:This article is about the legendary figure. For the opera, see ''Tannhäuser'' (opera).

According to medieval German legend, Tannhäuser is a knight and poet who found the Venusburg, the subterranean home of Venus, and spent a year there worshipping the goddess. After leaving the Venusburg, Tannhäuser is filled with remorse, and travels to Rome to ask Pope Urban IV if it is possible to be absolved of his sins. Urban replies that forgiveness is as impossible as it would be for his papal staff to blossom. Three days after Tannhäuser's departure Urban's staff blooms with flowers; messengers are sent to retrieve the knight, but he has already returned to Venusburg, never to be seen again.



Algernon Swinburne's poem Laus Veneris published in 1866 explores the destructive power of Venus' love:

'Her little chambers drip with flower-like red, ...

Her gateways smoke with fume of flowers and fire,

With loves burnt out and unassuaged desires

Between her lips the steam of them is sweet

The languor in her eyes of many lyres... ...

Her beds are full of perfumes and sad sound,

Her doors are made with music, and barred round

With sighing and with laughter and with tears,

With tears whereby strong souls of men are bound.'