1
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:14,280
At ten o'clock on March
the 10th 1914,

2
00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:17,800
a suffragette called Mary Richardson
walked through the front door

3
00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:19,520
of the National Gallery in London.

4
00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:26,240
A meat cleaver was hidden in
her clothing.

5
00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:34,360
For 90 minutes she wandered
the museum,

6
00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,640
waiting for a lapse in security
before making her way

7
00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:39,800
to the gallery's latest acquisition.

8
00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:45,400
The celebrated Rokeby Venus
by Velazquez.

9
00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:52,120
The galley had recently raised the
princely sum of £45,000

10
00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,480
to save the painting for the nation.

11
00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:57,240
And people had come from all across
the country to see it.

12
00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:03,280
But Mary Richardson took the weapon
that she'd been hiding in her sleeve

13
00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,120
and started to slash furiously at
the canvas.

14
00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,760
If you look carefully you can just
about make out the marks

15
00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:14,440
where it's been repaired.

16
00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:22,520
"I have tried to destroy the picture
of the most beautiful woman in

17
00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:25,000
"mythological history," she said.

18
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:30,040
"I couldn't stand the way men stood
and gawped at it all day long."

19
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:34,240
And you can understand why.

20
00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:36,920
This painting's previous owner,
a Yorkshire MP,

21
00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:42,520
described it as his "fine picture
of Venus' backside".

22
00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:46,360
This is the deity who led Greek
heroes to their deaths,

23
00:01:46,360 --> 00:01:50,560
whom Roman generals honoured with
sacrifice before battle,

24
00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:56,720
who was the incarnation of the
ecstasy and agony of lust and love,

25
00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:02,120
reduced to a showgirl, bearing
herself for a viewing public.

26
00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:06,200
Venus, Aphrodite.

27
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:09,680
While other gods of the past fade
into obscurity,

28
00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,720
she's a goddess we think we
all know.

29
00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:16,760
We remember her now for her
beauty, for Cupid's bow,

30
00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:19,840
words like aphrodisiac and venereal.

31
00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:26,480
But in this film I want to shatter
that illusion,

32
00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:30,160
travelling to her haunts both
ancient and modern...

33
00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:33,320
Every turn there's a Venus or
an Aphrodite.

34
00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:37,880
..to her deep origins as a
shape-shifting spirit of creation

35
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:39,360
and destruction...

36
00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:43,720
They needed her because in most
times life was hard.

37
00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:48,520
..the force ancient people saw
behind all lusts and urges.

38
00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:52,400
If you violently desire somebody
physically, sexually,

39
00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:55,760
that's likely to cause the bad
kind of strife.

40
00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:02,880
Her story has far more to offer us
today than just the beautiful curve

41
00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:04,680
of her bottom.

42
00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:08,720
Now, I've got no intention
whatsoever of being carted off

43
00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,760
to prison for vandalising a
priceless artwork,

44
00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:14,720
but I do want to take a knife
to the idea

45
00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:18,480
of Venus as a bit of divine totty.

46
00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:23,000
It's time to get back to the goddess
as the ancients understood her,

47
00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:28,440
an elemental creature whose domain
was the complex power

48
00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:30,080
of human desire.

49
00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:43,880
Venus has been called many names
through history.

50
00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:47,400
The ancient Greeks knew her
as Aphrodite.

51
00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:53,240
It was they who first told the
iconic story of her birth,

52
00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:56,160
arising fully formed from the sea.

53
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:08,320
It happened, they thought, not in
some mythical land,

54
00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:13,200
but in a real place, the sea off the
island of Cyprus.

55
00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:18,520
These balmy surroundings are at odds

56
00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:22,200
with what's actually a pretty
lurid story.

57
00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:26,920
Into the sea, the myth says,

58
00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:30,200
the severed genitals of the sky god,

59
00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:33,280
Uranus, were flung by his
son, Chronos.

60
00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:38,600
The god's genitalia landed with a
surging splash,

61
00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:43,800
and out of the foam rose an awful
and lovely maiden,

62
00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,280
the goddess Aphrodite.

63
00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:56,080
What's striking is how violent
this imagery is.

64
00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:01,960
The ancient myths are often pretty
vivid, but this one

65
00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:03,520
really is extraordinary.

66
00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:09,200
Aphrodite's gruesome origins give
her one of her epithets.

67
00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:14,480
She was Philomedes' lover of
male genitals.

68
00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:19,320
And, indeed, her name, the Greek
word aphros, means foam.

69
00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:24,120
So, Aphrodite was foam born.

70
00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:31,600
When she stepped ashore they
believed this elemental creature

71
00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,400
brought fertility to the
barren earth.

72
00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:42,400
For centuries, those who worshipped
her would commemorate

73
00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:44,160
this vivid seaside scene.

74
00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:53,040
Her intimate connection to the sea
meant that she was often honoured

75
00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:56,760
with sea shells, scallop shells
in particular.

76
00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:58,600
We find them in her temples,

77
00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,800
and in graves right across the
eastern Mediterranean.

78
00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:03,280
And they're often pierced,

79
00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:07,040
so we think that worshippers would
have worn them around their necks,

80
00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,480
a representation of
female sexuality.

81
00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:18,880
The ancients really believed this
Cypriot birth story.

82
00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:23,360
They often called Aphrodite
Kypris, the lady of Cyprus.

83
00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:27,960
But what evidence is there that this
is where her cult began?

84
00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:35,680
In the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia
are stored thousands

85
00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:38,800
of finds unearthed from the
island's prehistory.

86
00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:47,720
There are strong hints that sexual
potency was in fact venerated here,

87
00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:51,280
long before even the Greeks
reached the island,

88
00:06:51,280 --> 00:06:54,640
as far back as 4000 BC.

89
00:06:56,920 --> 00:07:01,640
Right across the south of the island
archaeologists and local farmers

90
00:07:01,640 --> 00:07:05,160
kept on turning up these
strange figurines,

91
00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:08,040
so far, over 200 of them.

92
00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:12,640
What you can't fail to notice is how
sexual they are.

93
00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:16,360
There's focus on the vulva and the
neck, and the head is distinctly

94
00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:20,960
phallic. We don't know exactly what
these were used for.

95
00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:23,600
Some have suggested they were
educational tools.

96
00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:27,920
But I think they were probably a
kind of incarnation of the spirit of

97
00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:31,040
fertility that those
prehistoric populations

98
00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:33,480
were desperate to keep on side.

99
00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:39,680
Spiritual beliefs must in some sense
be the explanation

100
00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:40,920
for these figures,

101
00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:44,920
clearly something to do with the
mysteries of sex and procreation.

102
00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:50,000
But one figure above all has
attracted particular attention.

103
00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:56,840
Found lying on its back surrounded
by other smaller sculptures,

104
00:07:56,840 --> 00:08:02,520
some scholars speculate that this
could be the deity him, or herself.

105
00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,200
She's 5,000 years old, made
of limestone

106
00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:13,520
and is affectionately
known as the Lady of Lemba.

107
00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:16,560
And she might just be an early
glimpse of the spirit

108
00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:20,560
that eventually becomes the great
goddess Aphrodite.

109
00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:28,360
It's a tempting thought that this
sexually charged Stone Age figure

110
00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:31,520
was where the whole story of
Venus Aphrodite began.

111
00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:36,400
But the goddess was a more mixed-up
creature than that.

112
00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:41,880
Her origins lie not only in Cyprus,

113
00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:44,280
but in other places far
further afield.

114
00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:51,200
Cyprus sits less than 100 miles
from, arguably,

115
00:08:51,200 --> 00:08:54,920
the most creative cultural
nexus of prehistory,

116
00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:56,560
the Fertile Crescent...

117
00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:00,480
..the area that stretches from
modern-day Iraq

118
00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:03,240
to the eastern shores of
the Mediterranean,

119
00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:07,840
a source of much of what would later
constitute Greek and Roman culture.

120
00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:15,800
It's for that reason I keep coming
back to countries like Jordan.

121
00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:22,200
This region has a special allure for
an historian,

122
00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:26,520
the birthplace of so many of the
ideas that have shaped civilisation,

123
00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:30,880
agriculture, the city and of course
all kinds of religion.

124
00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:39,200
It's a story that goes back further
than you'd think.

125
00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:46,520
We're used to the idea that the
Middle East gave birth

126
00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:51,760
to the Abrahamic religions -
Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

127
00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:54,640
But they're relative newcomers.

128
00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:57,920
Right back at the very birth of
civilisation,

129
00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:03,960
around 5,000 years ago, these lands
also generated this feisty creature.

130
00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:09,520
She is known as Ishtar, Astarte
or Inanna.

131
00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:13,640
Ishtar was the goddess
of sexual love,

132
00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:16,000
worshipped in various
names and guises

133
00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:18,760
across the ancient Near
and Middle East.

134
00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:23,400
Unlike the Stone Age figurines
of Cyprus,

135
00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:26,640
her story was written down by the
scribes of Sumeria,

136
00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:28,120
Babylon and Akkadia.

137
00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:31,560
It's a story that seems to
prefigure Aphrodite's.

138
00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:37,240
We hear from the eastern epics that
this regal divinity had a mortal

139
00:10:37,240 --> 00:10:39,640
lover, a shepherd boy
called Dumuzid.

140
00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:46,600
Now, Dumuzid died tragically and the
goddess was so distraught she was

141
00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:48,760
given permission to bring him
back to life

142
00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:50,280
for three months of the year.

143
00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:56,760
It's a fairly clear allegory for
the cycle of life,

144
00:10:56,760 --> 00:11:00,800
but it's also fascinating as this is
exactly the tale

145
00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:03,520
told later by Greeks
about Aphrodite.

146
00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:09,160
Her shepherd boy lover, though, was
called Adonis, not Dumuzid.

147
00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:13,840
It's strong evidence for the
fact that Ishtar,

148
00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:17,480
Inanna was early source material
for Aphrodite.

149
00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:25,120
If that's true, the original
Aphrodite wasn't to be messed with.

150
00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:29,800
Just listen to what one of her
priestesses wrote about her.

151
00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:38,120
"Lady of blazing dominion, clad in
dread. Riding on fire-red power.

152
00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:42,040
"Flood, storm, hurricane adorned.

153
00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:45,360
"Battle planner, foe smasher."

154
00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:53,040
Ishtar and Inanna were
warrior goddesses,

155
00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:55,840
often pictured in military attire,

156
00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:58,440
formidable queens of heaven
and earth.

157
00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:06,240
Archaeologists now know that the
story of Ishtar reached the island

158
00:12:06,240 --> 00:12:09,360
of Cyprus in the boats of
travellers and traders.

159
00:12:12,040 --> 00:12:16,320
And there, she merged with the
sexually charged ancient deity

160
00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:18,280
they already worshipped.

161
00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:27,640
When Eastern and Cypriot
influences are combined,

162
00:12:27,640 --> 00:12:30,200
this is how the ancestor of
Aphrodite ends up

163
00:12:30,200 --> 00:12:33,640
being represented on the island.

164
00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:38,000
She is a strange mixture of bird,
beast and woman,

165
00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:40,880
a creature of both day and night.

166
00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:45,720
And just amazing to think of the
world that those clay eyes

167
00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:47,360
would have looked out on.

168
00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:55,480
It's hard to pin down exactly who
the sublime creature was

169
00:12:55,480 --> 00:13:00,440
so early in her history, but it's
easy to read into these features

170
00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:04,760
a figure who combined exaggerated
feminine sexuality

171
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:09,520
with potential to inflict fear and
terror on human beings.

172
00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:17,360
How was it that this ferocious
figure became the heavenly beauty

173
00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:19,440
we picture as the
classical Aphrodite?

174
00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:27,920
From the 12th century BC,

175
00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:30,720
Greeks from the mainland began
arriving in Cyprus.

176
00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:37,800
The island became the linchpin in an
intercontinental exchange

177
00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:39,400
of goods and ideas.

178
00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:45,600
The Greeks, wowed by the great
Cypriot goddess, adopted her

179
00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:47,680
into their own divine system...

180
00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:52,640
..eventually giving her the
name Aphrodite.

181
00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:58,560
"Aphrodite, who loves laughter
and smiles,

182
00:13:58,560 --> 00:14:02,160
"went to Paphos on Cyprus and her
precinct there.

183
00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:06,080
"The Graces bathed her and rubbed
her with ambrosial oil

184
00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:09,960
"that glistens on the skin of the
immortal gods,

185
00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:12,920
"and then they dressed her in
beautiful clothes.

186
00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:15,200
"A wonder to see."

187
00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:19,640
Epic poems by Homer, the very first
works of European literature,

188
00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:21,720
describe her vividly.

189
00:14:21,720 --> 00:14:24,960
And where there were
inscrutable figurines,

190
00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:27,680
there is now a character with
a story.

191
00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:37,960
Aphrodite is part of a family of
gods, with Zeus at the head.

192
00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:43,480
She is married to Hephaestus,
the lame blacksmith god,

193
00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:47,920
but in an adulterous affair with the
God of War, Aries.

194
00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:52,600
She has mortal lovers, too,

195
00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,720
most notably the doomed
shepherd boy Adonis.

196
00:14:57,280 --> 00:15:02,160
Her son is called Eros, which
literally means desire.

197
00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:03,720
His Latin name is Cupid.

198
00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:08,640
While other goddesses are virgins or
mother figures,

199
00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:14,240
Aphrodite is seductive,
unpredictable, disruptive.

200
00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:20,440
The bird heads and the phalluses
are gone.

201
00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:26,720
Aphrodite, the beautiful goddess,
has arrived.

202
00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:33,760
One site, more than any other, is
associated with that moment

203
00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:37,520
of rebirth, The Sanctuary of Paphos.

204
00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:40,080
Hello. Is that Jacqueline?

205
00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:41,720
Hello. Hello!

206
00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:43,600
So pleased to meet you.

207
00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:46,040
So pleased to see you.

208
00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:47,720
Thank you so much.

209
00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:50,760
French archaeologist
Jacqueline Karageorghis

210
00:15:50,760 --> 00:15:53,120
has spent a lifetime working here.

211
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:55,880
It is wonderful to have you
decode it for me.

212
00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:59,800
Why is this sanctuary so important
in understanding the story

213
00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:01,840
of Aphrodite?

214
00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:05,240
Because it is here that the Goddess
became Aphrodite.

215
00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:11,040
When the Greeks came in the 12th
century BC from mainland Greece

216
00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:16,080
and settled in Paphos, they may have
already found a previous goddess

217
00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:19,200
who was the goddess of fertility.

218
00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:24,320
They transformed her by giving her
different qualities.

219
00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:29,480
The Greeks added to the primitive
goddess of sex and fertility,

220
00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:32,720
who had violence in her,

221
00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:38,080
they added more refined qualities of
tenderness, of love,

222
00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:41,240
of desire and especially the
added beauty.

223
00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:47,760
This sanctuary became little by
little very important

224
00:16:47,760 --> 00:16:52,000
and it was considered
as important as Delphi.

225
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:54,480
It is amazing when you come here
just to think

226
00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:56,720
of what this place meant to
the men and women

227
00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:58,320
who worshipped Aphrodite.

228
00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:02,440
Yes, she was called Theia,
the goddess.

229
00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:06,240
Or Aphaea, the goddess from Paphos.

230
00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:09,680
There was no other in the place and
she was helpful

231
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:17,640
in every field of life, in the
fertility, for men, for nature.

232
00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:23,480
Some people came here to worship
her, bringing incense.

233
00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:29,120
But bloody sacrifices were forbidden
here because she was essentially

234
00:17:29,120 --> 00:17:30,920
a goddess protecting life.

235
00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:34,240
For the men and women of those days,

236
00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:38,080
this was also important because she
was absolutely real,

237
00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:42,800
they had to worship her and adore
her to get her protection.

238
00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:47,840
Yes. Without her, I think they
felt helpless.

239
00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:53,000
And they needed her, because in
those times, life was hard,

240
00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:56,400
full of dangers, full of diseases,

241
00:17:56,400 --> 00:18:02,160
with agriculture giving not
so abundant crops,

242
00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:06,040
so they really needed help
from somewhere.

243
00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:09,680
And this goddess was providing hope.

244
00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:15,360
And she added to the primitive act
of generation,

245
00:18:15,360 --> 00:18:19,000
feeling and beauty and care.

246
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:23,400
And this is the basis of our
European civilisation

247
00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:27,480
and I think this is why Aphrodite is
very important.

248
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,720
She teaches us the
possibility of love.

249
00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:35,000
All this was made in Cyprus.

250
00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:45,160
In this site, we start to get a
sense of the scale and significance

251
00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:47,600
of Aphrodite's cult here on Cyprus.

252
00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:55,720
The sanctuary at Paphos allows us to
jigsaw-puzzle together the evidence.

253
00:18:55,720 --> 00:19:00,520
Ancient sources tell us that it was
protected by wonderful golden gates

254
00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:03,120
and shaded by fruit trees,

255
00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:06,360
that you could hear the sound of
ritual purification

256
00:19:06,360 --> 00:19:10,760
and that the air was heavy with the
smell of perfume and incense.

257
00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:18,080
Being here, you really do feel close
to those thousands of worshippers

258
00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:21,520
who came to the sanctuary to seek
the power,

259
00:19:21,520 --> 00:19:25,200
the protection and the pity
of the goddess.

260
00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:37,840
And nearby, we can lay eyes on
further evidence of how Aphrodite

261
00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:42,560
was worshipped by the man, and
critically the woman, on the street.

262
00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:47,520
Beautiful. What's the date
of this vase?

263
00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:49,480
It's eighth century BC.

264
00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:51,760
So it's a very animated scene here.

265
00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:55,480
Yes. It's one of the rarest
pictorial representations,

266
00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:58,920
compositions, of a ritual dance.

267
00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:03,320
There are some women dancing, and
they are holding flowers.

268
00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:07,440
In the middle, there is a lyre
player, he is playing music.

269
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,720
And there is a tree, a kind
of tree of life.

270
00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:16,640
So you can see the symbolism as well
as the ritual dance.

271
00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:19,240
It is just fabulous to see this,

272
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:23,040
because then you think of this site
at Paphos and just imagine it filled

273
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,120
with this kind of activity.

274
00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:28,400
And you can imagine that this was
happening in every sanctuary.

275
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,120
And if you come round to this
side, there's more to see.

276
00:20:31,120 --> 00:20:34,640
Oh, yes.

277
00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:39,440
What is this curious creature at
the end? It's a sphinx.

278
00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:41,680
It's a mythical animal.

279
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,400
Which, in this case, she is
smelling a flower.

280
00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:48,280
And so this, together with the
bull mask,

281
00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:51,240
shows that we are perhaps in a
cultic environment.

282
00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:55,080
And you can see this lady holding
several jugs

283
00:20:55,080 --> 00:21:00,040
and attending to another lady who is
sitting high up on this,

284
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:04,600
maybe throne or high chair,
her feet on a stool,

285
00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:10,480
and she is getting ready to drink
some kind of liquid from a straw,

286
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:12,120
from this jar here.

287
00:21:12,120 --> 00:21:15,320
Maybe wine, maybe an alcoholic
drink, we don't know.

288
00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:16,880
Because they made beer, as well.

289
00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:20,080
They made wine, yes, they
made alcoholic drinks.

290
00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:21,840
And who do we think this lady is?

291
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:26,440
Well, she might be representing a
priestess or even the deity herself,

292
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:28,160
we don't know exactly.

293
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:32,760
But the fact that we have some
symbolic elements in this scene

294
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:36,680
allows us to hypothesise, to infer,
that perhaps

295
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:39,240
it wasn't an ordinary person.

296
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:41,880
It must have been either a priestess
or the deity.

297
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,280
Fascinatingly, she is
being worshipped,

298
00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:51,800
not just by bearded priests but
by priestesses

299
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:53,720
and crowds of devoted women.

300
00:21:56,080 --> 00:21:59,240
It is a tantalising glimpse of who
it was back then

301
00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:02,400
who helped Aphrodite's
cult flourish.

302
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:14,080
The early Aphrodite was worshipped
by everyone in the community

303
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:17,120
but she seems to have had a
particular following amongst women.

304
00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:21,240
We know this not just from
pictures on pots,

305
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:27,720
but from the first named woman
writer in European history, Sappho.

306
00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:32,760
This enigmatic figure lived on the
island of Lesbos

307
00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:34,520
in the seventh century BC.

308
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:37,960
It's from her that we get our terms
lesbian and Sapphic,

309
00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:42,120
because her sensual love poetry
was addressed

310
00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:44,840
not to men but to other women.

311
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:49,680
And she attributed that passion to
her patron goddess, Aphrodite.

312
00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:56,640
I just love Sappho because she deals
with Aphrodite

313
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:59,840
in such an intimate, personal way.

314
00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:03,680
She describes one of the
goddess's temples with real joy,

315
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,160
talking about it being surrounded by
fruit trees and roses

316
00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:08,920
and spring flowers.

317
00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:13,320
And she turns the deity into someone
you can pray to directly

318
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:17,680
for help. This is one of Sappho's
hymns to Aphrodite.

319
00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:20,960
"O golden one.

320
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:23,200
"You come down from the heavens,

321
00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:27,360
"my blessed goddess with a smile on
your deathless face.

322
00:23:27,360 --> 00:23:29,920
"And you ask me what the matter was
this time,

323
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:31,360
"why I had called for you."

324
00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:35,880
Sappho's poetry brings vividly to
life a world

325
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:39,080
where women and young girls are
joined in the worship

326
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:43,360
of Aphrodite, and enjoying the
pleasures of desire,

327
00:23:43,360 --> 00:23:49,080
but also confronting the pain and
suffering that desire can generate.

328
00:23:52,360 --> 00:23:55,280
If I had my way, I think I'd have
Sappho's hymns to Aphrodite

329
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:59,600
taught in all schools, because she
gets the experience of first love

330
00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:01,040
so perfectly.

331
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:05,280
She describes fire creeping under
your skin and the fact that you feel

332
00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:08,720
as if you are possessed, and she is
actually the first person ever

333
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:12,320
to describe love as
being bittersweet.

334
00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:15,680
Although she's a bit more honest and
she says that it's sweet,

335
00:24:15,680 --> 00:24:17,280
and then bitter.

336
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:24,040
Through Sappho, we can hear the
intimate agonies

337
00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:28,440
and the yearning of a woman who
lived 2,500 years ago.

338
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:33,760
A rare and poignant portrait of
Aphrodite in action.

339
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:41,040
She reveals a deity with whom women
felt a special connection

340
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:45,120
and a driver of their intense
homoerotic relationships.

341
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:51,640
Because the ancients knew that
desire wasn't confined

342
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:53,400
to one gender.

343
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:57,080
This figurine was found here
at Amathus.

344
00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:00,240
The original dates from the
sixth century BC

345
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,400
and it seems to show a
bearded Aphrodite.

346
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:08,920
The goddess has got a woman's body
and a man's face and facial hair.

347
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:13,960
Now this is really interesting
because there is a historian

348
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:17,280
from Amathus called Paeon of Amathus
who tells us

349
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:21,640
that the Cypriot goddess sometimes
took on the form of a man.

350
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:26,640
Evidence like this has led some
archaeologists and historians

351
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:30,720
to suggest that the worshippers of
Aphrodite were androgynous

352
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:32,280
or sexually ambivalent.

353
00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:35,280
Well, maybe.

354
00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:40,720
But what this says to me is that by
being both male and female,

355
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:46,440
Aphrodite was nourishing sexuality
in whatever form

356
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:49,240
as a surging life force.

357
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:58,480
And the bearded lady was by no means
the oddest Aphrodite on Cyprus.

358
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:00,760
There is another from the same time
that reminds us

359
00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:04,920
that the ancients still saw
Aphrodite as something dark

360
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:06,080
and ineffable.

361
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:14,080
This volcanic rock is the form that
the goddess was worshipped in

362
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:19,040
here at Paphos. Access to the stone
was highly restricted,

363
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:20,960
it was originally painted in white,

364
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:23,720
and it would be oiled and
decorated with flowers.

365
00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:30,120
It does feel very primordial and
otherworldly, almost sci-fi

366
00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:32,120
and, frankly, a bit weird.

367
00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:35,200
But it's not just us who feel
that way.

368
00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:37,920
The Roman author Tacitus, when he
visited the site,

369
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:41,880
said that the origins of the worship
of Aphrodite

370
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:44,240
in this form are obscure.

371
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:53,120
The Greek poets might have made
Aphrodite sensual and beautiful,

372
00:26:53,120 --> 00:26:56,560
but they had not extinguished the
sometimes sinister ways

373
00:26:56,560 --> 00:26:58,320
that people imagined her.

374
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:08,280
She is adored in a myriad of
different forms...

375
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:13,800
..as Aphrodite Homonoia,
Aphrodite of union,

376
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:18,320
Aphrodite Harmonia, Aphrodite
of harmony,

377
00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:23,560
but also as Aphrodite Epistrophia,
Aphrodite the deceiver,

378
00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:28,240
and Aphrodite Melainis, Aphrodite
of the dark night.

379
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:37,960
She was a creature of summer and
winter, of life and of death.

380
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:42,480
In the minds of the ancients,

381
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:46,720
her power pulsed through the
natural and supernatural world,

382
00:27:46,720 --> 00:27:49,040
creating and destroying at will.

383
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:55,720
They saw her in the miracle of human
and animal reproduction,

384
00:27:55,720 --> 00:28:00,440
the glue of mutual love and respect
that holds societies together,

385
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:04,680
but also the malignant desires that
can destroy lives

386
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,400
and pull communities apart.

387
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:20,280
One example was the disturbing story
of the Cypriot hero Cinyras.

388
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:24,920
Cinyras was a priest and a king, and
somehow his daughter

389
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:29,520
offended Aphrodite, and in
retribution, she punished her

390
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:34,400
in the most awful way, by making her
fall in love with her own father.

391
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:39,400
Cinyras was tricked into sleeping
with his daughter

392
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,160
and, learning the horrific truth,

393
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:45,800
he then advanced on her in a
murderous rage.

394
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:47,640
Just as he was about to kill her,

395
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:50,640
Aphrodite took pity on the young
girl and intervened

396
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:53,680
and turned her into a tree.

397
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:57,640
Now, this does something very
typical of the classical myths,

398
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:01,400
it makes men and women face up to
the more troubling aspects

399
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:06,040
of human society, to deal head-on
with the darker

400
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:10,080
and disturbing issues of
being human.

401
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:16,080
The myth of Cinyras is no exception.

402
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:19,640
Aphrodite was more often than not a
menacing figure

403
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:23,600
who destroyed lives by inflicting
perverse infatuations.

404
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:36,080
I've come to meet Professor Paul
Cartledge to try to thrash out

405
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:40,600
what the Greeks meant by these
disquieting stories.

406
00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:44,560
Well, she embodies a kind of love
which isn't necessarily bad,

407
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:47,960
but it has a risk of
becoming divisive.

408
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:51,520
And the Greeks were very conscious
that Aphrodite and aphrodisia,

409
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:56,440
sexual activity, was potentially
dangerous, as well as profitable.

410
00:29:56,440 --> 00:30:00,920
Because they talk about Aphrodite's
love as being maddening,

411
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,200
creating this limb-loosening desire.
And as you say,

412
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:05,480
that is not a good thing because you
are losing control.

413
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:10,320
That's right. I mean, the basic
Greek word for lust or desire

414
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:12,840
we sometimes mistranslate as love,

415
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,600
it is eros, and it is where we
get erotic from.

416
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:21,480
But for them, eros was potentially
quite damaging. If you lose control,

417
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:24,520
if you direct your lust at the
wrong object,

418
00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:28,320
if you violently desire somebody
physically, sexually,

419
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:32,200
that's likely to cause the bad
kind of strife.

420
00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:34,640
So Greeks tended to have a slightly,
you could say,

421
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:37,680
realistic or you could say a rather
pessimistic notion

422
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,600
of the relationship between
love and hate.

423
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:41,800
Really fascinating,

424
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:45,480
because neuroscientists tell us now
the boundary between love and hate

425
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:49,720
is very, very slim, but the Greeks
got there 2,500 years ago.

426
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:52,760
Yeah. Aphrodite is a
wonderful teacher,

427
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:56,720
that is to say in her myths,
all the various versions of her,

428
00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:00,760
you can learn that love is not any
one simple thing.

429
00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:03,760
She herself, in Homer, is
actually married.

430
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,040
And not many gods and goddesses,

431
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:09,360
apart from Hera and Zeus, are
actually married to anybody.

432
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:12,280
So it is quite interesting. There is
almost a contradiction,

433
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:15,640
that on the one hand, she is a free
spirit, she commits adultery,

434
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:17,320
she's a very bad girl.

435
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:21,520
But on the other hand, she also is,
if a couple are happy,

436
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:23,120
sexually as well as others,

437
00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:26,480
then she also can be there,
part of the household.

438
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:29,320
And that seems to me why Aphrodite's
story is so helpful,

439
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:33,600
because it can help us all decode
our lives and our world

440
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:35,960
in the 21st century.
I agree with that.

441
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:39,640
I would like to think that we would
privilege the gentle,

442
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:43,800
the harmonious, the unanimity
aspects of Aphrodite,

443
00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:48,560
rather than the eristic, that's to
say the strife-torn version.

444
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:52,120
But, yes, it certainly should be
a shaping force.

445
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,760
I sometimes wonder whether Aphrodite
is the wound and bandage.

446
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:57,680
Well, actually, that's a very
ancient Greek thought,

447
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:01,240
that the same god who causes damage
is also the one that cures it.

448
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:11,440
In our own society we're used to
thinking in terms of good and evil,

449
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:16,240
but the Greeks saw the world in a
different way

450
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:20,120
as the push and pull of multiple
different forces,

451
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:24,920
which could be good and bad,
each represented by a god.

452
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,680
In Aphrodite's case, that was the
double-edged sword of humans' desire

453
00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:30,240
for one another.

454
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:34,280
The ancients understood something
about desire and lust

455
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:36,440
that we can pussyfoot around a
bit today.

456
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:42,520
We celebrate desire when it gives us
our first kiss,

457
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:46,200
or a passionate relationship,
or hot sex.

458
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:48,440
But if you think about it,

459
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:52,400
these are the same forces that can
result in unrequited love,

460
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:58,600
or abusive obsessive relationships,
or sex crimes like rape and incest.

461
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:06,440
Desire lures us into doing crazy
things that can really wreck lives,

462
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:10,200
and the Greeks didn't pretend that
this bad stuff didn't happen.

463
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:17,800
Instead, they gave these urges, both
malign and benign,

464
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:21,520
a name and a face, Aphrodite.

465
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:27,280
Human relationships are hard.

466
00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:29,240
The Greeks got that.

467
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:31,400
They didn't romanticise desire.

468
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:36,880
Arguably, they challenge us to think
more honestly about the problems

469
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:39,480
that come with trying to
live together.

470
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:48,080
But the Greeks also set in train a
kind of prejudice

471
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:50,520
that proved worryingly tenacious.

472
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:04,680
Increasingly in Greek myth Aphrodite
was turned into a

473
00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:09,600
kind of home-breaker, inciting women
in particular, and men,

474
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:11,000
to do dark deeds.

475
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:13,880
As the divine ally of Helen of Troy,

476
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:17,320
she was blamed for the dread
suffering of the Trojan War.

477
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:22,640
It was said that Aphrodite was
desperate to be declared the fairest

478
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:23,960
of all the goddesses

479
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:27,360
and so she offered the most
beautiful woman in the world,

480
00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:30,640
Helen, to the Prince of Troy, Paris.

481
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:34,600
Suffusing Helen with himeros,
desire, she persuaded her

482
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:38,160
to leave her home, her husband and
her daughter and to run off

483
00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:41,040
with Paris with his
glistening love locks.

484
00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:47,560
A hero race of godlike men were
destroyed by rich-tressed Helen,

485
00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:50,320
Aphrodite's plaything.

486
00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:59,280
There is an implication that sexual
union with women

487
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,600
is an inescapable curse
that weakens men.

488
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:11,440
Aphrodite and her son, Eros, drive
men mad with their entrapping nets

489
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:12,880
and poisoned arrows...

490
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:19,800
..and mortal women are credited with
dangerous sexual appetites.

491
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:26,680
Sex, or Ta Aphrodisia,

492
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:30,200
the things of Aphrodite, as it was
called in the ancient world,

493
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:33,440
was increasingly thought to be an
inconvenient distraction

494
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:37,600
from the manly business of fighting
and empire building,

495
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:39,160
and a woman's fault.

496
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:47,560
The root of much of the denigration
of Aphrodite, and then Venus,

497
00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:49,480
lies in the ancient world itself.

498
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:55,800
It was in ancient Greece that the
goddess first became an object

499
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,720
to ogle at, as well as idolise.

500
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:06,160
The development of naturalistic
sculpture offered human forms

501
00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:07,800
that you could lust after.

502
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:14,440
In the fourth century BC,

503
00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:19,920
Praxiteles of Athens carved the
legendary Aphrodite of Knidos.

504
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:26,720
The original is lost, but it was the
first full-sized

505
00:36:26,720 --> 00:36:31,440
naked female stone sculpture in
Greek history.

506
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:35,080
It was so intensely sensuous that it
became emblematic

507
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:38,320
and was copied in its own time and
for centuries after.

508
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:44,160
The original statue is said to have
attracted countless pilgrims,

509
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:47,880
but also those with less
high-minded intentions.

510
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:53,680
The story goes that a young man
broke into the sanctuary

511
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:58,560
where the statue was standing and
copulated with it,

512
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:01,800
permanently staining the marble
thigh with his passion.

513
00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:05,920
I actually think this is a
horrible story,

514
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:09,800
because it disrespects and
downgrades the goddess

515
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:13,040
at a time when pretty much the same
thing was happening

516
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:16,360
to the flesh-and-blood women of the
ancient world,

517
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:20,520
because there is no doubt that by
now real Greek women

518
00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:23,760
were second-class citizens.

519
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:25,560
They were fed half-rations,

520
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:28,760
they were restricted indoors during
daylight hours

521
00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:32,920
and they were encouraged to be
silent and restrained.

522
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:40,280
The Aphrodite of Knidos started a
craze for seductive nudity

523
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,400
that became the basis for all
depictions of the goddess.

524
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:48,400
It was as if Aphrodite's
multifaceted personality

525
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:52,760
had been stripped to focus on
physical beauty alone.

526
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:02,160
But Aphrodite's warrior past was set
to rise again.

527
00:38:03,720 --> 00:38:07,520
The Romans, the new masters of the
ancient world,

528
00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:10,280
would take the goddess
and transform her

529
00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:13,760
into one of the most powerful
deities in their pantheon.

530
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:27,360
In ancient Rome, they had once
worshipped a goddess of their own,

531
00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:31,040
Venus, who also governed desire
and fertility.

532
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:39,720
But the Greeks had such a cultural
influence on Rome

533
00:38:39,720 --> 00:38:42,600
that by the end of the
third century BC,

534
00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:48,040
Venus and Aphrodite were officially
declared to be one and the same.

535
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:52,280
To the Romans, Venus was a
key figure.

536
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:56,480
She was the mother of Aeneas,

537
00:38:56,480 --> 00:39:00,480
Trojan hero and the founding
father of Rome.

538
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:04,560
So, highborn Romans traced their
lineage right back to the goddess.

539
00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:08,080
One highborn Roman in particular.

540
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:13,480
Julius Caesar made a point of
publicising and amplifying the fact

541
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:16,200
that Venus had birthed Aeneas,

542
00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:18,920
and that his own family were
descended from Aeneas

543
00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:21,800
and therefore from the goddess.

544
00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:26,280
He actually had this coin minted
with Venus on one side

545
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:28,520
and his name Caesar there,

546
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:32,160
and the picture is of Aeneas
carrying his father Anchises,

547
00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:35,200
who was Venus's lover, as
they escaped from Troy.

548
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:42,080
Here in Rome, he pushed the
point even further.

549
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:46,320
The year that Caesar was
made dictator,

550
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:50,400
he built this massive temple for
Venus Genetrix,

551
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:52,680
Venus the mother or ancestor.

552
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:57,120
Venus Aphrodite was becoming a
political tool.

553
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:02,920
Caesar was also the first Roman

554
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:05,480
to give the goddess
martial iconography.

555
00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:11,040
Because Aphrodite was the mother of
Rome, she couldn't be a meek,

556
00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:13,720
gentle goddess, and so she
was armed.

557
00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:18,880
She appears dressed in armour on
coins and on an engraved ring

558
00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:20,600
that Caesar always wore.

559
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:25,800
It feels as though Caesar's
Aphrodite is a bit more

560
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:30,480
like those ferocious Middle Eastern
goddesses Inanna and Ishtar,

561
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:33,680
who are there right at the beginning
of Aphrodite's story.

562
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:39,720
And there was another connection
with the East.

563
00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:44,000
In the first century BC,
Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt,

564
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:46,280
lived in Rome as Caesar's lover.

565
00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:50,280
Already associated with the Egyptian
goddess of fertility, Isis,

566
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:54,360
she was immediately identified with
Aphrodite Venus,

567
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:59,440
and a statue of her erected in the
Temple of Venus Genetrix.

568
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:02,480
After the assassination of
Julius Caesar,

569
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:07,560
Mark Antony gave Cyprus as a
love token to Cleopatra.

570
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:12,040
The living embodiment of Aphrodite
was given Aphrodite's isle.

571
00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:18,360
Cleopatra blatantly exploited her
connection to the goddess of sex

572
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:19,840
and fertility.

573
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:25,480
She dressed as Venus Aphrodite right
down to the golden sandals

574
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:27,000
and perfumed oils,

575
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:32,080
and she even had coils of golden
hair tendrilling down her neck.

576
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:36,480
Actually that became so popular that
Roman ladies would replicate it,

577
00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:38,720
although, rather gruesomely,

578
00:41:38,720 --> 00:41:41,800
they used the hair of captive
Germanic slaves.

579
00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:45,600
Now, I'm sure that Cleopatra,

580
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:49,560
who genuinely believed that she was
the embodiment of Isis and of the

581
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:53,600
fertility of Egypt, wasn't doing any
of this cynically.

582
00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:55,440
But there's a problem,

583
00:41:55,440 --> 00:42:00,720
because once looking like Aphrodite
becomes a high-end fashion choice,

584
00:42:00,720 --> 00:42:05,480
inevitably the goddess acquires the
characteristics of a pin-up.

585
00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:15,240
By the time of Caesar's
successor, Augustus,

586
00:42:15,240 --> 00:42:19,640
Aphrodite Venus had once again come
to symbolise sex,

587
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:23,240
passion and excess, but this began
to sit uncomfortably

588
00:42:23,240 --> 00:42:24,600
with Roman society.

589
00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:32,320
Emperor Augustus publicly
venerated Venus

590
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:34,400
because of her links to Caesar,

591
00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:39,400
but privately she symbolised all he
claimed to despise.

592
00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:41,640
He introduced a new moral code,

593
00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:44,960
encouraging Romans to be modest and
to live within their means.

594
00:42:46,520 --> 00:42:50,160
Venus Aphrodite was being pushed
into the shadows.

595
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:07,200
This is just a small thing,

596
00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:11,440
but it's a brilliant bit of evidence
for what was going on.

597
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:15,160
It's a fragment of a wall painting
that would originally have been

598
00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:16,920
in a fancy Roman villa.

599
00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:19,880
It's obviously Aphrodite.

600
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:22,200
She's there gorgeously naked,

601
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:27,600
with her goddess halo and her arm in
that typically flirtatious gesture,

602
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:30,280
plucking at her drapery.

603
00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:35,080
But what's really interesting is
where this would have been

604
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:36,320
in the villa.

605
00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:40,520
This would have been painted on the
wall of a private backroom,

606
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:43,880
a bit like a kind of dirty secret,

607
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:48,360
an escapist, charged symbol of
sensual pleasure,

608
00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:52,920
and of the now frowned upon luxury
of Roman highlife.

609
00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:58,520
Things only got worse for the once
powerful goddess

610
00:43:58,520 --> 00:44:01,840
when Christianity was adopted as the
official religion of Rome.

611
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:07,560
The last bastions of organised
worship of Venus and Aphrodite

612
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:10,760
were eradicated in the
fourth century AD,

613
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,320
when the Emperor Theodosius the
Great passed a series of decrees

614
00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:16,880
prohibiting any kind of sacrifice,

615
00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:20,200
oracle or chanting in honour of the
pagan gods.

616
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:27,840
All around the Mediterranean, in
Africa, Asia and Europe,

617
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:32,280
Aphrodite's statues, still thought
to contain the potent spirit

618
00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,760
of the pagan goddess,
were watched warily,

619
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:40,120
or when times were hard, were
brought crashing down as scapegoats.

620
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:44,080
Churches were built on her
temple sites,

621
00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:47,960
even here at her once great
sanctuary Paphos.

622
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:56,040
Venus Aphrodite, in all reforms,

623
00:44:56,040 --> 00:44:58,800
had been worshipped across
the Mediterranean

624
00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:02,920
for thousands of years. Now her
altars were neglected and bare.

625
00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:10,360
It was the end of Venus's worship
as a goddess,

626
00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:12,920
but it's by no means the end
of her story.

627
00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:27,360
For a millennium and a half, Europe
has been living with Christianity,

628
00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:31,520
a religion which has often taken a
dim view of sex and sexuality.

629
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:38,760
But now you can walk around the
galleries of the world

630
00:45:38,760 --> 00:45:41,120
surrounded by Venuses.

631
00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:47,120
The Renaissance kindled an ongoing
fascination with antiquity.

632
00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:54,480
Venus is back, but as a rather
different kind of creature.

633
00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:59,960
And there's one place that I think
exemplifies that rebirth.

634
00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:16,600
In one of the great houses of the
English aristocracy,

635
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:19,960
built 1,200 years after Venus
worship was banned,

636
00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:25,120
almost every corner is devoted to
the goddess of love

637
00:46:25,120 --> 00:46:27,200
and her familiars.

638
00:46:31,160 --> 00:46:33,640
This place is really
quite extraordinary,

639
00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:36,680
because at every turn there's a
Venus or Aphrodite.

640
00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:41,920
Over there on the wall, I don't know
if you can see, there is Aphrodite

641
00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:44,200
nicking one of Cupid's arrows.

642
00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:50,280
And then up here she's teasing
Cupid again, stealing his bow,

643
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:51,320
holding it away from him.

644
00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:56,280
And then if you look up at
the ceiling,

645
00:46:56,280 --> 00:47:00,480
it is a celebration of all the
stories in Aphrodite's life.

646
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:10,360
This is West Wycombe Park
in Buckinghamshire,

647
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:13,880
home to the Dashwood family for
the past 400 years.

648
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:20,120
This collection of Venuses is the
life's work of Sir Francis Dashwood,

649
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:22,280
the house's most notorious occupant.

650
00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:29,360
In the 1740s, Sir Francis, like many
gentlemen of his age,

651
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:31,480
had gone on the Grand Tour,

652
00:47:31,480 --> 00:47:34,720
a journey through Europe and
across the Ottoman Empire,

653
00:47:34,720 --> 00:47:39,080
and he fell in love with the culture
of the classical world.

654
00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:45,120
But there was something else.

655
00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:46,840
Like many other young men of
the time,

656
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:50,160
he also got his first taste of life
away from his parents

657
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:54,560
and schoolteachers. Young and
single, with money to burn

658
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:57,640
in romantic, exotic locations,

659
00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:01,000
Dashwood clearly came to associate
the civilisations

660
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:05,080
that he encountered with sexual
freedom and behaviour

661
00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:08,480
well beyond the bounds of
polite society.

662
00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:14,240
Sir Francis and others like him
found sex and the classics

663
00:48:14,240 --> 00:48:16,960
at one and the same time.

664
00:48:16,960 --> 00:48:21,120
They conceived a vision of the
ancient world as a sexual playground

665
00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:25,480
they could imitate shockingly
back home.

666
00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:28,480
And, my goodness, he went for it.

667
00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:31,120
He used to like to depict himself
as a monk,

668
00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:34,960
although rather than kneeling before
God or the Virgin Mary

669
00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:39,640
he'd be paying his respects to the
goddess Venus Aphrodite.

670
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:43,800
It's not just a fantasy.

671
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:47,040
He formed, we're told, a
monastic fraternity

672
00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:49,320
of like-minded dilettantes,

673
00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:53,600
who dressed as monks and held
pagan-inspired orgies.

674
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:56,440
They'd meet twice a week,

675
00:48:56,440 --> 00:49:00,320
on Wednesdays and Saturdays during
parliamentary recess,

676
00:49:00,320 --> 00:49:02,480
most of them were MPs,

677
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:07,040
to engage in orgiastic and
hedonistic rituals.

678
00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:10,520
Their motto was "fais ce
que tu voudras".

679
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:12,880
"Do whatever you would like."

680
00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:16,640
And outsiders can only begin to
imagine what went on.

681
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:22,440
Every sacred rite of religion was
profaned, said one.

682
00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:26,720
There were rumours of women freely
available to members.

683
00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:31,200
Contemporaries knew them as the
Hellfire Club.

684
00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:37,040
For these public schoolboys,

685
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:40,720
wide-eyed with the sensuous
pleasures of the Mediterranean,

686
00:49:40,720 --> 00:49:43,600
Aphrodite was being reclaimed,

687
00:49:43,600 --> 00:49:46,680
a patron of the pleasures of
the flesh,

688
00:49:46,680 --> 00:49:50,720
a gorgeous antidote to the dour
repression of Christianity.

689
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:00,040
In the grounds of the park,

690
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:03,880
Dashwood actually erected his own
Temple of Venus.

691
00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:07,560
The room underneath it was said by
one of the members to be oval,

692
00:50:07,560 --> 00:50:10,600
in imitation of the
female sex organs,

693
00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:13,680
which gives you an idea what was
really on his mind.

694
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:20,960
Now, you could argue that the
goddess was being rehabilitated.

695
00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:22,800
She's being revered once again,

696
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:26,040
and she is helping to spearhead a
kind of sexual revolution.

697
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:31,400
There is a big part of me that
thinks that the cult of Venus here

698
00:50:31,400 --> 00:50:34,480
was really just a cover-up for
something more mundane

699
00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:37,520
and probably even sordid.

700
00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:42,680
The men involved were politicians
and academics and aristocrats.

701
00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:44,200
And the women?

702
00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:47,960
Well, they were call girls and
courtesans and prostitutes.

703
00:50:47,960 --> 00:50:51,920
I mean, this was hardly a paradise
of free and equal love.

704
00:50:53,360 --> 00:50:57,120
Although for some Aphrodite Venus
was definitely once again

705
00:50:57,120 --> 00:51:00,000
the subject of adoration,

706
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:02,600
I'm pretty sure also what she's
doing here

707
00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:05,080
is becoming an agent
of exploitation.

708
00:51:07,720 --> 00:51:12,080
With Venus as their figurehead, men
like Dashwood across Europe

709
00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:15,840
were indulging in their own kind of
sexual liberation.

710
00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:22,080
Venus was back on a pedestal.

711
00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:26,640
But once more she'd become
something to leer at.

712
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:41,360
In many ways, that is now Venus's
diminished legacy...

713
00:51:42,520 --> 00:51:46,480
..our own world's obsession with the
naked female form.

714
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:52,600
It began with Botticelli.

715
00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:56,080
Painted in the 1480s,

716
00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:59,200
when classical subjects were coming
back into vogue,

717
00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:03,240
this imagining of Venus's Cypriot
birth is, in many ways,

718
00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:05,360
the birth of the modern nude.

719
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:10,440
Other gods and goddesses could
be naked,

720
00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:12,720
but Venus was the one who by
her nature

721
00:52:12,720 --> 00:52:16,520
was supposed to inspire
desire and love.

722
00:52:16,520 --> 00:52:20,000
That challenged artists to produce
ever raunchier images.

723
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:35,240
Take this striking
17th-century painting.

724
00:52:35,240 --> 00:52:40,400
There is Aphrodite Venus, a satyr
and her son, Cupid.

725
00:52:40,400 --> 00:52:44,120
But here Aphrodite has
become available.

726
00:52:44,120 --> 00:52:46,720
She's little more than a sex object,

727
00:52:46,720 --> 00:52:50,360
with Cupid resting after picking off
his mortal victims

728
00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:52,240
with those poisoned arrows.

729
00:52:53,720 --> 00:52:57,400
What has survived from the ancient
world is her nakedness,

730
00:52:57,400 --> 00:53:00,200
and that's a very tenacious part
of her appeal.

731
00:53:01,560 --> 00:53:05,480
Aphrodite might no longer be
regarded as a goddess,

732
00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:08,120
but she was still big box office.

733
00:53:10,760 --> 00:53:14,720
The models from most of these
paintings were courtesans,

734
00:53:14,720 --> 00:53:19,760
and so the boundary between an image
of Venus and one of a prostitute

735
00:53:19,760 --> 00:53:21,880
was becoming increasingly blurred.

736
00:53:21,880 --> 00:53:25,960
In Velazquez's painting, it's only
the Cupid in the corner

737
00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:28,400
that makes the distinction clear.

738
00:53:31,000 --> 00:53:34,960
It was this salacious version of the
goddess that angered and frustrated

739
00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:37,800
the suffragette who
slashed her painting

740
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:39,960
in the National Gallery in 1914.

741
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:46,120
It's a sad fate for a goddess who
was originally a protector

742
00:53:46,120 --> 00:53:47,800
and figurehead for women.

743
00:53:49,520 --> 00:53:52,000
Women, long associated with
the goddess,

744
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:55,080
it seems were turning
against Aphrodite.

745
00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:58,720
She'd become an object of
political frustration,

746
00:53:58,720 --> 00:54:01,040
rather than a subject of adoration.

747
00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:08,640
But the story doesn't end there.

748
00:54:10,440 --> 00:54:14,040
The Venus of sculptures and painters
might have become a cipher

749
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:16,640
for men's fascination with the
female body,

750
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:22,240
but if you know where to look you
can find places where Venus,

751
00:54:22,240 --> 00:54:25,720
the sacred figure, has found a
way to live on.

752
00:54:35,240 --> 00:54:38,920
In Cyprus, every Easter a
festival takes place.

753
00:54:42,640 --> 00:54:46,200
On Good Friday, the women of the
community get together and pick

754
00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:50,240
flowers to decorate an empty bier
for the crucified Christ,

755
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:54,920
in the hope that he'll be
resurrected on the third day.

756
00:54:57,240 --> 00:55:02,440
But it's a festival that doesn't
have its origins in Christianity,

757
00:55:02,440 --> 00:55:06,240
because the women of Cyprus were
doing the same thing

758
00:55:06,240 --> 00:55:10,640
for another hero centuries before
Christ's birth and death.

759
00:55:14,480 --> 00:55:19,960
Aphrodite, as you may recall, had
fallen madly in love with Adonis,

760
00:55:19,960 --> 00:55:22,960
but her passion was unrequited.

761
00:55:22,960 --> 00:55:27,320
And then, to boot, he was gored to
death by a wild boar.

762
00:55:28,680 --> 00:55:33,560
Desperate, running to him, thorns
tore at her skin as she passed,

763
00:55:33,560 --> 00:55:35,800
colouring roses red.

764
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:40,800
And then she in turn transformed his
blood into anemone flowers.

765
00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:45,760
Wailing and tearing at her chest
in distraction,

766
00:55:45,760 --> 00:55:49,880
the intensity of her passion brought
Adonis back to life.

767
00:55:49,880 --> 00:55:51,920
And this was a story that
was remembered

768
00:55:51,920 --> 00:55:55,280
across the classical world in a
yearly festival called the Adonia.

769
00:55:56,440 --> 00:56:00,480
Women would make a wooden image of
Adonis, put it on a wooden plank,

770
00:56:00,480 --> 00:56:03,760
and then decorate it in flowers in
the hope that they would bring it

771
00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:07,440
back to life. They would wail and
beat at their chests

772
00:56:07,440 --> 00:56:09,440
in sympathy with Aphrodite.

773
00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:13,960
When Christianity came to Cyprus,

774
00:56:13,960 --> 00:56:17,520
these themes of resurrection and new
life were translated

775
00:56:17,520 --> 00:56:19,800
into the Easter rituals.

776
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:24,560
So, in many ways the spirit of
Aphrodite still lives on.

777
00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:30,960
If Adonis has become Jesus,
then Aphrodite,

778
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:35,360
the divine woman who mourned him,
is now the Virgin Mary.

779
00:56:37,800 --> 00:56:40,560
A church to Mary, All-Holy even
stands on the site

780
00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:45,040
of the ancient temple to Aphrodite,
all-powerful Queen of Heaven.

781
00:56:47,920 --> 00:56:51,960
The goddess has influenced so many
archetypes we have of womanhood

782
00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:56,880
today, from the seductive temptress,

783
00:56:56,880 --> 00:56:59,880
even in some places to the
Madonna herself.

784
00:57:11,560 --> 00:57:16,600
Whatever we call her, Venus,
Aphrodite, Ishtar or Inanna,

785
00:57:16,600 --> 00:57:20,000
somehow this goddess remains alive
in our minds,

786
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:24,200
a figure that embodies for us
those feelings inside

787
00:57:24,200 --> 00:57:27,840
that draw us to one another and
that pull us apart.

788
00:57:31,600 --> 00:57:37,040
It seems to be a human need, to
dwell on and to hold in awe

789
00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:42,560
that immortal, beguiling force that
drives us as humans.

790
00:57:49,600 --> 00:57:52,760
The men and women of the ancient
world understood

791
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:57,720
that desire was complex, dangerous,
hugely powerful

792
00:57:57,720 --> 00:57:59,640
and worthy of respect.

793
00:58:00,840 --> 00:58:04,120
We insult desire's
divine incarnation

794
00:58:04,120 --> 00:58:09,800
if we reduce Venus Aphrodite merely
to a patron of physical love.

795
00:58:09,800 --> 00:58:12,800
Instead we should remember, as the
ancients did,

796
00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:18,640
that desire is transformative, and
not always in a good way,

797
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:23,400
and that it's down to us to make
desire our ally,

798
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:25,440
not our undoing.