Aphrodite S Daughter

An intimate look at the transformative power of women's sexual experiences. Based on the stories of ordinary American women, Aphrodite’s Daughters explores the central role of sexuality in women's spiritual journey. Witty, wise, entertaining, and compassionate, Aphrodite's Daughters quickly became an underground classic, and has changed the lives of thousands of women.

From villages in Crete to Carolina farms to San Francisco pavement, the women in these poems struggle to live by their own lights, despite pressure for them to serve as mere appendages to men. Aphrodite's Daughter tells stories of women in myth, history, art, and contemporary life. The goddess's daughter, fed up with her role in her mother's story, says to her: "i'm leaving--i'm walking out/of your myth finally--i need a mother not a love goddess. . . . " This volume springs from the sense that, as Adrienne Rich reminds us, under patriarchy women often feel "wildly unmothered."

Published in conjunction with the exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Oct. 26, 2011-Feb. 20, 2012, J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, Malibu, Mar. 28-July 9, 212, and San Antonio Museum of Art, Sept. 15, 2012-Feb. 17, 2013.

Aphrodite explores the many myths and meanings of the Greek goddess of love, sex and beauty. One of the most widely worshipped and popular deities in Greek antiquity, Aphrodite emerges from the imaginations of the ancient Greek writers and artists as a multifaceted, powerful and charismatic figure. This volume explores the importance of Aphrodite for the ancient Greeks, as well as her enduring influence as a symbol of beauty, adornment, love and sexuality in contemporary culture. In a wide-ranging investigation of the universality of Aphrodite’s power and significance, this volume illuminates the numerous intricate levels of divinity embodied by the alluring figure of Aphrodite. Aphrodite offers new insights into the ancient texts and artistic representations of the goddess, as well as a comprehensive survey of the current scholarship about the origins and interpretations of Aphrodite, whilst also highlighting her eternal popular appeal across cultures and generations. A goddess of love who is not afraid to enter the battlefield; a goddess of bodily adornment who is the first to appear totally nude; a goddess born of the sea who emerges into the open sky: Aphrodite is a polyvalent deity, plural in nature, function and significance.

Lavender, starting college in 1969, has embraced a student underworld of drugs, image and cooler than thou. But can he hide his past? Because behind his wild and witty persona, Matthew, who has 'made it big' in the university's alternative culture, is a shy and sensitive romantic - a 'feeling type', bullied at school and restricted by parents, who knows absolutely nothing about sex. He finds himself embarked on a number of deeply-felt but unpredictable relationships, learning the hard way about intimacy, self-esteem and commitment. In conflict with his parents, he takes up residence at a commune where he witnesses some supremely laughable examples of 60s free self-expression. He grows and matures, gradually revealing his true, compassionate self through contact with children and his strange but empathetic mentor, Angel. In the end he finds himself returned to his childhood experiences by the sea, learning a whole new outlook on youth, relationships and who he has become. Full of deep characterization, poetic, passionate, ironic and sometimes wildly comic, Aphrodite's Children is a book for lovers of literature and rock culture alike. A searchingly written, clear-eyed account of the 'me' generation, revealing the confusion behind the cool. A window on an era, and a skilfully observed portrait of the intricacies of the heart.

Well-researched and true to the original myths, each volume in the Goddess Girls series addresses contemporary issues like friendships and relationships from a classically accurate—and entertaining—persepective. In Aphrodite the Beauty, Aphrodite, goddessgirl of love, must deal with jealousy after giving Athena a makeover. It doesn’t seem fair that the godboys pay more attention to her friend when Aphrodite is supposed to be destined for love! She also copes with a crush from an unlikely source—the nerdy Hephaestus (god of the smith)—and learns that love comes in many forms.

For an extra credit project, Aphrodite begins a club for matchmaking mortals, which brings her to Egypt and face-to-face with her competition, the Egyptian goddess Isis.