Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Barbata

BARBA'TA, the bearded, a surname of Venus (Aphrodite) among the Romans. (Serv. ad Aen, ii. 632.) Macrobius (Sat. iii. 8) also mentions a statue of Venus in Cyprus, representing the goddess with a beard, in female attire, but resembling in her whole figure that of a man. (Comp. Suidas, s. v. Ἀφροδίτη; Hesych. s. v. Ἀφρόδιτος.) The idea of Venus thus being a mixture of the male and female nature, seems to belong to a very late period of antiquity. (Voss, Mythol. Briefe, ii. p. 282, &c.) [L. S.]