section_path: In culture
section_name: In culture
paragraph_text: In culture
  
  Venus is a primary feature of the night sky, and so has been of remarkable importance in mythology, astrology and fiction throughout history and in different cultures.
  
  The English name of Venus was originally the ancient Roman name for it. Romans named Venus after their goddess of love, who in turn was based on the ancient Greek goddess of love Aphrodite, who was herself based on the similar Sumerian religion goddess Inanna (which is Ishtar in Akkadian religion), all of whom were associated with the planet. The weekday of the planet and these goddesses is Friday, named after the Germanic goddess Frigg, who has been associated with the Roman goddess Venus.
  
  Several hymns praise Inanna in her role as the goddess of the planet Venus. Theology professor Jeffrey Cooley has argued that, in many myths, Inanna's movements may correspond with the movements of the planet Venus in the sky. The discontinuous movements of Venus relate to both mythology as well as Inanna's dual nature. In Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, unlike any other deity, Inanna is able to descend into the netherworld and return to the heavens. The planet Venus appears to make a similar descent, setting in the West and then rising again in the East. An introductory hymn describes Inanna leaving the heavens and heading for Kur, what could be presumed to be, the mountains, replicating the rising and setting of Inanna to the West. In Inanna and Shukaletuda and Inanna's Descent into the Underworld appear to parallel the motion of the planet Venus. In Inanna and Shukaletuda, Shukaletuda is described as scanning the heavens in search of Inanna, possibly searching the eastern and western horizons. In the same myth, while searching for her attacker, Inanna herself makes several movements that correspond with the movements of Venus in the sky.
  
  The Ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks possibly knew by the second millennium BC or at the latest by the Late Period, under mesopotamian influence that the morning star and an evening star were one and the same. The Egyptians knew the morning star as Tioumoutiri and the evening star as Ouaiti. They depicted Venus at first as a phoenix or heron (see Bennu), calling it "the crosser" or "star with crosses", associating it with Osiris, and later depicting it two-headed with human or falco heads, and associated it with Horus, son of Isis (which during the even later Hellenistic period was together with Hathor identified with Aphrodite). The Greeks used the names Phōsphoros (Φωσϕόρος), meaning "light-bringer" (whence the element phosphorus; alternately Ēōsphoros (Ἠωσϕόρος), meaning "dawn-bringer"), for the morning star, and Hesperos (Ἕσπερος), meaning "Western one", for the evening star, both children of dawn Eos and therefore grandchildren of Aphrodite. Though by the Roman era they were recognized as one celestial object, known as "the star of Venus ", the traditional two Greek names continued to be used, though usually translated to Latin as Lūcifer and Vesper.
  
  Classical poets such as Homer, Sappho, Ovid and Virgil spoke of the star and its light. Poets such as William Blake, Robert Frost, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth wrote odes to it.
  
  In India, Shukra Graha ("the planet Shukra") is named after the powerful saint Shukra. Shukra which is used in Indian Vedic astrology means "clear, pure" or "brightness, clearness" in Sanskrit. One of the nine Navagraha, it is held to affect wealth, pleasure and reproduction; it was the son of Bhrgu, preceptor of the Daityas, and guru of the Asuras. The word Shukra is also associated with semen, or generation.
  
  Venus is known as Kejora in Indonesian and Malaysian Malay.
  
  In Chinese the planet is called Jīn-xīng (金星), the golden planet of the metal element. Modern Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese cultures refer to the planet literally as the "metal star" (金星), based on the Five elements.
  
  The Maya considered Venus to be the most important celestial body after the Sun and Moon. They called it Chac ek, or Noh Ek ', "the Great Star". The cycles of Venus were important to their calendar and were described in some of their books such as Maya Codex of Mexico and Dresden Codex. The Estrella Solitaria ("Lone Star") Flag of Chile depicts Venus.