Venus Castina
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Venus Castina('Chaste Venus') from Latincastus,is claimed to be anepithetof the Roman goddessVenus;in this form, she was supposedly associated with "the yearnings of feminine souls locked up in male bodies".[1]
Cesare Lombrosowrote that at Rome, the Venus of thesodomitesreceived the title of Castina.[2][3]Although no evidence of the epithet appears to exist prior to the 19th century,Clarence Joseph Bullietwrote a book about homosexuality andcross-dressingnamed after this supposed epithet. In the book, he ascribes the influence of "the effeminate" to a range of activities.
The priest of the gods, from history's dawn in Asia and Egypt down to the richly-robed Roman prelates of today, have set themselves conspicuously apart from their fellow males by the assumption of female attire.[4]
The chaste Venus, or, to use another expression, the triumphant, sacredvirgin,shared the characteristics of the unconquered and the invincibleDiana.Diana when seen in her nakedness, and therefore made profane, could wreak cures or other terrible retribution, such as that inflicted onActaeonwho was torn to pieces by the avenging demons in the shape of his own hounds. The chaste Venus (if the idea of Venus is ever that of chastity) was the "Venus Urania", or the Venus of the stars, or of heaven.[5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Bulliet, Clarence Joseph (1933).Venus Castina: Famous Female Impersonators, Celestial and Human.Friede Publishers. p. 1.
- ^Lombroso, Cesare (1896).L'uomo delinquente.Fratelli Bocca.pp.35.
- ^Symonds, John Addington (1895).A Problem in Modern Ethics.p. 62.
- ^Bulliet, Clarence Joseph (1933).Venus Castina: Famous Female Impersonators, Celestial and Human.Friede Publishers. p. 26.
- ^Hargrave Jennings (1884).Phallicism, Celestial and Terrestrial, Heathen and Christian.London: George Redway. p. 120.