Aphrodite in Pieces

I am a student of History, but even to this day there are massive blind spots in my learning, moments in the past that I know little about, so anything on the subject matter feels fresh to me. I have a passing knowledge of the Antient Greek Gods, but having read Aphrodite in Pieces by Lauren J. A. Bear I began to understand how much of Aphrodite and her fellow Gods have become part of our culture, our science, and more.

Aphrodite was born from the sea, an immaculate conception who arrived on Cyprus to be protected by the Muses. For years she lived like this until Zeus called her to Mount Olympus to become one of the 12 main Gods. Over the next few centuries her story would be interwoven with the people below. As the Goddess of Love, she was seen as a lesser by her peers, but without love, what is the point of life?

Aphrodite is a tale told exclusively from the perspective of the Goddess as she narrates the major moments of her life to a sculptor who will create a true likeness of her that will become known as the Venus de Milo. It could be seen as a feminist retelling of the Greek Myths, as it told from a female perspective, but it can also simply be seen as the tales from the perspective of one person, who happens to a Goddess of Love, who has an eternal love for a God of War.

When reading Aphrodite, you start to realise pretty quickly how much of the tale you already know. You will have seen it in cartoon or films, they have even infiltrated our every day, from words, to terms used in science. You may not know all the tales found within this book, but you will know many. There will be some that you think will appeal, but do not. One of the interesting decisions that Bear makes is to focus fully on one Goddess and not be distracted by other myths, if they do not involve Aphrodite directly.

There us plenty that Aphrodite does get involved with and you see the evolution of the character. She has been painted as a Goddess who meddles, but this is not always the case. How she was treated on Mount Olympus often dictated her mood. Married off to a God without consent? Then love will be lacking on the mortal plain. Having an affair with the God of War? Then love will be bountiful.

This paints Aphrodite as fickle, and parts of her can be, but this is not her mood being affected, but her very being. Like us mere mortals, she is the plaything to other more powerful Gods. There is little freedom, even for Goddesses.

Passions and emotions run high in Aphrodite. It is a book filled with murder, betrayal, assault, but also a little love and hope, pretty much like the myths of Antient Greece. It is a great story, but it should be as the source material is so strong. What Bear brings is a new interpretation of the well known stories. I appreciated the way that there were gaps in the wider narrative, staying true to this being one person’s story. The narrative structure was also clever, Aphrodite narrating her tale to an artist. This allows for one final act that separated the story from the myths as we discover what happened to the Goddess once she was no longer worshipped as much.

Aphrodite in Pieces is a highly entertaining retelling of stories you would know and those that you do not. It creates in Aphrodite a fallible character that you can believe in, the human side of a God.