CLEP Western Civ I

Answer: D - The painting is a 15th century work by Sandro Botticelli titled The Birth of Venus, and hence depicting Venus. Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty who was purportedly born of the sea, hence her arrival in a scallop shell. Around the beginning of the Common Era, Roman religion veered far from the mythological stories that included Venus, but the icons of Roman mythology remained cultural figures in the centuries that followed. Venus’ Greek counterpart was Aphrodite. (Cupid was Venus’ son with the god of war, Mars, and he was the god of sexual love and beauty. Diana was the Roman goddess of the hunt and virginity.)