Venus discors

This chapter explores the philosophical background of the Muse Calliope’s song in Metamorphoses 5, specifically the song’s representation of the goddess Venus. It argues that, while Calliope’s song is in dialogue with Lucretius and Lucretius’ Empedocles, often through the intermediary of Virgil’s Georgics, the figure of Venus in the song is not simply a version of Empedoclean Philia/Aphrodite or of the Lucretian Venus, but instead is a chiefly discordant figure akin to Empedoclean Neikos or Strife. Whereas the Venus of the Lucretian proem is called upon to bring peace to the Roman world and Empedocles’ Aphrodite is ruler of a peaceful “Golden Age,” Calliope’s Venus is a discordant figure whose cosmic imperialism sets in motion a plot resulting in the end of a Golden Age-like eternal spring on Sicily and widespread destruction. Yet, in spite of this apparent contrast with its main philosophical source texts, the arc of Calliope’s song, from springtime abundance to death, mirrors in compressed form the “plot” of De rerum natura; and Calliope’s Venus, as a deity who is capable of both creation and destruction, ultimately resembles the similarly bifurcated Venus and natura of Lucretius’ poem. In addressing the themes of the Golden Age and the cycle of creation and destruction, Calliope’s song also enters into a broader cultural discourse concerning loss and the possibility of restoration under Augustus and invites its readers to consider the career of Augustus against the actions of his divine ancestress Venus.