Mirror of Venus: the origin, the meaning of the symbol in ancient times and today

Modern culture borrowed much from the ancient Greeks and Romans. This is not only a huge number of words that have come to modern languages from antiquity, but also knowledge in the field of mathematics, chemistry, physics, architecture and many other sciences. By the way, it is to the ancient Greeks and Romans that contemporaries should be grateful for such signs as the mirror of Venus and the spear of Mars, used to denote the male and female sex.

The symbol of Venus is a mirror

Everyone saw this sign, and more than once. Modern manufacturers of erotic products and contraception are actively using it.

If you open any book about the relationship between the sexes, one of the illustrations will necessarily show a mirror of Venus. After all, this is the symbol of the feminine beginning that came from the days of Ancient Greece. There is also a similar symbol of the masculine principle - the spear of Mars.

What does the mirror of Venus look like?

Today the female symbol is denoted by a circle with a cross-shaped handle at the bottom. However, this appearance of the mirror of Venus was not always.

In the pre-Christian world, the sign of the female goddess Venus (Aphrodite) was like a graphic image of a magnifying glass. But when Christianity became the main religion, replacing all the others in order not to identify the Venus mirror (symbol) with the pagan pantheon, a horizontal line was added to the "pen" and it became like a cross.

History of appearance

So, we have established that the modern symbol of the feminine origin came to us from a distant antiquity, but in other cultures there were its analogues. In the old days, female deities have always been identified with wisdom, love, prosperity, beauty and fertility, without which the ancient people considered their lives inferior. Therefore in every religion there was a supreme female goddess: Venus, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Astarte and others. Very often their symbols were a circle, signifying the abundance and usefulness, very similar to the mirror of Venus. By the way, the Egyptian ankh, beloved by many, is also similar to the symbol of the feminine principle and is often considered his ancestor.

In ancient Greece, and after and in the Roman Empire was fairly widespread cult of Aphrodite, or Venus. She, like most of the supreme goddesses, protected women, granting them beauty, and also patronized lovers and pregnant women.

In fact, Venus personified an ideal woman: beautiful, independent, strong, intelligent and at the same time passionate. Its priestesses-hierodules gave love caresses to every visitor of the temple, whoever wishes. Therefore, Venus, her servants, as well as the symbol of the passionate goddess, were associated with the feminine principle. However, with the abolition of the cult of the goddess, he became less popular.

This symbol, as well as its male counterpart, was widely spread by the scientist Karl Linnaeus, who invented how to classify representatives of flora and fauna. Faced with the fact that it is necessary to somehow signify the sex of plants and animals, in 1751 he decided to use the symbols of male and female origin that came from pagan Greece.

Different symbol values

Besides the fact that it acted as a symbol of the ancient goddess and planet named in her honor, and also the sign of the feminine, the mirror of Venus in the Middle Ages was used by the alchemists to designate the chemical element Cuprum, which today is known to all as copper. Ironically, the very name of this metal is also associated with Venus.

The fact is that in antiquity mirrors were made of copper. And the largest deposit and supplier of this metal at the time was Cyprus - a place where, according to legend, a passionate goddess was born and where the center of her cult was located. Therefore, in honor of Venus they named not only a planet, but also a chemical element.

Modern variations of the symbol

Several millennia have passed since the appearance of the symbol of the feminine. Over the years, he evolved.

In the twentieth century, this sign was also subjected to numerous changes. With the active spread of feminism, the slightly modified mirror of Venus (photo below) became a symbol of the struggle of women all over the world for equal rights with men. So the traditional image of the mirror with the handle-cross was supplemented by a fist in the center of the circle.

After the sexual revolution, people were able to openly build relationships with members of their own sex. In addition, they were now able to change the nature of the sex to another using modern advances in medicine.

To denote such individuals use a modified sign, combining both the mirror of Venus, and the spear of Mars. In addition, there is another sign, created also on the basis of the images mentioned, only here there is also a third element, symbolizing the transformation.

Among other things, a slightly modified symbol of the female principle is used to denote hermaphroditism (the presence of signs of both sexes in one person, animal, plant). It is interesting that exactly the same sign designates a planet named after another ancient deity - Mercury.

The figure denoting the feminine beginning (the mirror of Venus) could survive the abolition of the cult of her goddess and other cataclysms. For many centuries, it remained unchanged, but with the advent of the twentieth century, it experienced a rebirth and again became a symbol of brave, beautiful and free women.