Venus and Aphrodite: A Biography of Desire - Bettany Hughes

A lively, wide-ranging ( The Times, UK) cultural history of the goddess of love 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. Historian Bettany Hughes reveals the remarkable life story of one of antiquity's most potent myths. In Venus and Aphrodite , Hughes brings together ancient art, mythology, and archaeology 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.