VENUE 187 VENUS the ordinary vocal organs — the larynx, the palate, the tongue, the lips, etc. The art of the ventriloquist consists merely in this: After drawing a long breath he breathes it out slowly and gradually, dexterously modifying and diminishing, the sound of tlTe voice; besides this he moves his lips as little as possible, and by various contrivances diverts the at- tention of his auditors. This art was known to the ancient Greeks. VENUE, in law the place where an action is laid. In the United States, the county in which the trial of a par- ticular cause takes place is said to be the venue of that trial. In local actions, as for damages for an actual trespass, or for waste, etc., affecting land, the plaintiff must lay his declaration, or declare his injury to have happened in the very county and place that it really did happen; but in transitory actions, for injuries that might have happened anywhere, as debt, detinue, slander, and the like, the plaintiff may declare in what county he pleases, and then the trial must be had in that county in which the declaration is laid. To lay a venue is to allege or fix a place of trial. To pray a change of venue is to petition that a cause may be tried be- fore another judge or in another place than the one first selected. VENUS, in Roman mythology, the gpd- dess of beauty and love, and more espe- cially of sensual love, her principal seats being the island of Cyprus and Cythera. This goddess is generally sup- posed to have been of eastern origin, and to have been the same as the Phoenician Astarte. Before her identi- fication with the Greek Aphrodite, the daughter of Zeus and Dione, who, ac- cording to some accounts, arose from the foam of the sea, Venus was one of the least important divinities. The Ro- mans regarded her as the progenitress of their nation, which was fabled to have sprung from .-Eneas, the offspring of her union with the Trojan Anchises. She was married to Vulcan, but was not remarkable for fidelity to her husband, and her amour with Adonis has been celebrated by classic poets and by Shakespeare. The rose, myrtle, and apple were sacred to her; among birds, the dove, swan, and sparrow were her favorites. She is generally represented with her son Cupid in a chariot drawn by doves, or, at other times, by swans or sparrows. Among the most famous statues of Venus are the Venus of Cni- dus, by Praxiteles (of which the Venus de Medici, found at Tivoli, is supposed to be a copy), the Venus of Capua, and the Venus of Milo or Milos, found in the island of Milos. In the best days of art she was always represented as draped, in later times nude. VENUS OF MILO VENUS, in astronomy, the second of the known inferior planets, if the ar- rangement be made according to their relative distances from the sun. With the exception of the moon Venus is near- est of all the heavenly bodies to the earth, and, when near its extreme E. or W. elongation, is much brighter than even the largest of the fixed stars. It stands first in this respect also of all the planets, the nearest approach to it being that made at certain times by Jupiter. When Venus is at its maxi- mum of brightness, it can sometimes be seen by the naked eye in sunlight with-
