# Queen Venus — Poetry character guide

> Queen Venus in Poetry by Oscar Wilde.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Venus

**First appearance:** 0039-the-garden-of-eros

## Snapshot

The goddess of love invoked amid Trojan grief and moonlight, a bright shepherd of the sky whose beauty the dawn will not let linger.

## Who they are

She presides over the collection's mythological register, hymned alongside Artemis and Athena in a chorus of captive women mourning fallen Troy. Her presence sharpens the poems' ache of love set against slavery, exile, and death as a lover and lord. As queen of the gardens of the sky, she is the fleeting radiance the speaker begs to tarry, knowing she is overfleet.

## Relationships

### [Love](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_18_se/characters/love)

_romantic_

Love and Queen Venus share a romantic and mythological bond, often depicted as mother and son or lovers in classical tradition.

### [Love](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_18_se/characters/love)

_romantic_

Love and Queen Venus share a romantic and mythological bond, often depicted as mother and son or lovers in classical tradition.

## In the story

### [The Garden of Eros](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_18_se/chapters/the-garden-of-eros)

Referenced as treading on flowers beneath the pines of Ida.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_18_se/chapters/ii)

Venus discovers the dead lovers, mourns them, and arranges their burial in a cedar chest on Paphos.

### [Panthea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_18_se/chapters/panthea)

Depicted with the shepherd in a garden close, laughing for love.

### [Humanitad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_18_se/chapters/humanitad)

Mentioned as 'Venus' who may go and chuck her dainty page; the speaker rejects her spell.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_18_se/characters/queen_venus
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_18_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_18_se/characters