How long does it take to read Venus and Aphrodite?
Bettany Hughes
Venus and Aphrodite by Bettany Hughes takes about 4 hours 15 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 4 hours 15 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2019. 232 pages, about 63,800 words.
9 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 7 hours 5 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 4 hours 15 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 40 minutes |
The page count is the median across 6 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Through ancient art, evocative myth, exciting archaeological revelations and philosophical explorations Bettany Hughes shows why this immortal goddess endures through to the twenty-first century, and what her journey through time reveals about what matters to us as humans. Charting Venus's origins in powerful ancient deities, Bettany demonstrates that Venus is far more complex than first meets the eye. Beginning in Cyprus, the goddess's mythical birthplace, Bettany decodes Venus's relationship to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and, in turn, Aphrodite's mixed-up origins both as a Cypriot spirit of fertility and procreation - but also, as a descendant of the prehistoric war goddesses of the Near and Middle East, Ishtar, Inanna and Astarte. On a voyage of discovery to reveal the truth behind Venus, Hughes reveals how this mythological figure is so much more than nudity, romance and sex. It is the both the remarkable story of one of antiquity's most potent forces, and the story of human desire - how it transforms who we are and how we behave.
Subjects: Religion, Rome, history, Venus deities, Goddesses in art, Women in art, Greek Goddesses
