Gods, Goddesses, and Ancient Legends
Aphrodite caused the Trojan War. Venus ensured its survivors reached Italy and founded Rome. Same goddess — but one civilization made her a troublemaker, and the other made her the divine mother of an empire.
Venus was the Roman goddess of love. She was also the divine ancestress of Julius Caesar, the theological engine behind the Aeneid, and the reason Rome understood its own empire as the fulfillment of a goddess’s maternal plan. That is a very different thing from being the Greek Aphrodite with a Latin name.