Venus

Venus is a deity in George Fyler Townsend’s fables who appears in two distinct roles: as one of the gods assigning a tree to divine protection, and as the agent of a transformation that tests whether outward change can alter nature. Together, the episodes place her within fables that connect divine judgment to practical value and conduct.

Identity and Introduction

In “The Trees Under the Protection of the Gods,” Venus is one of five gods who choose trees for special protection. She selects the myrtle, while Jupiter chooses the oak, Apollo the laurel, Cybele the pine, and Hercules the poplar. The episode presents her as part of a divine assembly whose choices prompt a question from Minerva about why the gods selected trees that do not yield fruit.

The Protected Myrtle

Jupiter explains that the gods’ choices are intended to prevent them from appearing to covet the honor for the fruit. Minerva counters that the olive is dearer to her because of its fruit. Jupiter agrees with her reasoning: glory without usefulness is vain. Venus does not speak in this exchange, and the fable gives no separate explanation for her selection of the myrtle; her role is to establish one of the choices against which the debate over honor and practical benefit unfolds.

The Cat and Venus

In “The Cat and Venus,” Venus responds to a cat who has fallen in love with a handsome young man and asks to be changed into a woman. Venus grants the request, making the cat a beautiful young woman. The young man loves her and takes her home as his bride. The transformation changes the cat’s appearance and circumstances, but the fable makes its decisive test behavioral rather than visual.

Test and Reversal

While the couple are reclining in their chamber, Venus lets a mouse down in the middle of the room to discover whether the cat has changed her habits along with her shape. The cat immediately pursues it, forgetting her human form and wishing to eat it. Disappointed by this evidence, Venus returns her to her former shape. The ending makes Venus the agent of both transformation and reversal: outward alteration proves temporary when the cat’s characteristic response remains intact.

Narrative Significance

The two episodes give Venus different kinds of authority. In the tree fable, she participates in a collective choice that leads to a maxim about usefulness and empty glory; in the cat fable, she initiates an individual transformation and judges its result through a simple test. The latter story’s explicit moral, “Nature exceeds nurture,” frames the return to the cat’s former shape as a demonstration that a change of appearance does not necessarily change underlying nature.