Venus 
The Roman goddess of love and beauty, but originally a vegetation goddess and patroness of gardens and vineyards. Later, under Greek influence, she was equated with Aphrodite and assumed many of her aspects. Her cult originated from Ardea and Lavinium in Latium. The oldest temple known of Venus dates back to 293 BC, and was inaugurated on August 18. Later, on this date the Vinalia Rustica was observed. A second festival, that of the Veneralia, was celebrated on April 1 in honor of Venus Verticordia, who later became the protector against vice. Her temple was built in 114 BC. After the Roman defeat near Lake Trasum in 215 BC, a temple was built on the Capitol for Venus Erycina. This temple was officially opened on April 23, and a festival, the Vinalia Priora, was instituted to celebrate the occasion.
Venus is the daughter of Jupiter, and some of her lovers include Mars and Vulcan, modeled on the affairs of Aphrodite. Venus' importance rose, and that of her cult, through the influence of several Roman political leaders. The dictator Sulla made her his patroness, and both Julius Caesar and the emperor Augustus named her the ancestor of their (Julian) family: the 'gens Julia' was Aeneas, son of Venus and the mortal Anchises. Ceasar introduced the cult of Venus Genetrix, the goddess of motherhood and marriage, and built a temple for her in 46 BC. She was also honored in the temple of Mars Ultor. The last great temple of Venus was built by the emperor Hadrianus near the Colusseum in 135 AD.
Roman statues and portraits of Venus are usually identical to the Greek representations of Aphrodite.
Pandora 
The classical mythology equivalent of Eve, the first created woman, her name literally means "All Gifts". After Prometheus had stolen fire from heaven and bestowed it upon mortals, Zeus commissioned the master artisan Hephaestus to create a woman to counteract this blessing. Apparently only men existed at this point, and Zeus had other ideas for propagation. It is interesting that he saw the creation of woman as a punishment.
Whatever the reason, Pandora was created as the first woman. After Hephaestus fashioned woman out of earth, all the gods came forward to endow her with gifts. Aphrodite gave her beauty, Hermes gave her cunning, and other gods and goddesses gave her various powers that Zeus had calculated to bring about the ruin of man. Finally he had Hermes deliver her to Epimetheus, the not-so-bright brother of Prometheus. Epimetheus was utterly charmed by this marvelous creation, although he had been warned by Prometheus never to accept a gift from Zeus. He forgot his promise to his brother to think before acting, because Aprhodite's gift had certainly included the ability of Pandora to give her husband ultimate sexual pleasure.
Life was happy for Pandora and especially so for Epimetheus. But already destiny was at work. In the house was a covered earthen vessel (or box or chest) that either had been placed in the safekeeping of Epimetheus or given to Pandora along with other gifts. In either case it was forbidden to open it. Its unknown contents plagued Pandora so much (she had been given curiosity along with everything else) that one day while Epimetheus was away, she could stand the temptation no longer and peeked into the vessel. Out swarmed all the calamities of mankind -- from tidal waves to premature balding. It was too late to stop them as they spread out through the window and across the world. Pandora dropped the lid back in time to prevent the escape of the final occupant of the vessel. This was Elpis (Hope), and no matter how bad things became for people then and in the future, there was always hope.
Pandora became the mother of Pyrrha by Epimetheus. Pyrrha married Deucalion, son of son of Prometheus, and these two people repopulated the earth when Zeus, finally disgusted with man, sent a flood to wipe out the human race. There is no record of Pandora's final history. It is not really certain whether or not she was considered immortal. In later writings she became associated with infernal divinities such as Hecate, Persephone, and the Eumenides.
In one or two versions of the myth, Pandora brought the fatal vessel to Epimetheus and, using her newfly fashioned wiles, prevailed upon him to open it. Some said the vessel contained not evils but blessings, which would have been preserved for the human race had they not been lost through the opening of the jar out of curiosity. In any case, the result was intended to be the same.
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