Talk:Venus Castina

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Straightforward question here: is there any indication that this form of the goddess Venus was actually recognised by the Romans? As far as I can tell, following the references here on this article, the name was used by C J Bulliet in his 1928 book Venus Castina: Famous Female Impersonators, Celestial and Human - but I can't find any references anywhere that don't make mention of that book. Are there no inscriptions? No shrines or temples? No contemporary Roman writings that mention this aspect of Venus?

Certainly the first step would be to read Bulliet's book and find out what he says, then see if the trail leads back any further. As it stands, while I'd be delighted to find out that the Roman gods had transgender people covered, I'm very suspicious of this, since I've never heard anything of this epithet before.

Is there anyone out there who's read or has access to Bulliet's work and can find out where he obtained his information? Or, better yet, someone with a little more knowledge of classical religion and mythology who can confirm whether Venus Castina ever really existed? - Coldwind139 (talk) 16:45, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

I have the book, and Bulliet does not cite his sources (reading some other parts, he seems to play fast and loose with the facts it I think). The best I've been able to dig up is Lombroso's L'Uomo delinquente, which makes a passing reference to "la Castina, la Venere dei sodomiti". That was in 1876 (page 35, if you find a digital copy). Everything seems to refer to that. I have no idea where Lombroso got that, though. Prior to 1876, "Castina" appears to either have been a term for some type of calcite. I've spent a fair amount of time digging into this and have gotten absolutely nowhere, and am pretty sure Lombroso made it up out of whole cloth (why can't I find citations of it prior to 1876?), but I'm willing to be proven wrong. I have a document of my research I can send over to someone who wants to get the full treatment. Ultimately, I think this page should only reference the book. And by the way, Herodotus wrote about Uranus Aphrodite (οὐρανίης Ἀφροδίτης), *not* Venus Castina. That's a factual error of translation that can be easily checked. Axiem (talk) 05:39, 10 February 2014 (UTC)