Aphrodite in Pieces
With Aphrodite in Pieces, Lauren Bear offers another powerful feminist Greek myth retelling. Her Author’s Note says: “Misunderstood women are my muses.” Through the framing premise, Aphrodite tells her story to the 2nd century BCE sculptor of Venus de Milo—without the distorting male filters through which she had previously been understood. “Just as she was born, the visitor arrives upon the sea, riding the wave-begotten mist to shore…she moves inward…If he does not listen, she will have to leave and find another.” But Alexandros listens with such depth that he will put her truth into marble.
Her tale moves through her isolated childhood to her forced marriage to Hephaestus, affair with Ares, birth of Eros, and other myths. The plot elements are not surprising; Aphrodite’s take on them is—revolutionary in the way women are or should be viewed and treated.
“I was a good time, a beautiful object… Nothing more,” Aphrodite tells Alexandros early on. From Bear’s engaging scenes among the gods, and particularly, Aphrodite’s conflicts with Zeus, the reader already knows the goddess is far more. Aphrodite shudders hearing how Zeus rapes in the guise of animals. When Apollo excuses Zeus as “addicted to love,” she counters, “That isn’t love.” Apollo rightly says, “It is power.” Not all the male gods are despicable. Of the Trojan War, Aphrodite says, “So much violence in the false name of pleasure, in the false idea of property, in the false pursuit of honor.” Bear slides into her tale more prismatic aspects of subtle and compelling feminist themes than fit into a review. Nothing simplistic here—and that’s central to Aphrodite’s hard-earned self-understanding. She makes devastating mistakes but comes to face them straight-on. Highly recommended.
