Venus (Aphrodite in Greek mythology), is perhaps the most unlikely of sexually indeterminate Gods and Goddesses. Despite her frequent symbolism as embodiment of feminine virtue, her androgyny, as is visually evident in the statue at left, comes from the circumstances of her birth. She was born when Cronos, ancestor to the Greek Gods, including Zeus, was castrated by his son. The resulting wound spilled blood on the earth from which rose the Furies who themselves personified vengeance. The testicles themselves were thrown into the sea and, in their immortality, gathered sea foam from which Aphrodite was born. Her body itself is not only born of, but is actually composed of male genitalia. Perhaps this is why several of the cults who followed and worshipped her practiced " impure" love or ritual acts of sex and prostitution, an activity which would be condoned in most societies when carried out by men, but condemned when women are the participants.
Other cults to Venus worshipped her as the Goddess of purity in recognition of her immaculate conception from the joinder of her father's genitalia and the sea which itself is a representation of purity. The sea may also be seen to represent primordial life which itself lacked any specific gender.
Venus
