"While yet you are at liberty and can go at large with loosened rein, choose to whom you will say, "You alone please me." She will not come floating down to you through the tenuous air, she must be sought, the girl whom your glance approves. Well knows the hunter where to spread his nets for the stag, well knows he in what glen the boar with gnashing teeth abides; familiar are the copses to fowlers, and he who holds the hook is aware in what waters many fish are swimming; you too, who seek the object of a lasting passion, learn first what places the maidens haunt… but specially do your hunting in the round theatres.

(Venus has been accidentally struck by Cupid’s arrow, and is madly in love with Adonis).

…She also cheers on the hounds and pursues those creatures which are safe to hunt, such as the headlong hares, or the stag with high-branching horns, or the timid does; but from strong wild boars she keeps away, and from ravenous wolves, and she avoids bears, armed with claws, and loins reeking with the slaughter…

"We read that there are two Venuses, a legitimate Venus and a goddess of lechery. We say that the legitimate Venus is world music (mundana musica) or, that is, the equal proportion of worldly things, which others call Astraea, and still others call natural justice. And she is in the sidereal heavens, in times, and in animate things. But the shameless Venus, the goddess of lechery, we call concupiscence of the Flesh because she is the mother of all fornication."

-- Bernardus Silvestris, Commentary on the Aeneid (France, 12^th century)

"…And this Venus is double. The first one should be understood as the one through whom arises every honest and legitimate desire, like the desire to have a woman in order to have children, and other desires like this one. This Venus is not relevant here. The second Venus is that one through whom every lascivious thing is desired, and who is commonly called the goddess of love. And it is this one for whom the author describes the temple…"

-- Giovanni Boccaccio, Teseida ("The Thesiad"; Italy, 14^th century).

Notes

Note that irrational action is compared to a horse whose rider cannot, or does not want to, control him – in other words, "horse and rider as the Flesh and Reason."

Here seduction is compared to the hunt. Watch for "hunts" in Medieval literature – they often suggest "the wrong kind of love," / adultery / Adam and Eve / Original Sin / any kind of sinful behavior.

Venus hunts small animals like rabbits. Lovers accompanied by rabbits (or other soft, furry animals) and hawks (which are used to hunt small animals) and small dogs (who are also soft and furry, which like to lie on a Lady’s lap, etc.) often suggest "the hunt of Venus," i.e. adultery / sin. Conveniently, conin is French for "hare", and con is French for "a Lady’s sexual organ", which Chaucer writes as queint.

Diana, the chaste Goddess, is said to hunt fortes feras, "strong wild animals."

Venus’ hunt is an "effeminate" hunt, because "of the Flesh," and Woman/Eve are analogous, in our hierarchies, to the Flesh as Man/Adam are analogous to Reason. Therefore, "let us subdue this woman, if we are men," as St. Augustine wrote. Everyone, whether male or female, should be "masculine" in the sense of rational, following Reason, i.e. God’s will (God is the fount of Reason, remember).

Note this is a literary trope or allegory. It does not mean that an actual rabbit hunt by real nobles was somehow improper.

One English word derived from "Venus" is venison, meaning "the meat you get from the hunt." This should remind you of Venus as a "huntress of small game."

This Venus stands here for the kind of love Dante is talking about – Charity, or God’s love, "l’amore che muove il sole e l’altre stelle." Reason, in other words.

Astraea, a goddess representing Justice, withdraws from the corrupted earth in the first book of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

"in the sidereal heavens" -- in the heavens of the planets (and above), which are kept in order by Divine Love (Dante's "l'amore", again). Likewise "in times", which are "regular", according to God's will.

"all fornication" : any kind of sin can be considered "fornication", since all sin replicates Original Sin, and is "fleshly", rather than "rational", "intellectual", etc., love.

This Venus – the one most often found in Medieval literature – is naturally associated with The Flesh, adultery, sin, etc.

Many "signs" (words, as St. Augustine says) can be understood in bono – with a "good" meaning – or in malo, with a "bad" meaning. Augustine gives some examples of both here. Bernardus Silvestris is, therefore, adapting interpretive techniques associated with Biblical study to the study of a work of pagan classical literature – the Aeneid. We shall see that later writers used the same techniques to write, and to interpret, literature.

Boccaccio elaborates on this common analogy between Venus in malo and "the wrong kind of love" / love of The Flesh / sinful love.

Another English word derived from "Venus" is venereal – having to do with engaging in "venereal" activities of another kind.

"the goddess of love": the ancient Roman pagans worshipped false gods, because they did not have the benefit of the Revelation of Christ. So, to sin / to commit adultery / to "worship the goddess of Love" / to act like a pagan, but without the pagan's excuse (because you do know of the Revelation of Christ...) / to "subject yourself to Fortune / to reject Reason for The Flesh / to recapitulate, in one's own actions, the Original Sin of Adam and Eve / to act contrary to the will of God / to act "foolishly", to act like a fool, because only virtue is in accordance with Reason, etc.

Teseida - the "Thesiad" by Boccaccio, the story of Theseus, who begins by conquering the Amazons, a fierce tribe of women warriors. As you may surmise by now, Theseus then becomes an allegory for virtuous, "manly", knightly action, since Man : Woman as Reason : Flesh; in conquering the Amazons, Theseus "puts down the Flesh", i.e. acts in accordance with Reason, virtuously.