning may have been "divine lady of the redness of heaven", in reference to the color of the morning and evening sky. Venus is described in Babylonian cuneiform texts such as the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, which relates observations that possibly date from 1600 BC. The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa shows the Babylonians understood morning and evening star were a single object, referred to in the tablet as the "bright queen of the sky" or "bright Queen of Heaven", and could support this view with detailed observations. Canaanite mythology In ancient Canaanite religion, the morning star is personified as the god Attar, a masculine variant of the name of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. In myth, Attar attempted to occupy the throne of Ba'al and, finding he was unable to do so, descended and ruled the underworld. The original myth may have been about a lesser god, Helel, trying to dethrone the Canaanite high god El, who was believed to live on a mountain to the north. Ishtar and Inanna being associated with the planet Venus. A connection has been seen also with the Babylonian myth of Etana. The Jewish Encyclopedia comments: ::"The brilliancy of the morning star, which eclipses all other stars, but is not seen during the night, may easily have given rise to a myth such as was told of Ethana and Zu: he was led by his pride to strive for the highest seat among the star-gods on the northern mountain of the gods ... but was hurled down by the supreme ruler of the Babylonian Olympus." In the Hebrew language Book of Isaiah, chapter 14, the King of Babylon is condemned using imagery derived from Canaanite myth, and is called (, Hebrew for "shining one, son of the morning"). The title "Helel ben Shahar" may refer to the planet Venus as the morning star. Helel ben Shahar was cast out of heaven for rebelling against Elion. Egypt The Ancient Egyptians possibly knew that the morning star (Tioumoutiri) and evening star (Ouaiti){{cite book == Ancient Greece and Rome ==

(1765). The Ancient Greeks called the morning star , (epithet of Hecate), the "Bringer of Light". Another Greek name for the morning star was Heosphoros (Greek Heōsphoros), meaning "Dawn-Bringer". They called the evening star, which was long considered a separate celestial object, '''' (, the "star of the evening"). Both were children of dawn Eos and therefore grandchildren of Aphrodite. By Hellenistic times, the ancient Greeks had identified these as a single planet, though the traditional use of two names for its appearance in the morning and the evening continued even into the Roman period. The Greek myth of Phaethon, whose name means "Shining One", has also been seen as similar to those of other gods who cyclically descend from the heavens, like Inanna and Attar. In classical mythology, Lucifer ("light-bringer" in Latin) was the name of the planet Venus as the morning star (as the evening star it was called Vesper), and it was often personified as a male figure bearing a torch. Lucifer was said to be "the fabled son of Aurora and Cephalus, and father of Ceyx". He was often presented in poetry as heralding the dawn. The Romans considered the planet Lucifer particularly sacred to the goddess Venus, whose name eventually became the scientific name for the planet. The second century Roman mythographer Pseudo-Hyginus said of the planet: :"The fourth star is that of Venus, Luciferus by name. Some say it is Juno's. In many tales it is recorded that it is called Hesperus, too. It seems to be the largest of all stars. Some have said it represents the son of Aurora and Cephalus, who surpassed many in beauty, so that he even vied with Venus, and, as Eratosthenes says, for this reason it is called the star of Venus. It is visible both at dawn and sunset, and so properly has been called both Luciferus and Hesperus." Ovid, in his first century epic Metamorphoses, describes Lucifer as ordering the heavens: :"Aurora, watchful in the reddening dawn, threw wide her crimson doors and rose-filled halls; the Stellae took flight, in marshaled order set by Lucifer who left his station last." accompanied by the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux), or Lucifer and Vesper. Marble altar, Roman artwork, 2nd century CE. From Italy In the classical Roman period, Lucifer was not typically regarded as a deity and had few, if any, myths, == Christianity ==

The Hebrew word transliterated as Hêlêl or Heylel (pron. as Hay-LALE), occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible. (heōsphoros), "bringer of dawn", the Ancient Greek name for the morning star.