Ashmolean Aphrodite curator Anja Ulbrich lectures in London on 21 November and Oxford on 13 December

Anja Ulbrich, who curated the Ashmolean Museum's exhibition Aphrodite: The Making of a Goddess, will lecture on the goddess and her Cypriot origins twice this winter: at Cyprus House in London on Saturday 21 November 2026 and inside the museum in Oxford on Sunday 13 December. Both afternoons are free but must be booked in advance. They belong to Discovering Ancient Cyprus: A Month of Archaeology, Mythology and Cultural Heritage, an autumn season run by the Cyprus High Commission's Cultural Section in London, which announced the London talk on its website.

Cyprus House, 21 November

Dr Ulbrich, who holds the Ashmolean's post of A.G. Leventis Curator of the Cypriot Collection, begins her lecture, Aphrodite's Island, at 3:05pm; doors open at 2:30pm. Using excavated evidence and ancient texts, she will follow the cult from its beginnings on Cyprus out into the Greek and Roman worlds, and introduce the Oxford exhibition, which opened on 8 October.

At about 3:45pm the High Commission screens 35 minutes of Myths of Cyprus, a film series made by the Republic of Cyprus's Press and Information Office. Markos Kassinos directs it; Dr Iosif Hadjikyriacos researched, wrote and presents it. The selection centres on Aphrodite and includes new material made for the exhibition and the season. A reception follows from about 4:30pm, and the afternoon ends at 5:15pm.

The Ashmolean, 13 December

The second talk closes A Cyprus Weekend in Oxford, organised with the Ashmolean, the Cypriot Educational Mission in the UK and NEPOMAK UK. On Saturday 12 December pupils of the Oxford Greek School take part in Five Faces of Aphrodite, theatre workshops on her myths. On Sunday 13 December Ulbrich speaks at the museum on Aphrodite to Venus, building the lecture on four myths that touch on her birth, her bond with Cyprus and her many roles. More episodes of Myths of Cyprus follow, then a visit to the exhibition. The weekend's page has the booking details; the event is free.

The goddess of Paphos

Greek and Roman writers called Cyprus the island of Aphrodite, and her sanctuary stood at Palaepaphos, Old Paphos, beneath the modern village of Kouklia, where the Paphian goddess was worshipped from about 1200 BCE to the end of the 4th century CE. Ulbrich's doctoral book, Kypris (2008), studied the sanctuaries and cults of female deities in Archaic and Classical Cyprus, the age of the island's city-kingdoms.

The next day, 22 November, Cyprus House holds a day of films and talks on the excavation foreman Grigoris Antoniou, part of the same season.