the dolphin. As will be discussed in Section 5 as well, the dolphin king myth is an example of an etiological myth and has special ties to not only Neptune, but his wife Salacia (Amphitrite) as well. Lastly, when examining the Fountain of Neptune in Florence solely, there is even more iconography to be noted. For one, found on the edges of the fountain are the more inferior Greek sea gods such as Thetis, Doris, Oceanus and Nereus, depicted alongside other mythological figures like Scylla and Charybdis. There are also four amphibians playing flutes and these a significant in particular because amphibian creatures are seen to be Neptune’s children. Lastly, there is one creature very unique to this fountain being the laughing Giambologna satyrs. …show more content…
As previously mentioned, Aphrodite Urania is the Greek epitaph associated with Venus’ birth story and her role of representing sacred, spiritual love as opposed to sexual, physical love.
To provide background for Venus’ birth story, it is imperative to discuss the gods before her. The first of which was Terra (Gaia), the mother-goddess of the earth as well as the ancestral mother of all life; and then there was Caelus (Uranus), the god of the skies and heavens who Terra parthenogenetically birthed. Together, the two gods represented the earth as well as the skies and were the first two gods in Greek mythology. Later came the Cyclops, Hecatonchires, and lastly the twelve Titans. Of these twelve Titans, the most relevant to Venus’ birth was Saturn (Cronus).
Saturn was always jealous of his father Caelus for his great sea powers. Furthermore, Terra and Caelus fought often, and this gave Terra and Caelus an opportunity to get revenge on Saturn. Terra crafted a great stone sickle and went to her titan male sons to try and persuade one of them to attack Caelus. Saturn agreed to the notion, and castrated his father. From Caelus’ spilt blood, the Gigantes, Erinyes, and Meliae rose from the earth, and most importantly, Saturn seized Caelus’ gentiles and through them into the sea. The sea then began to stir and created a foam, and from that very foam rose the fully grown goddess of love,