Aphrodite.

Pierre-Eugène-Emile Hébert’s Armed Venus at the National Gallery of Art.

From an old project of mine, entitled Greek Mythology in Modern Context:

Bed-Stuy hip-hop violinist Imani Coppola sings about a woman with a ‘goddess complex’ who calls herself ‘Afrodite’ — a play on words, since the composer is African-American & styles her hair naturally.

Her lyrics relate to seduction, sexual role play, & an apparently endless procession of empty conquests.

Such is the pathos of Aphrodite in Shakespeare’s Ovid-inspired sonnet Venus & Adonis:

She’s Love, she loves, & yet she is not lov’d.

Imani Coppola | afrodite

& she calls herself ♀ afrodite ♀
she’ll make you feel high & mighty
she got ♀ she got ♀ she got ♀ a goddess complex

& she knows just how you like it; she’s so
she’s so unusual, but she’s sad & lonely
acting real phony; just listen to what she says:

‘baby, step in line for my love
it comes once in a lifetime
i am one of a kind; i’m an original’

& i heard she reeled you in with her song
song of the siren, but you couldn’t
you couldn’t ♀ you couldn’t ♀ you couldn’t ♀ restrain yourself

& you left her there, because all is fair when you get some
she wipes her tears away as she calls to the next one:

‘baby, step in line for my love
it comes once in a lifetime
i am one of a kind; i’m an original’

my love is fictional; i can be an original
i can give you what you need
i can play make believe

ecstasy, i will be your fantasy
it don’t bother me …

<bgsound src="http://casagrau.org/~angelica/Quinquatrus/01.%20Imani%20Coppola%20-%20Afrodite.mp3">

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