Youths Loved by Venus ： Hippolytus, Adonis, and Tannhauser

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  • 女神ヴィーナスの愛した青年たち −ヒッポリュトス、アドニス、タンホイザー−
  • 女神ヴィーナスの愛した青年たち : ヒッポリュトス、アドニス、タンホイザー
  • メガミ ヴィーナス ノ アイシタ セイネン タチ : ヒッポリュトス 、 アドニス 、 タンホイザー

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Abstract

In this essay on the representations of Goddess Venus, I discuss the following points : （1）There is a gap between Euripides’ Hippolytus and later dramatic works dealing with Phaedra, a woman who loves her son-in-law, written by Seneca, Racine, D?Annunzio, and others, although these have been regarded as a series of variations of the Euripides’ masterpiece. My point is that in these later works the goddess either completely or almost completely disappears from the stage, whereas the Euripides’ drama is about revenge devised by the goddess, an important protagonist, on a youth who despises her. （2）It is possible to postulate a different series of variations of the Euripides’ work―Shakespeare?s Venus and Adonis, Marino?s Adone, and the Tannhauser stories―if we pay attention to the fact that all these works pivot on the love relationship between the goddess and mortal youths. （3）Marino?s Adone, while written within the Christian background, presents a view different from a common medieval one that regarded Venus as a witch. This change is a result of following Ovid?s original story, which narrated the love between Venus and Adonis as a mutual one. （4）Adonis’ rejection of seduction by Venus narrated in Shakespeare?s Venus and Adonis is in opposition to Ovid and Marino and in line with the medieval view, while Adonis’ contempt of the goddess is similar to the youth?s attitude found in Euripides’ Hippolytus and Seneca?s Phaedra. （5）The stance adopted in the Tannhauser stories culminating in Wagner?s opera is quite medieval in regarding the love relationship with Venus as a sin and the goddess as a witch. （6）Titian, Carracci, and Rubens depict the relationship between Venus and Adonis as a mutual love and do not show in it a sense of sin or twisted emotions. （7）In his many nude Venuses, Cranach the Father, a close ally of Luther, avoids depicting the explicit or implicit sexual relations between Venus and men or male gods, limiting himself to the themes of the mother-and-child relationship between Venus and Cupid, and of the judgment of Paris, which could be morally interpreted.

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