Upstart has equality in value with a goddess, almost (7)
I believe the answer is:
parvenu
'upstart' is the definition.
(I know that upstart can be written as parvenu)
'equality in value with a goddess almost' is the wordplay.
'equality in value' becomes 'par' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a goddess' becomes 'venus' (Roman goddess of love).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'venus' with its final letter taken off is 'venu'.
'par'+'venu'='PARVENU'
'has' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for parvenu that I've seen before include "Nouveau riche" , "Newly rich person" , "Newcomer" , "Johnny-come-lately, upstart" , "One who climbs" .)