Venusberg (mythology)
Encyclopedia
Hörselberg
Hörselberg is a former municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 December 2007, it is part of the municipality Hörselberg-Hainich....
is the name of a mythical mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
situated between Gotha and Eisenach and celebrated in German poetry. Cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
rns in the mountain housed the court of Venus
Venus (mythology)
Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...
, goddess of love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
which was supposed to be perfectly hidden from mortal men: to enter the Venusberg was to court eternal perdition. However, the legendary knight Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser was a German Minnesänger and poet. Historically, his biography is obscure beyond the poetry, which dates between 1245 and 1265...
spent a year there worshiping Venus and returned there after believing that he had been denied forgiveness for his sins by Pope Urban IV
Pope Urban IV
Pope Urban IV , born Jacques Pantaléon, was Pope, from 1261 to 1264. He was not a cardinal, and there have been several Popes since him who have not been Cardinals, including Urban V and Urban VI.-Biography:...
; this is described in the sixteenth-century Lied von dem Danheüser, the principal source for Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's large three-act opera Tannhäuser (1845), which includes a scandalous depiction of the revels of Venus's court in its first scene. In Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
's laconic poem Tannhäuser: A Legend, the hero spent seven years there before departing for Rome. Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
tells the story in the first person in his poem Laus Veneris. Ludwig Tieck wrote a story on the subject, and Anthony Powell called an early novel of his Venusberg. Another visitor was Thomas the Rhymer (Thomas Ercildoune, c 1220-97).
The Tannhauser Gate
Tannhauser Gate
Tears in rain is the final soliloquy of the android Roy Batty in the movie Blade Runner. It is much quoted and has been described as "perhaps the most moving death soliloquy in cinematic history"...
of film and fiction originated as an allusion to the pathway that the knight used to discover and travel to this supposed place of ultimate erotic adventure. Venusberg is also a locality in the city of Bonn.