Alrighty, I found the part about Venus.
This is what I have to say.
The author does not entirely say that Athena was "Venus," but (as I interpret it) that when the planet looked more like a comet, the Greeks didn\'t know any better and thought that that was a new comet in the sky, and thought that Venus was just somewhere else. And when Venus lost it\'s tail, it was reffered to as Aphrodite again.
If you read the side notes acrerfully, there is a lot of reference saying that Athena (Minerva) had no physical form. I think the author is implying that when Venus tooks its "comet-like" state is when the greeks gave her a physical form in the sky.
I have one problem with the note though. Note 13 (on page 170, not sure if we have the same edition) says "The name Venus or Aphrodite belonged to the moon."
I was told a couple weeks ago by a professor of Mythology that the moon represented Hecate, not Aphrodyte.
So when Venus was in comet state they called it "Minerva" and when it was in it\'s planet state it was called "Venus." I guess it get\'s confusing so the author just stuck with Venus because that is what the other culters were reffering too also.