Reddit reviews Ancient Greek Religion

Myths and religion aren't the same thing. This book does a good job unpacking them, but cultic practice diverged from the literary stories of the gods, and belief was a whole separate ball of wax.

So, it's important to draw a difference between the planet Venus and the goddess Venus. They're not the same, even though they're definitely mythologically connected; properly speaking, the ancient Greeks and Romans considered Venus/Aphrodite (who also weren't the same but generally considered to be so similar as to be indistinguishable) an Olympian, while the planet Hesperos/Eosphoros was a celestial wandering titan. In other words, the planet generally didn't have cult like the goddess proper did unless you were a magus.

I started out worshipping Venus as an astrologer-magus, but my practice has since evolved to focus on the Greek goddess Aphrodite, and based on my experiences, they're not the same but they are associated with each other. According to the ancient Greek calendar used in Athens, Aphrodite had monthly festivals on the fourth day of the lunar month as well as other yearly festivals here and there. Several resources for working with her would include:

• Theoi.com's article on Aphrodite
  
• Roman Religion: A Sourcebook
  
• Ancient Greek Religion
  
• Worshipping Aphrodite: Art and Cult in Ancient Athens

I posted this a few days ago; just ignore the Norse stuff. As far as non-fiction, you can't do much better than the work of Walter Burkert. Ancient Greek Religion is probably a better introduction; you'll have to read something about Eleusis, too.

If you'd like to get into myth in general, definitely look into archetypal theory and criticism. It can be challenging, but it's very much worth it and quite illuminating.

EDIT: It might also be a good idea to keep this on hand.