Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, shares her immortal life and many loves with us in this sumptuous retelling of classical myth.  The Romans had the same pantheon, with different names, so you may hold the names Venus and Mars in your mind if you wish. THIS IMMORTAL HEART shows the older version, the gods who fought the titans and ruled much of the world from Mount Olympus.

Zeus and his put-upon wife Hera live on Olympus, but Ares, the god of war, stalks the lands, stirring up conflict. Demeter, goddess of the harvest, is sorrowful at the aftermath. She talks with the love goddess, who in Greek myth is Aphrodite, their sister Artemis the huntress, and the god of blacksmithing, Hephaestus (later Vulcan). As soft-hearted Aphrodite falls in love regularly and stirs up affection among her followers, she’s never considered marriage. But marriage is one of the ways of controlling women. Someone is plotting against her.

The gentle island of Cyprus is home to Aphrodite, menaced by Poseidon, the ocean god, who can call up storms, and sneakily by Eris, the goddess of strife. Ares is not in the vicinity; he’s busy with his Bronze Age battles. He doesn’t come to Olympus very often either. Every time Aphrodite does get to see Ares – even if she’s furious with him - her heart does a flutter.

The portrait of the handful of immortals is both revealing and amusing. Zeus (Jupiter in Roman days) is arrogant and throws his weight and thunderbolts around, pursuing nubile women if he chooses. Hera resents this but won’t leave because being queen is better than the alternative. The goddesses take gods for lovers, but Aphrodite… hasn’t. The portrait of the foolish mortals is also enlightening and saddening. When the gods take an interest in someone, that’s it; his or her days are numbered. One god means to spite another.  

I very much enjoyed the read, of how Aphrodite lost her heart and found a tribe of women, how Hephaestus dared to be cheeky and was condemned to a volcano, and a few mortal names for seasoning from the old stories. Legend wakes and walks in THIS IMMORTAL HEART by Jennifer Saint, who has previously written three books about goddesses and the heady days of myth.