Aphrodite edition by Pierre Louys Sheba Blake Contemporary Romance eBooks
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Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. She is identified with the planet Venus, and her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus. As with many ancient Greek deities, there is more than one story about her origins. According to Hesiod's Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranus's genitals and threw them into the sea, and she arose from the sea foam (aphros). According to Homer's Iliad, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. In Plato (Symposium, 180e), these two origins are said to be of hitherto separate entities Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos. Because of her beauty, other gods feared that their rivalry for her favours might lead to conflict and war; Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who, because of his ugliness and deformity, was not seen as a threat. Aphrodite had many lovers.both gods, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and was both lover and surrogate mother of Adonis. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite. Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus) after the two cult sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed to be her place of birth. Myrtle, roses, doves, sparrows and swans were sacred to her. The ancient Greeks identified her with the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. Aphrodite had many other names, such as Acidalia, Cytherea, and Cerigo, each used by a different local cult of the goddess in Greece. The Greeks recognized all of these names as referring to the single goddess Aphrodite, despite the slight differences in what these local cults believed the goddess demanded of them. The Attic philosophers of the 4th century, however, drew a distinction between a celestial Aphrodite (Aphrodite Urania) of transcendent principles, and a separate, "common" Aphrodite who was the goddess of the people (Aphrodite Pandemos).
Aphrodite edition by Pierre Louys Sheba Blake Contemporary Romance eBooks
This is not a "romance" as in our modern terminology, in fact, it is anything but romantic. The setting - ancient Alexandria - is a society that prizes physical love, wit, and wealth. The protagonists, a courtesan and a sculptor, are the ultimate in physical perfection. He is famous for his art, is the queen's lover, and is sought after by women. He is the rock star of his day. He has it all, but feels bored, trapped, and empty. She is famous for her skills and the wealth, social standing, and power they bring her. Her world revolves around her vanity. When they meet, high drama, narrated calmly by the author, follows. The description of the society is as interesting as the plot itself. The story is highly erotic but not explicit. This book was banned by US Customs for several years as it seemed to advocate the pursuit of sensuality. It does so only in portraying the consequences of worshiping sensuality in a void of other values. The author's descriptions of light throughout - the colors and shades of sunrise, sunset, the sun, and the moon - present a pallet of contrast to the glittering but hard characters.Product details
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Aphrodite edition by Pierre Louys Sheba Blake Contemporary Romance eBooks Reviews
I'm so glad to have found this book with it's beautiful artwork and mature themes. Very well crafted material! --Matt (editor)
The prose is exquisite, the imagery sumptuous, an all around delightful reading experience. This book brings to life the erotic poetry of the courtesan's life, creating a subtle throbbing innuendo of sexual delight with every well-crafted word and image. The lesbian wedding ceremony should be the gold standard for centuries to come, so pay attention here, ladies!
Originally published in France in 1896, the English translation to get is the one by Louis Golomb, published by Lancer Books in 1962. In the preface the Lancer publishers give themselves accolades for being the first and only publisher to release a totally uncensored English edition of the classic - all previous translations, they claim, obfuscated the book's more "licentious" qualities. Not so here - Golomb's translation leaves nothing to the imagination, making the book seem like a wonderful slice of that forgotten sixties trash fiction genre of "toga porn."
The novel is better than it has any right to be. Despite its being over a hundred years old, it's still well beyond most historical fiction of today - it's not a bunch of Christian glurge, there are no "detectives in togas," and there's no poorly-written military fiction. It is an exquisitely told tale with interesting and human characters that sings with a poetry seemingly cut whole cloth from Antiquity itself. Not surprising, as Louys' chief claim to fame these days is actually fooling the establishment of his time that he'd discovered a heretofore forgotten collection of ancient Greek poetry by a disciple of Sappho - "The Songs of Bilitis," which he published a French "translation" of in 1894. Turns out these poems were in fact created and written by Louys himself, but the hoax perpetuated for many years.
Aphrodite takes place in Ptolemaic Alexandria, during the climax of the Hellenistic Age. It details the star-crossed love story of uber-beautiful courtesan Chrysis and the terminally-bored but uber-handsome sculptor Demetrios. Well, this love story's not exactly "star-crossed." In fact it's downright twisted. Chrysis actually spurns Demetrios, a man who can have any woman he wants; instead, she demands he accomplish three tasks before she will give herself to him. These tasks embroil Demetrios in thievery, sacrilege, and murder, eventually ruining the lives of just about everyone.
A compact novel, without any of the padding historical fiction usually suffers from. You can find earlier English translations for free on the Web, but I'd recommend you seek out this edition, which, again, is faithfully rendered into English, no holds barred.
I like Pierre Louys's stories but this book came to me with turned up covers that make it difficult to read. There is nothing wrong with the story; there is much wrong with the condition od this book.
The translation of this book was done do beautifully.
This is not a "romance" as in our modern terminology, in fact, it is anything but romantic. The setting - ancient Alexandria - is a society that prizes physical love, wit, and wealth. The protagonists, a courtesan and a sculptor, are the ultimate in physical perfection. He is famous for his art, is the queen's lover, and is sought after by women. He is the rock star of his day. He has it all, but feels bored, trapped, and empty. She is famous for her skills and the wealth, social standing, and power they bring her. Her world revolves around her vanity. When they meet, high drama, narrated calmly by the author, follows. The description of the society is as interesting as the plot itself. The story is highly erotic but not explicit. This book was banned by US Customs for several years as it seemed to advocate the pursuit of sensuality. It does so only in portraying the consequences of worshiping sensuality in a void of other values. The author's descriptions of light throughout - the colors and shades of sunrise, sunset, the sun, and the moon - present a pallet of contrast to the glittering but hard characters.
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