From villages in Crete to Carolina farms to San Francisco pavement, 
the women in these poems struggle to live by their own lights, 
despite pressure for them to serve as mere appendages to men. 
Aphrodite's Daughter tells stories of women in myth, history, art, 
and contemporary life. The goddess's daughter, fed up with her role 
in her mother's story, says to her: "i'm leaving—i'm walking out/of 
your myth finally—i need a mother not a love goddess. . . . " This 
volume springs from the sense that, as Adrienne Rich reminds us, 
under patriarchy women often feel "wildly unmothered."

"Aphrodite's Daughter is a stunning and absorbing collection of 
poems."—Pam Bernard

"Gibson has given us a rich and expansive collection, brimming with 
everyday mysteries, set against the background of ancient myth and 
ritual."—Kathryn Stripling Byer, NC Poet Laureate and author of 
Coming to Rest 

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BECKY GOULD GIBSON, also the author of Off-Road Meditations, 
Holding Ground, First Life, and Need-Fire, has had poetry in several 
anthologies and a number of journals. Since 1988 she has taught 
English and Women's Studies at Guilford College. She lives with her 
husband in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.