Antiquities from Cyprus will be exhibited for the first time outside of the country in the autumn exhibition at the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum’s The Making of a Goddess exhibition starting in October.

“Bringing together archaeology, sculpture, painting, contemporary art and fashion, The Making of a Goddess traces Aphrodite’s journey and transformations from her earliest origins in the eastern Mediterranean, through the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, via Renaissance Europe, to our continuing fascination with her today,” the museum said.

Highlights of the exhibition include iconic ancient sculptures such as the Crouching Aphrodite from the Royal Collection, a Capitoline Venus on loan from the Louvre, Botticelli’s Venus from the Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, modern works by Yves Klein and Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe dress, worn by Beyonce.

“[Aphrodite’s story] begins in Cyprus, the island where she emerged as a goddess and where visitors and immigrants from the Greek Aegean first encountered her. From these origins grew the myths that made Aphrodite famous, told and retold by the great writers of the ancient world, including Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Ovid and Virgil,” it added.

The exhibition aims to explore the “cult of the goddess” in ancient Cyprus and how she evolved from a much older tradition of female deities worshipped across the eastern Mediterranean, including Astarte and Ishtar.

According to the museum, visitors will see the earliest known representation of Aphrodite, a unique copper alloy figurine from the Ashmolean’s collection dating to around 1200 BCE, marking it one of the oldest objects in the exhibition.

“A recreation of an Aphrodite sanctuary using exceptional loans from Cyprus and major international collections will show how Aphrodite was worshipped as the all-powerful goddess across the island and the surprising ways she was depicted in ancient Cypriot art,” the museum said.

The exhibition is curated by Anha Ulbric, a leading expert on Cypriot archaeology.

“I first became fascinated by Cyprus while studying archaeology as a student, and I have spent much of my career exploring the island’s ancient culture, religious traditions and Mediterranean connections,” Ulbrich said.

The exhibition will be open between October 8 and April 11.