VENUS

Sonnets

By Josef Maria Mayer

ASTARTE

When Solomon the wise was old, he build

For his foreign wife a temple of Venus

Astarte, which the prophets of God had forbidden,

But Solomon loved so much his heathen wife.

This temple of Solomon for the goddess of love

Was build with cedars and cypresses from Tyre

And Sidon, where the philistine people worship

Astarte, great goddess of fertility.

The scriptures said that this was Solomon’s folly.

It was the folly of the children of God,

The tribes of Israel, that they worship the goddess,

Astarte, the naked goddess of mother nature.

Astarte was worshipped as the queen of heaven,

The naked goddess of love and beauty and grace.

THE SYRIAN GODDESS

Lucian saw in Syria once the temple

Of the Syrian goddess, and he said

She was majestic like the heavenly Juno

And she was wise and intelligent like Minerva

And she was beautiful like the goddess Venus.

And Atargatis I think was the name of the goddess.

Her statue stood in the temple and was worshipped

By the priests of the goddess, they were all eunuchs.

Near the statue of the Syrian Venus

Were to be seen the erected member of Bacchus.

The eunuch priests climbed up the erected member

Of Bacchus and sung hymns to the Syrian Venus.

Some say the statue of the Syrian Venus

Was a statue of queen Semiramis.

III

HOW VENUS CAME TO CYPROS

The Phoenician people were sailing with ships

From Israel, Tyre and Sidon and Syria

To Cyprus and Cythere and brought with their trade

The worshipping of the goddess of love to Cyprus.

Venus was coming over the mediterrian sea

To Cyprus, and on this way Venus was

The sea-born goddess, the goddess of fishes and dolphins,

She rises naked out of the foam of the sea.

And the people of Cyprus build her temples

In Paphos, the sanctuary of the goddess.

In the sanctuary were serving the handmaids

Of the goddess, the sacred whores of the goddess.

A man who lied by a sacred whore in love,

Lied by in love the naked goddess.

THE SEA-BORN GODDESS

Hesiod sung in his poem Theogony

The father heaven, the Pater Uranos,

And how the son cuts of his father’s member

And how it fall in the mediterrian sea.

And the semen of the father became foam

And out of the foam of the sea was born the goddess,

She rises naked out of the foam of the sea,

The goddess who loves the sexuality!

And when she came to the strand of the island Cyprus,

Roses sprung out of the ground of mother earth.

Venus is the smiling goddess of love,

The laughter-loving goddess of love’s sport!

Welcome O goddess on the shore of the sea!

How beautiful is your naked body, O goddess!

VENUS CLIMPS UP THE OLYMPUS

When Venus came to the island Cyprus,

The female hours sung her: Welcome, O goddess!

But the goddess of love was totally naked,

So the hours gave her a pretty dress.

In her petticoat and her negligee

She was gracious, very sexy dressed!

Then the female hours gave her clips

For her ears and pearls for her snow-white goose-neck.

So she climbed up the mountain of the gods

And came into the palest of father Jove.

All the gods wished Venus for her girlfriend,

All the gods want to make love with the goddess Venus.

But father Jove decided that the lame Vulcan

Shall get Venus as his married wife.

THE MARRIAGE OF VENUS AND VULCAN

In the house of the gods on the mountain Olympus

There was a wedding feast, the bride was Venus.

She was clothed in white and purple linen

And her long black hair was skilfully curled.

The lame god Vulcan sat at the left hand of Venus

And Mars, the potent god, sat at her right side.

All the gods were drinking many cups

Of sour beer, and Vulcan became drunken.

There were also Hebe, the youthful girl,

And Ganymed, the boy, the beloved of Jove.

They were drinking the cups of sweet apple-juice

And were playing in the halls of the gods.

The foolish Vulcan was pride about his wife,

And Mars, the potent god, was very jealous.

VII

MARS AND VENUS

The lame Vulcan went at morning to his work

And worked all day long with the Cyclops

As a hammer-smith in the depth of the Aetna

And came at evening back in his house.

But the sexy Venus was full of desire

And the potent Mars was full of desire

And so Venus said at noon to Mars:

Come and love my, quickly, come in my bed!

And Mars took off the pretty dress of Venus

And laid her naked in the sweet smelling bed

And both make love together, all sorts of sport,

And Venus was hot and sexy and Mars was potent.

Only the god of the sun peeped through the window

And rejoices over the naked body of Venus.

VIII

VENUS AND BACCHUS BEGOT PRIAPUS

Venus came at evening in the house

Of the young Bacchus, and she stood there till midnight,

And Bacchus begun to drink his daily wine,

And Venus also nipped at the cup of wine.

Bacchus, when he was drunken, saw to Venus

And saw the over-powering beauty of the goddess

And she became silly from the wine and laughed

And said to the drunken Bacchus: Come and fuck me!

On this way Venus became the mother of Priapus,

The god of the garden with his mighty member.

Come, god Priapus, with your erected member,

Guard our garden and our apple tree!

God Priapus, bless the virginity of the young maidens

And the arts of love of the riper women!

VENUS AND MERCURY BEGOT HERMAPHRODITUS

Mercury visited Venus in her house

And sat with her at the table with bread and cheese

And spoke with her about the dialectic

And philosophy with his quicksilver-mind.

Venus listened to Mercury in absolute silence

And his mind begot in the lap of her beauty.

Now he spoke about the wisdom of Eros

And Venus smiled and lifted her clothes a little.

Then she said: I want to lie in my bed,

I’m tired. Come and talk about wisdom to me.

I am female conception for your spirit!

Mercury’s spirit begot in her female conception

And Venus became the mother of Hermaphroditus,

Not a male and not a female Godhead.

VENUS AND ADONIS

Adonis dead! Adonis dead! And Venus

Full of sorrow and deadly pain and grief!

I saw the beautiful goddess Venus weeping

Bloody tears of her pierced immortal soul!

Moaning and groaning, beautiful goddess of love,

Your beauty is the bewitching beauty of pain.

O goddess of beauty in your holy melancholy,

Spread your wings over the dead corpse of Adonis!

Your bloody tears are falling in the ground

And roses are growing out of mother earth.

Goddess of love and goddess of sorrow and pain,

The dead corpse of Adonis sleeps in your lap.

Adonis will rise again, o goddess of love,

Adonis will rise again, the immortal demi-god!

VENUS AND ANCHISES

The goddess saw Anchises on mount Ida

And she fall in love with the youthful shepherd.

She laid her clothes down and stood naked before him

And the goats on the mountain were hot for love.

The goddess and the shepherd mixed in love

Their bodies and souls in lustful union.

O what a bliss to fuck the goddess of love

Who knows all the arts of love, all the sports of love!

But Anchises was proud and told his friends:

Comrades, I have fucked the goddess of love!

Jupiter was full of wrath over Anchises

And Venus in her chastity felt her shame.

But the goddess was pregnant with Aenaeas,

Aenaeas lived in the household of the nymphs.

XII

PARIS AND THE THREE GODDESSES

Paris stood on mount Ida and had a vision:

Three goddesses came down on mount Ida to the shepherd

And asked: O shepherd, who is the most beautiful

Of the goddesses of the high Olympus?

Juno said: Am I the most beautiful goddess,

I will give you power and a throne of might!

Minerva said: Am I the most beautiful goddess,

I will give you triumph in every war!

Venus laid down her clothes and stood naked

In her perfect body before the shepherd,

And Venus said: Am I the most beautiful goddess,

I will give you the body and soul of Helen!

And Paris said: Venus, most beautiful goddess,

My mistress, give me the body and soul of Helen!

XIII

HELEN

Helen was the wife of Menelaos,

Menelaos the husband with the black hair.

But Paris landed at the shore with many gifts

And with the jewels he won Helen’s heart.

And Paris and Helen left the shore with a ship

And the west-wind blows and the sails were swelling

And Paris and Helen landed on an island

And mixed their bodies and souls on the shore.

O blessed island of love! O night of love!

O blissful ocean of eternal lust!

Verily, Helen was a gift of Venus,

Helen was the sacred prostitute of Venus!

Paris, as he mixed his body with Helen’s,

Thought, he mixed his body with the body of Venus!

XIV

DIOMED WOUNDED VENUS

Menelaos made war against Paris

And Diomed was a mighty warrior

And on the field of war with his spear

He wounded Venus, blood runs out of her side.

The wounded Venus climbed on the mount Olympus

And told all her pain her godly mother Dione.

Dione comforted the goddess Venus, her daughter,

And Jupiter smiled to his wounded daughter Venus:

Mars makes war and Minerva too makes war,

But you, beloved Venus, shall not make war!

The sacred mysteries of holy marriage

And all the lustful arts of love are yours!

Venus was comforted by the smile of her father.

Since then her works were the mysteries of the bed!

VENUS AND AENAEAS

Aenaeas came with his ship to the Libyan shore

And saw a girl as she was chasing a stag

With arrows and bow, and the girl said to him:

Dido; the queen of Karthage, is waiting for you!

And Aenaeas saw the young girl in short dresses

And knows by his heart: This was the goddess Venus!

She directed him to the queen of Kathage,

Cause Dido was destined to fall in love with him.

Aenaeas knows his godly mother by heart,

The goddess of love and beauty was his mother.

The pious Aenaeas was the son of the goddess,

The goddess directed his way and he followed her.

The pious follows the commandments of the goddess,

The son follows the commandments of his mother.

XVI

QUEEN DIDO

Dido sat on her throne in the city Karthage

And Aenaeas his son Ascanius

Sat on her lap and smiled like a golden sun

And his blue-eyed look was like heaven.

But Dido didn’t know that the goddess Venus

Brought her beloved son, the little Cupid,

She took away Ascanius, and Cupid

In truth was the boy who sat on Dido’s lap.

And Cupid, the little boy, the little god,

Took his bow and his arrows and shot an arrow

In Dido’s heart, her heart stood in flames,

And Dido felt in love with the pious Aenaeas.

O how great is the might of the queen of love!

O how great is the power of the little god!

XVII

VENUS KNIDIA

Praxiteles made a statue of Venus

And showed this statue to the Greek,

But no island bought this statue of Venus,

Because the naked goddess was too sexy!

The island Knidos bought the statue of Venus

And built a temple for Venus Knidia.

There the goddess in her sanctuary

Was really present with her sacred body.

A man stayed in the night in the sanctuary,

The priests had already closed the door of the temple.

At the next morning the priest saw on the loins of Venus

A spot of semen, so sexy was the goddess.

I will not leave you, queen of beauty and love,

I will stay in your sanctuary for ever!

XVIII

PHRYNE THE MODELL

Phryne was a beautiful courtesan,

She was the model for the statue of Venus.

Praxiteles build in marble the body of Phryne

And the Greeks became worshippers of her body.

The Greeks celebrated the mysteries of Eleusis

And Phryne came naked out of the foam of the sea

And all the Greeks cried: Venus is coming again,

The sea-born goddess Venus became flesh!

Once Phryne stood in a trial before the judge

And the judge said: You are preaching a new God!

But Phryne was her own advocate and laid

Her clothes down and showed her abundant breasts!

The judge stood there without speech and without anthem

And the beautiful courtesan Phryne was free.

XIX

PHRYNE AND ARISTOTLE

The wise man Aristotle was preaching and said:

Lust is not the highest good of mankind,

But lust is good, cause every man searches lust,

But lust became better, mixed with holy virtue.

Lust in a bad man is an evil lust,

For example, if he abuses children.

But the lust in a good and wise man is

An holy lust: The beatific vision of God!

Aristotle spoke and the beautiful Phryne came

And the courtesan said to the philosopher:

Kneel down to earth, my Aristotle, cause I

Want to ride on your back like on a horse’s back!

And so the philosopher was creeping through the chamber

And the courtesan riding on his back laughing!

PLATO’S VENUS URANIA

When a philosopher loves a youthful boy,

He will remember the vision of the beauty

Which his soul has seen before conception

In the heavenly region of the ideas.

When a philosopher loves a boy with pure love,

The demon Eros will lead his soul to the vision

Of beauty, the most high goddess of beauty and love,

The ideal of pure spiritual love.

I vow my soul to Venus Urania,

The god-head of pure spiritual love,

Urania shall be my mystical soul-mate

And my godly bride in mystical union.

Praise be the eternal god-head of love!

Venus Urania is my goddess and bride!