Venus (venus)

[F. Vénus = Sp. Venus = Pg. Venus = It. Venere, 6724 island of Melos in 1820, and now the chief treasure of the Louvre Museum. The statue dates from about the middle Venus's-shoe IMG:content-1775.jpg:[graphic][subsumed][subsumed] 1. The Venus of Medici, in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. 2. The Venus of Melos, in the Louvre Museum. the arms are broken off; the figure and face are at once graceful and beautiful, and highly imposing. The type is that of the Victrix. The Venus of the Capitol, in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, undraped, and in attitude and motive very similar to the Venus of Medici, though the Capitoline statue displays a more personal element, and comes closer to the living model. Of the modern statues representing Venus, there may be mentioned the Venus Borghese, a celebrated statue by Canova, in the Villa Borghese at Rome. The statue represents the Prince Pauline (Bonaparte) Borghese in the character of Venus Genetrix. The figure is shown reclining, extending the apple in one hand, the head being a close portrait. See Aphrodite. 2. The most brilliant of the planets, being frequently visible to the naked eye by daylight. It is the second from the sun and next within the earth's orbit, performing its sidereal revolution in 224.7008 days; its distance from the sun is 0.723332 that of the earth. The synodical revolution is made in 584 days. Its orbit is the most nearly circular of those of the major planets, the greatest equation of the center being only 47' 3". The inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic is 3° 23'.5; and the earth pa es through the ascending node on December 7th. The ma of Venus (which is not very closely ascertained) is about that of the sun, or that of the earth. Its diameter is a little smaller than that of our planet, which subtends an angle of 2 × 8".827 at the sun's center, while Venus at the same distance has a semidiameter of 8".68 by the mean of the best night measures, or 8".40 according to the observations at its transit over the sun. Taking the mean of these (which are affected in opposite ways by irradiation), or 8".54, we find the diameter of Venus about that of the earth. Its volume is about 1o, its density about, and gravity at its surface about the same quantities for the earth. It receives 1.9 as much light and heat from the sun as we, and the tidal action of the latter is about 5.3 times as great as upon the earth. The period of rotation of Venus is set down in many books as 23 hours and 50 minutes; but recent observations have led some astronomers to the confident conclusion that the true period falls short but a little of 225 days, so that day and night last for many years. The old figure was deduced chiefly from the observation that a spot appeared nearly in the same place night after night, so that it seemed as if Ventus had made one complete revolution; whereas it now appears that there is in one day no sensible motion. The vast tidal action may account for the near approach of the periods of rotation and revolution. Venus has an atmosphere nearly twice as dense as our own, and we may safely infer that all its water is in the form of dry steam; for the dense atmosphere must cause a greater proportion of the heat to be retained. Probably nearly all the carbon is in the form of carbonic an hydrid or carbonates, leaving little or no free oxygen. Geological erosion can hardly be great. The mountains of Venus are shown to be high by the form of the terminator. Still, Venus reflects a great amount of light (its albedo being 0.9 that of Jupiter, which is perhaps self luminous), and much of this appears to come from general specular reflection, as from polished level surfaces, po ibly melted metals. The night side of Venus, which must be intensely cold, shows a faint coppery-red light, which is somewhat fitful in its appearances, and is probably of the nature of an intense aurora. No satellite of Venus has ever been seen. Numerous observations of one were reported in the eighteenth century; but all these have been fairly shown to be fixed stars, except one, which was probably an asteroid. The symbol for Venus is, supposed to represent the godde 's mirror. 31. Sexual intercourse; venery. Bacon.-4t. In old chem., copper.-5. In her., green: the name given to that color when blazoning is done by means of the planets. See blazon, n., 2.-6. In conch.: (a) The typical genus of bivalve shells of the family Venerida: so called by Linnæus with allusion to the shape of the The Venuses and Cockles. A. Adams , Man. Nat. Hist., p. 147. Celestial Venus. See Venus Urania . - Corona Veneris, or crown of Venus, a syphilitic eruption of reddish papules, occurring chiefly on the forehead and temples.Crystals of Venus. See crystal . - Fresh-water venuses, the Corbiculidæ . - Mark of Venus, in palmistry . See mark1.- Mount of Venus, in palmistry . See mount1 , 5 (g).-Ring of Venus, in palmistry . See ring1 .-Venus accroupie (crouching), in art , a type in which the godde is represented as undraped, and crouching close down to the ground, as if in the bath. The most admired example is in the Museo Pio Clement i no in the Vatican.Venus Anadyomene (marine Venus, or Venus of the Sea), Venus represented as born or rising from the foam of the sea. In art the type has marine attributes, as the dolphin, and is represented undraped. The Venus of Medici is an example. - Venus Callipyge or Kallipygos, a type wrongly attributed to Venus, the subject represented being e entially mortal. One of the best-known statues of this type is in the Museum at Naples. - Venus Genetrix, in art , etc., Venus as the godde of fecundity. The type presents the godde undraped, partially draped, or clad in a diaphanous Ionic tunic, with one hand raising the drapery toward her face from the shoulder according to the conventional Greek gesture of marriage, and with the other extending an apple. - Venus of Cnidus, the undraped type of Venus created by Praxiteles, and dedicated in the temple in Cnidus, paralleled with the draped type of the same master, that of Cos. According to tradition, the beautiful Phryne was the model for this statue. The most instructive copies acce ible are one in the Vatican (as exhibited, partly masked by painted drapery of tin), and one in the Glyptothek at Munich. The Venus of Medici is generally held to be a free copy of this type. See cut under Aphrodite . - Venus of the rock, in conch ., a boring bivalve mollusk of the genus Venerupis . See cut under Venerupis . - Venus omnibus, the Greek Aphrodite Pandemos, Venus as the patrone of unlawful love.Venus's basin or bath, a name given to common teazel, the leaves of which collect water.- Venus's basket, Venus's flower-basket. - Venus's ear. See earl , and cuts under abalone and sea - ear.- Venus's fan, a kind of fancoral or sea-fan; a large, flat, flabellate alcyonarian polyp of the family Gorgoniidæ , as Rhipidogorgia flabellum. See cuts under Alcyonaria , coral, and Rhipidogorgia. Venus's flower-basket, a beautiful gla -sponge of the genus Euplectella , as E. aspergillum or or a similar species. See cut under Euplectella . - Venus's fly-trap. See Dio næa.-Venus's girdle, Cestum veneris , a tæniate ctenophoran. See Cestum and Tæniata . - Venus's golden apple, a rutaceous shrub or small tree, A talant i a mo nophylla, of India. It bears a golden-yellow fruit of the nutmeg, resembling a - Venus's hair, a delicate little fern, Adiantum Capillus - Veneris: so called from the blackish, shining capillary branches of the rachis. It has ovate-lanceolate bipinnate fronds, or the upper part simply pinnate, with pinnules and upper pinnæ wedge shaped or rhomboid, long-stalked, the upper margin rounded, and more or le incised or crenate. It is cosmopolitan in distribution. - Venus's hair-stones, Venus's pencils, fanciful names applied to rock-crystals inclosing slender hair-like or needle-like crystals of hornblende, asbestos, oxid of iron, rutile, oxid of manganese, etc.Venus's looking-gla , a plant of the genus Specular i a, primarily S. Speculum. - Venus's pencils. See Venus's hair -stones. - Venus's-shell. (a) One of many different bivalve mollusks which suggest the vulva, of the family Veneridæ, as Cytherea dione, and various others. Numerous genera of such lamellibranchs are named from the same appearance. See cuts under Cytherea, Venerupis, and Venus. (b) One of various Cypræidæ or cowries. (c) Venus's-comb; a murex. ( d ) Venus's-slipper. (1) A heteropod, the gla -nautilus. See cut under Car in aria. (2) A pteropod of the family Cymbuliidæ. See cut under Cymbulum. - Venus's sumac. See sumac, and cut under smoke tree. - Venus Urania, or Celestial Venus, Venus as the godde of divine love, or of love in its abstract and spiritual phase. She is a godde of noble and majestic type, akin to that of Venus Victrix, and approaching the conception of Juno. - Venus Victrix, Venus victorious, or in the character of a godde of victory. This type appears a ociated with the war-god Mars, and is illustrated notably on Roman imperial coins. The godde is represented with arms and other attributes of war. -Venus with the Apple. See Venus Genetrix. - Warty venus, a bivalve mollusk, Venus verrucosa. The valves have concentric ridges opening backward, and toward the sides or ends becoming coarser and forming knots or tubercles (whence the name). These are diversified by fine ribs or furrows radiating from the beaks. The mollusk is common along the European coasts, and chiefly affects rocky bottoms about low-water mark, but is also found on sand-banks. It is extensively used as food, and has been made the object of a special culture in France.