Bettany Hughes

Through ancient art, evocative myth, exciting archaeological revelations and philosophical explorations, award-winning historian Bettany Hughes explains why the ancient goddess Venus – called Aphrodite by the Greeks – 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 this immortal goddess is far more complex than first meets the eye. Beginning in Cyprus, her mythical birthplace, Bettany decodes Venus’s relationship to the Greek goddess Aphrodite and, in turn, Aphrodite’s mixed-up origins not only 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.

An award-winning historian, author and broadcaster we’re delighted that Bettany has found time in her busy schedule for a return visit to Ely.