Venus & Cobre

Venus & Cobre (Venus & Copper)

Mythology is an essential part of our Greco-Roman culture development, and in some historical periods, such as the Renaissance, it was one of the primary sources of artistic inspiration. In this period, -around 1484- Alessandro Botticelli, in his well-known painting La nascita di Venere (The Birth of Venus, in Italian), portrayed the goddess Aphrodite of Greece, better known as Venus -in her Roman version-. Venus represents love, beauty, femininity and thus the art of sensuality.

Based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses (43 BC-17 AD, Rome), the painting shows the birth of the goddess arriving at the shore of Cyprus, an island that was the primary source of copper extraction in ancient times. Significantly, this metal was named after the name of the island (Cyprus), which is derived from the Greek kýpros, which in Latin means cuprum (Cu). Then, we could say that this painting literally portrays “Venus arriving at the copper island.”

However, we can relate the feminine with the red metal not only in terms of the myth. Biology indicates that women have 20% more serum copper than men on average, who have more iron (in hemoglobin). Besides, the copper metabolic process is closely linked to estrogen (female sex hormone). Coincidentally or not, it is not surprising that the material used to make the IUD (intrauterine device) is copper.

Although the relationship between copper and the female gender -symbolized by Venus- was not evident in ancient times, at least it could be intuited from mythology. Currently, science has shown a link between these initially unconnected areas, rethinking certain truths found in past myths. A kind of natural wisdom that we could review and, who knows… possibly rediscover so many other truths implicit in popular myths and legends.

Alejandra Rojas