#WingedWordsWindsday: 2023/02/01 -- Venus Returns to the Evening Sky

WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled & Edited by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 2, No. 14: February 1, 2023

 

Celebrating the Return of Venus to the Evening Sky

 

A Note from the Editor

                The planet Venus has returned to the evening sky! Visible low in the southwest shortly after sunset, she appears to be a silvery pearl, shining steadily on the dome of the sky. As the weeks go by, and Winter turns to Spring, Venus will climb higher – and shine brighter – in the evening twilight sky. Venus is my favorite planet to observe in the night sky, both with the naked eye and through binoculars.

                Venus was observed and venerated throughout the ancient world under a variety of names and epithets, including “the Daystar” (as the herald of dawn or dusk). In Mesopotamia, the planet was known as Inanna (in Sumerian) and Ishtar (in Akkadian); in Persia, her ruling intelligence was known as the yazata (archangel) Anahita; the Phoenicians knew her by the name of Astarte. Among the Greeks, the planet had three appellations: Phosphorus (when she appeared in the morning sky before sunrise), Hesperus (when she appeared in the evening sky after sunset), and Aphrodite (the proper name of the planet herself). The planet’s modern name, Venus, has been borrowed directly from Latin, and in the Romance languages descended from Latin, Friday is named after Venus as well.

                This week, I’m sharing a garland of poems about the planet Venus (and the celestial intelligence that was believed to indwell and guide her) from across the centuries, beginning with the ancient Greeks and continuing through British and North American poets of recent centuries. These poems celebrate a wide variety of Venus’ aspects and characteristics, especially in her role as the divine patron of romantic love. Be sure to watch for the beautiful Evenstar on the next clear evening in your neighborhood!

 

Orphic Hymn #54: “To Venus”

Translated by Thomas Taylor (1758-1835)

Heavenly, illustrious, laughter-loving queen,

Sea-born, night-loving, of an awesome mien;

Crafty, from whom necessity first came,

Producing, nightly, all-connecting dame:

'Tis thine the world with harmony to join,

For all things spring from thee, O power divine.

The triple Fates are ruled by thy decree,

And all productions yield alike to thee:

Whatever the heavens, encircling all contain,

Earth fruit-producing, and the stormy main,

Thy sway confesses, and obeys thy nod,

Awesome attendant of the brumal god:

Goddess of marriage, charming to the sight,

Mother of Loves, whom banquetings delight;

Source of persuasion, secret, favoring queen,

Illustrious born, apparent and unseen:

Spousal, Lupercal, and to men inclined,

Prolific, most-desired, life-giving., kind:

Great scepter-bearer of the gods, 'tis thine,

Mortals in necessary bands to join;

And every tribe of savage monsters dire

In magic chains to bind, through mad desire.

Come, Cyprus-born, and to my prayer incline,

Whether exalted in the heavens you shine,

Or pleased in Syria's temple to preside,

Or over the Egyptian plains thy car to guide,

Fashioned of gold; and near its sacred flood,

Fertile and famed to fix thy blest abode;

Or if rejoicing in the azure shores,

Near where the sea with foaming billows roars,

The circling choirs of mortals, thy delight,

Or beauteous nymphs, with eyes cerulean bright,

Pleased by the dusty banks renowned of old,

To drive thy rapid, two-yoked car of gold;

Or if in Cyprus with thy mother fair,

Where married women praise thee every year,

And beauteous virgins in the chorus join,

Adonis pure to sing and thee divine;

Come, all-attractive to my prayer inclined,

For thee, I call, with holy, reverent mind.

 

Homeric Hymn #10: “To Venus”

Translated by George Chapman (1559-1634)

To Cyprian Venus still my verses vow,

Who gifts as sweet as honey doth bestow

On all mortality; that ever smiles,

And rules a face that all foes reconciles;

Ever sustaining in her hand a flower

That all desire keeps ever in her power.

Hail, then, O Queen of well-built Salamine,

And all the state that Cyprus doth confine,

Inform my song with that celestial fire

That in thy beauties kindles all desire.

So shall my Muse forever honor thee,

And any other thou commends to me.

 

In this depiction from ancient Mesopotamia (12^th century BCE), Venus, the Moon, and the Sun are shown left-to-right at the top. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

“Hesperus the Bringer”

By Sappho (630-570 BCE)

Translation Anonymous (Public Domain)

O Hesperus, thou bringest all good things –

Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer,

To the young bird the parent's brooding wings,

The welcome stall to the overlabored steer;

Whatever our household gods protect of dear,

Are gathered round us by thy look of rest;

Thou bring'st the child too to its mother's breast.

 

Venus (as the Daystar) in Old English!

(Cynewulf, 8th Century CE)

Ëala Ëarendel, engla beorhtast,

Ofer middangeard monnum sended

“Hail Daystar, of angels the brightest,

Over Middle-Earth to humankind sent!”

 

“To the Evening Star”

By William Blake (1757-1827)

Thou fair-haired angel of the evening,

Now, whilst the sun rests on the mountains, light

Thy bright torch of love; thy radiant crown

Put on, and smile upon our evening bed!

Smile on our loves, and while thou drawest the

Blue curtains of the sky, scatter thy silver dew

On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes

In timely sleep. Let thy west wing sleep on

The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes,

And wash the dusk with silver. Soon, full soon,

Dost thou withdraw; then the wolf rages wide,

And the lion glares through the dun forest.

The fleeces of our flocks are covered with

Thy sacred dew; protect with them with thine influence.

 

“To the Planet Venus”

(Upon Its Approximation [as an Evening Star] to the Earth, January 1838.)

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

What strong allurement draws, what spirit guides,

Thee, Vesper! brightening still, as if the nearer

Thou comes to man's abode the spot grew dearer

Night after night? True is it Nature hides

Her treasures less and less. — Man now presides

In power, where once he trembled in his weakness;

Science advances with gigantic strides;

But are we aught enriched in love and meekness?

Aught dost thou see, bright Star! of pure and wise

More than in humbler times graced human story;

That makes our hearts more apt to sympathize

With heaven, our souls more fit for future glory,

When earth shall vanish from our closing eyes,

Ere we lie down in our last dormitory?

 

This photo of Venus, showing its global cloud cover in ultraviolet light, was taken by NASA’s Mariner 10 probe on February 5, 1974. (Photo Credit: NASA – Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

“To the Evening Star”

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

O meek attendant of Sol's setting blaze,

I hail, sweet star, thy chaste effulgent glow;

On thee full oft with fixéd eye I gaze

Till I, methinks, all spirit seem to grow.

O first and fairest of the starry choir,

O loveliest 'mid the daughters of the night,

Must not the maid I love like thee inspire

Pure joy and calm Delight?

Must she not be, as is thy placid sphere

Serenely brilliant? Whilst to gaze a while

Be all my wish 'mid Fancy's high career

E'en till she quit this scene of earthly toil;

Then Hope perchance might fondly sigh to join

Her spirit in thy kindred orb, O Star benign!

 

“The Evening Star”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Lo! in the painted oriel of the West,

Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines,

Like a fair lady at her casement, shines

The evening star, the star of love and rest!

And then anon she doth herself divest

Of all her radiant garments, and reclines

Behind the somber screen of yonder pines,

With slumber and soft dreams of love oppressed.

O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus!

My morning and my evening star of love!

My best and gentlest lady! even thus,

As that fair planet in the sky above,

Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night,

And from thy darkened window fades the light.

 

“Evening Star”

Edgar Allan Poe

'Twas noontide of summer,

And mid-time of night;

And stars, in their orbits,

Shone pale, thro' the light

Of the brighter, cold Moon,

'Mid planets her slaves,

Herself in the Heavens,

Her beam on the waves.

I gazed awhile

On her cold smile;

Too cold – too cold for me –

There passed, as a shroud,

A fleecy cloud,

And I turned away to thee,

Proud Evening Star,

In thy glory afar,

And dearer thy beam shall be;

For joy to my heart

Is the proud part

Thou bearest in Heaven at night,

And more I admire

Thy distant fire,

Than that colder, lowly light.

 

“February Twilight”

By Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

I stood beside a hill

Smooth with new-laid snow,

A single star looked out

From the cold evening glow.

There was no other creature

That saw what I could see –

I stood and watched the Evening Star

As long as it watched me.

 

“Evening Star”

By H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)

I saw it from that hidden, silent place

Where the old wood half shuts the meadow in.

It shone through all the sunset’s glories — thin

At first, but with a slowly brightening face.

Night came, and that lone beacon, amber-hued,

Beat on my sight as never it did of old;

The Evening Star — but grown a thousandfold

More haunting in this hush and solitude.

It traced strange pictures on the quivering air —

Half-memories that had always filled my eyes —

Vast towers and gardens; curious seas and skies

Of some dim life — I never could tell where.

But now I knew that through the cosmic dome

Those rays were calling from my far, lost home.

 

Up until about half a billion years ago, Venus is thought to have had oceans of liquid water and a temperate climate – before a series of volcanic catastrophes triggered a runaway greenhouse effect that rendered the planet uninhabitable. (Image Credit: NASA – Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)