This Immortal Heart: A Novel of Aphrodite(119)
Thank you also to the Rights team at PRH for your incredible work getting Aphrodite and Ares out to the world! It has been so much fun to work with you and you really are amazing at what you do.
Micaela Alcaino, the best cover designer in all of history, I don’t know how I ever got so lucky as to have you create all of my book covers and I will never cease to be in awe of how you surpass yourself time and time again. You are a delight and an inspiration, always.
A special mention to Jo Murricane for accompanying me up a volcano in Santorini in the name of research—never forget the dream of the vulcanology yacht and a life devoted to the study of steaming vents!
Five books in and I have run out of ways to thank my friends and family, but please know that I have not and never will run out of gratitude for all your love and support.
And finally, thank you to all the readers for giving me the opportunity to do what I love. I hope you love this one too.
Author’s Note
All my novels take place in the vast, complex and ever-shifting world of Greek mythology. Each one is a stand-alone, not meant to be read in any particular sequence with my other books, though you will of course recognize the distinctive characters who surface and resurface across some or all of them—especially the gods, whose actions always have profound and often cataclysmic reverberations in myth. You might notice, if you have read Hera, that in This Immortal Heart I have diverged from some of the sources I used for that novel and given you a different account of how some events arise—most obviously, the reason for the exile of Hephaestus, which plays out very differently here. There are several reasons for this: first and foremost, Greek mythology is so rich with stories that I would never want to give my readers the same one again, when there are so many I can tell instead. And, while I’m often asked what the “real” version of a myth might be, the answer is that there is no such thing. Mythology arises from the tradition of oral storytelling, and there are as many versions of a myth as there are tellers. Every time someone reimagines a myth, they find hidden layers and new meanings; they bring it up to the light and reinvent it anew and so myth is continuously reinvigorated and made fresh. Mythology is full of inconsistencies and contradictions, but, when you embrace its chaotic and labyrinthine nature, you come to relish the unending possibilities within it. Because there is no definitive myth, as a writer I am always making choices about which source to use—and when to invent my own narrative to fill in the empty spaces or to create the story I want to tell. When it came to Aphrodite’s story, she drew on different experiences to Hera, and so I turned to other explanations than the ones you’ll find if you read that novel.
As well as drawing on ancient texts from Homer, Hesiod, Ovid and others (you will be able to spot a lot of the Metamorphoses in here as Aphrodite—or, rather, Venus—features heavily!), I found two nonfiction texts absolutely indispensable in my research for This Immortal Heart. Bettany Hughes’s Venus and Aphrodite is vital reading for anyone interested in learning more about this goddess, her origins and her worship. The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor was likewise fascinating and endlessly useful to me in creating the scenes in Scythia. I hope I have managed to do some justice to the real women who lived, rode and fought there and whose existence gave rise to the exoticized and sometimes fetishized depictions we receive of terrifying single-breasted, man-murdering women that have filtered down through the ages. Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy’s excellent podcast Ancient History Fangirl features episodes on Mayor’s book that are equally illuminating and very interesting, particularly on the Sarmatian love story that I adapted for this novel.
When it comes to translations, I will always recommend Emily Wilson’s translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad for clarity, beauty and emotional depth. I also read Anne Carson’s translation of If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho while drafting this novel. Sappho, a female poet in an age dominated by men, wrote beautifully of her love for women and evokes Aphrodite throughout her poetry, and so I had her in mind when creating the mortal worshippers in the book—all of them as passionate and yearning as the goddess herself.
About the Author
Jennifer Saint grew up reading Greek mythology and was always drawn to the untold stories hidden within the myths. After thirteen years as a high school English teacher, she is now a full-time author, living in Yorkshire, England, with her husband and two children. She is also the president of the Leeds & District Branch of the Classical Association. All four of her novels have been Sunday Times bestsellers, with Elektra and Atalanta hitting the coveted number-one slot.
Instagram: @jennifer.saint.author