Venus and Aphrodite
A Biography of Desire
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- $249.00
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- $249.00
Publisher Description
A cultural history of the goddess of love, from a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian.
Aphrodite was said to have been born from the sea, rising out of a froth of white foam. But long before the Ancient Greeks conceived of this voluptuous blonde, she existed as an early spirit of fertility on the shores of Cyprus -- and thousands of years before that, as a ferocious warrior-goddess in the Middle East. Proving that this fabled figure is so much more than an avatar of commercialized romance, historian Bettany Hughes reveals the remarkable lifestory of one of antiquity's most potent myths.
Venus and Aphrodite brings together ancient art, mythology, and archaeological revelations to tell the story of human desire. From Mesopotamia to modern-day London, from Botticelli to Beyoncé, Hughes explains why this immortal goddess continues to entrance us today -- and how we trivialize her power at our peril.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British historian Hughes (Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities) presents a brisk and incisive cultural history of the mythological goddess of sexual love. Called Aphrodite by the ancient Greeks and Venus by the Romans, she "acts as a barometer for the way the world has viewed desire and lust," according to Hughes, and incarnates "fear as well as love." Hughes traces Aphrodite's origins to intersex fertility symbols in Copper Age Cyprus, her transformation in Greek and Roman mythology into a "laughter-loving" goddess often seen gazing into a mirror and emerging from sea shells, and her influence on Christian iconography of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Hughes enriches her wide-ranging analysis with images of archaeological findings and artworks by Botticelli, Rubens, and Titian, as well as references to Shakespeare's plays, Sappho's poems, and Lady Gaga's songs. Among many interesting tidbits, readers will learn that the female sex symbol derives from a combination of Aphrodite's mirror and the Christian cross, and that prostitutes were once called Venuses. This informative and entertaining history deserves a wide readership.
