Volume 19, 2007 - Brown University

Thetis and Venus: Motherhood in Epic
Martha Gimbel
Thetis and Venus present two different pictures of divine motherhood. While
Thetis plays a very personal role, Venus appears more like a divine patroness
than a mortal mother. Thetis embraces her son and discusses different courses of
action with him, while Venus usually appears to her son in disguise and works
for the well-being of her son only as it affects the future of her city-state. Thetis
cares only for the happiness and prosperity of Achilles, while Venus views
Aeneas as a means to her own glory. As Thetis gets closer to her son, and adopts
a more personal role, she loses power. Venus, on the other hand, remains aloof
and focuses on her divinity. Thus Venus has more power to affect the course of
her son’s life, while Thetis can only soothe and comfort her son.
Venus uses her divine power to help Aeneas survive his trip to found
Rome. In doing so she acts like a divine patroness of a city or a people. She
never discusses her plans for Aeneas’ future with him. Instead she goes straight
to other gods and uses them to affect the course of Aeneas’ life. She first appears
approaching Jove and asking him for reassurance that the Trojan toils will come
to an end and that “there the Romans will be with the years rolling by, there they
will be leaders from the called back blood of a Trojan, Romans who will hold
the sea and all the lands by their power” (Aen.I.234-6). She never mentions
Aeneas’ safety or that of her grandson Ascanius. Instead she worries about the
future of her “leaders” and the “blood” that will make up Rome. The closest she
comes to mentioning the issue of Aeneas’ safety is when she asks, “What end of
labors do you give, Great King” (Aen.I.241)? She mentions Aeneas himself only
when asking what he has done to anger Jove (Aen.I.231-2). She worries not
about the fate of her son, but of the glory that he will bring to her by surviving to
found a city.
Her second plea to a god comes in Book V when she asks Neptune for a
safe journey for the fleet across the sea. Once again her concern appears not to
be with the safety of her son; for she never mentions Aeneas, not even obliquely.
Instead she asks that the fleet be able to reach, and found, Rome: “if it is allowed
to touch the Laurentine Tiber. . .if the Fates give those walls” (Aen.V.797-8).
When Jove orders the gods to refrain from the fighting, Venus agrees, although
she reminds him that the Trojans came to Italy to found an empire under his
auspices. She claims that “I am no longer moved by empire, those things I hoped
for” (Aen.X.43), but then she asks for one concession. She begs that, no matter
what, Ascanius be spared. She wants the line to be continued. Thus, even if
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