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To be distinguished from Venetians.
Planet Venus
Grouping Extraterrestrial
Habitat Venus

In science fiction and ufology, a Venusian or Venerian is a native inhabitant of the planet Venus. Many science fiction writers have imagined what extraterrestrial life on Venus might be like.


The word "Venusian" is simply a combination of the name of the planet Venus and the suffix -ian, formed on the analogy of "Martian" (as if = "Marsian"). It is usually pronounced /vɨˈnjuːʒən/ or /vɨˈnjuːʃən/. Based on the latter pronunciation, the spelling "Venutian" is sometimes found.

The classically derived form of the word would be "Venerean" or "Venerian" (cf. Latin: venereus, venerius "belonging to the goddess Venus"), but these forms have been used by only a few authors (e.g. Robert A. Heinlein). Scientists sometimes use the adjective "Cytherean" to describe Venus, from the goddess' epithet Cytherea. "Venusian" is used in preference to "Venerean" due to the latter's use in the term venereal disease.[1]

Venusians in literature[edit]

  • In the "Venus series" of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Burroughs created a fictitious 'Venusian' alphabet supposedly used by the Venusians (or "Amtorians" - as "Amtor" is what the natives call their planet). His artificial Amtor letters flow nicely together like cursive writing.[2]
  • In Olaf Stapledon's 1930 novel Last and First Men, when the Moon threatens to slowly spiral down to crash into Earth, humans leave Earth and colonize Venus; in the process of doing so, humans totally exterminate Venus' native inhabitants, a semi-intelligent deep ocean marine species. The descendants of the invaders, Sixth to Eighth Men, can be considered Venerians themselves.
  • In Charles R. Tanner's "Tumithak of the Corridors" (1932) and its sequels, Venus is the homeworld of the shelks, spider-like aliens who have conquered Earth and forced most of the few surviving humans underground.
  • In C. S. Lewis' book Perelandra (1943), professor Elwin Ransom travels to Venus (the title is the name of the planet in the Old Solar language), a planet mostly covered by water with floating islands on it, in order to fight a possessed professor Weston and prevent the "Adam and Eve" of this young planet from bringing about the same fate that befell Earth (Thulcandra). In the book, Lewis depicts a wide variety of flora and fauna, with some animals close to being sentient. The King and Queen of the planet are humanoid, but green, and their commandment is for them not to sleep on the fixed land, a still island. When this happens, the Oyarsa of this world, a type of Angel like being who seems feminine like the classical goddess, tells Ransom that this will be the start of a new age.
  • In the British comic Dan Dare (1950–1967), Venus is inhabited by green-skinned Treens and Therons, who are separated by a fire wall running across Venus. The Mekon, the Super-intelligent Treen leader is a primary villain. Most Treens are emotionless. The Terons are more friendly to Earth.
  • I Am the Doorway, a short story in Stephen King's 1971 collection Night Shift, concerns an astronaut who returns from a tragic mission to Venus to find himself possessed by a murderously terrified alien entity.
  • In Jacqueline Susann's romance Yargo (1979), Venus is said to be inhabited by bees that are as big as horses.
  • In the book Venus by Ben Bova, the inhabitants of Venus are strange snake like creatures that use molten sulfur for blood. They are not sapient. There are also micro-organisms in the clouds that break down ceramics and metals.
  • In Heinlein's story "Logic of Empire" the Venusians are an intelligent but primitive race of amphibians who trade valuable swamp roots to the human colonists in return for tobacco. In the novel Podkayne of Mars (depicting a fairly different Venus) Venusians are humanoids of great physical strength but also very primitive.
  • In early Captain Marvel stories, Venusians are giant frog-like amphibians which are ruled over by the evil mad scientist Doctor Sivana and his family. They are used to the tropical jungles of Venus and find Earth cold, and are quite savage. Venus is inhabited by other savage creatures, some which resemble prehistoric beasts, such as the centaur-like Gorillalion (which is half-gorilla half-lion).
  • The Hydrads of Venus, who resemble huge animated sponges, appear in Planet Comics, in the Lost World section. If hurt, water can restore them to health. Though opposed to the Voltamen who have invaded Earth, they are also enemies to Hunt Bowman.
  • In the Superman story which had the first appearance of the Legion of Super-Villains, one of the members was Cosmic King, a scientist who worked on transmuting elements, but when he was struck by the ray he gained the power to send those beams from his eyes. However, he was exiled from Venus for these experiments.
  • In DC Comics All-Star Comics #13 the JSA are gassed by Nazis and rocketed to different planets. Wonder Woman is sent to Venus and finds it to be inhabited by fairies led by Queen Desira, who worship Aphrodite, and claim to have been at peace for 'a million years'. She helps them in a war against the Meteor Men, large brutal males.
  • In Showcase #23, Hal Jordan Green Lantern is sent by the Guardians, operating through the power battery to Venus where he meets blue-skinned primitive humanoids who are being attacked by pterodactyl-like creatures. He seals the monsters in a cave, and leaves the world, saying the cavemen will one day be a great civilisation.
  • The Gobsmacking Galaxy, an entry in the children's non-fiction series The Knowledge written by Kjartan Poskitt, humorously describes hypothetical alien life forms which might evolve on planets in the solar system; the Venusian creatures are small, squat and round to cope with Venus's atmospheric pressures and make their living selling life insurance to visiting astronauts (before they succumb to the planet's extreme heat and pressure).

Venusians in film[edit]

  • 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) deals with the crash-landing on Sicily of a spaceship returning from an expedition to Venus and the resulting rampage by a creature which it brought back. The creature (called in production, but not in the film, a "Ymir") is a reptilian humanoid with perhaps the intelligence of a chimpanzee, which under Terran conditions grows to roughly 20 feet tall. The film was animated by Ray Harryhausen.
  • In the film Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson's character speaks of Venusians around a campfire after smoking marijuana.
  • Venus Wars is a 1989 science fiction anime film about life on the planet Venus in the year 2089 after it has been colonized by humans.
  • In the original Japanese version of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Princess Selina Salno of the fictional country of Selginia claims to be a survivor of the destruction of Venus by King Ghidorah.

Venusians in television[edit]

  • In the first episode of the show Futurama, graffiti written in "Alien Language 1" is translated "Go Home Venusians".
  • In the second episode of Challenge of the Super Friends, Venus is shown to be inhabited by an advanced civilization called the Fearians. The Fearians are depicted as having three-heads with green skin and red eyes. The Fearian Leader (voiced by Michael Bell) form an alliance with the Legion of Doom, who trick the Super Friends into changing the world so it can support Fearian life. This will allow the Fearians to form a colony and the Legion will rule the world. The Super Friends are trapped by the Fearian Leader in a force field. However, Green Lantern makes them invisible, causing the Leader to think they have escaped and turn of the field. He is defeated by Black Lightning and Green Lantern sends him back to Venus. The Super Friends then restore the world.

Venusians in Ufology[edit]

Many supposed contactees of the 1950s such as George Adamski,[3] Howard Menger, and Luis Maertens [4] have claimed to have encountered friendly human-like Venusians. These beings were often described as blond-haired Nordic-like humanoids.

One issue with this alleged humanoid habitation however is that Venus has subsequently been scientifically shown to have an extremely hot climate, apparently non-conducive to life and seemingly in opposition to the ideas of a life. However, it is speculated that the atmosphere of Venus up to around 4 billion years ago was more like that of the Earth with liquid water on the surface. The runaway greenhouse effect may have been caused by the evaporation of the surface water and subsequent rise of the levels of other greenhouse gases.

Despite the harsh conditions on the surface, the atmospheric pressure and temperature at about 50 km to 65 km above the surface of the planet is nearly the same as that of the Earth, making its upper atmosphere the most Earth-like area in the Solar System, even more so than the surface of Mars. Due to the similarity in pressure and temperature and the fact that breathable air (21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen) is a lifting gas on Venus in the same way that helium is a lifting gas on Earth, the upper atmosphere has been proposed as a location for both exploration and colonization.

Alleged Venusians who are claimed to have physically contacted Earth[edit]

  • Orthon is the name of the alleged Venusian who some believe physically contacted George Adamski.
  • There is a woman named Omnec Onec who asserts that she came to Earth in 1955 from a town called Teutonia on the astral plane of Venus, and that she is 439 years old.[5]

Venusians in religion[edit]

  • Theosophical guru Benjamin Creme subscribes to the Theosophical view that the Nordic aliens (like those seen by George Adamski—Creme accepts Adamski's UFO sightings as valid) pilot flying saucers from a civilization on Venus that exists on the etheric plane (Theosophists believe that since the Venusians' civilization is on the etheric plane, the heat doesn't affect them) and are capable of stepping down the level of vibration of themselves and their craft to the slower level of vibration of the atoms of the physical plane.[7] It is also believed in Theosophy that the governing deity of Earth, Sanat Kumara[2],[8] is a Nordic alien originally from Venus.[9] Sanat Kumara is said to live in a palace in a mythical city on the etheric plane of Earth called Shamballa, which is said by Theosophists to be located above the Gobi Desert.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Dave Hanes, The Appearance of Venus: Its Importance. Accessed Oct. 7, 2006
  2. ^ Burroughs, Edgar Rice (2001). Pirates of Venus (Cmv ed.). Bison Books. ISBN 978-0-8032-6183-9. 
  3. ^ Lewis, Judith (April 5, 2000). "Get a Piece of the Rock". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2007-05-05. 
  4. ^ *Luis Fernando Mostajo Maertens [1] at the 2008 Earth Transformation Conference.
  5. ^ The Case of Omnec Onec, an Alleged Venusian:
  6. ^ Norman, Ernst and Ruth The Voice of Venus 1954 Unarius Academy of Science
  7. ^ Creme, Benjamin The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of the Wisdom London:1980 Tara Press Page 205
  8. ^ Image of Sanat Kumara from Luis Prada’s "Brother Veritus'" Ascended Master Teachings website:

External links[edit]