On Famous Women

...fields, or rather from marshy reeds, they believed she first produced flutes or pastoral pipes original: "fistulas"; the pan-pipes or syrinx. and threw them down to earth from heaven because the act of blowing them caused the throat to swell and the face to become deformed. Why say more? Because of the discovery of so many miracles, antiquity—the bestower of divinity—attributed the name of "Wisdom" to her. Drawn by this view, the Athenians were named after her; and because that city seemed suited for the studies through which everyone becomes prudent and wise, they took her under their protection and dedicated the art of learning to her. They constructed a huge temple consecrated to her divinity, and in that same place they depicted her with "curved eyes" original: "oculis curuā"; likely a reference to a sidelong or subtle gaze, interpreted here as the far-reaching and non-obvious nature of a wise person's plans. because it is rarely known toward what end the intent of a wise person tends.

She was shown wearing a helmet, wishing by this to signify that the counsels of the wise are covered and armed. She was dressed in a breastplate original: "lorica"; a piece of body armor. because the wise person is always armed against whatever blows of fortune may strike. She was fortified with a very long spear to show that the wisdom of a person strikes even at a distant target. Furthermore, she was protected by a crystalline aegis The Aegis was the protective shield or buckler associated with Zeus and Athena. with the head of the Gorgon Medusa, whose gaze turned men to stone. fixed upon it, suggesting by this that to the wise, all protective coverings are transparent and clear; they are always so fortified with serpentine cunning that the ignorant appear to be turned to stone original: "larei"; likely a corruption or variant of "lapidei," meaning "stony" or "petrified." by their very gaze. In her protection they placed an owl, affirming that just as in the light, so too in the darkness must the prudent be able to see.

Finally, the fame of this woman and the reverence for her divinity spread so far and wide—and circumstances so favored her—that temples were constructed in her honor and sacred rites were celebrated almost throughout the entire world. She ascended so high that in the Capitol The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill in Rome., next to Jove Jupiter the Best and Greatest, a shrine was dedicated to her, and she held a place among the most powerful of the Roman gods along with Queen Juno. There are, however, some very serious men who assert that there was never just one Minerva who discovered all the many things that have been mentioned. I willingly agree with this, so that the number of famous women might be even greater.

About Venus, Queen of the Cypriots.

It is the opinion of some that the Cyprian Venus was once a mortal woman. Regarding her parents, some authorities are uncertain. For some wish her to be the daughter of a certain Cyprus and Syria; others, indeed, the daughter of Cyprus and Dione, a Cypriot woman. Some, to extol the brilliance of her beauty, assert she was born of Jove and the aforementioned Dione. Truly, from whomever she may have been born, I have decided she should be described among famous women rather for her illustrious beauty than for any shameful invention. She shone with such facial beauty and grace of the whole body that the belief of those looking upon her was often deceived. For some...