Aphrodite's island: from myth to map

Few islands have a goddess as their calling card, and Cyprus has had one for centuries. Euripides, in the Bacchae, already spoke of Cyprus as Aphrodite’s island, where the Erotes heal men’s hearts. Here’s what the myth says, which real places are tied to it and how I’d see them in a day from Paphos, using what the regional tourism board publishes, since it tells these stories best.

The myth in brief

There are several traditions about the birth of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, but the most celebrated puts her emergence from the waves beside Petra tou Romiou, on the Paphos coast. Then, with Eros and Pothos beside her, she set off for Olympus. Even her name points back to the foam.

She was also the goddess of joy, desire and fertility, protector of young women and of nature’s renewal. Her sacred symbols were doves, sparrows, goats, pomegranates and apples. She was married to Hephaestus, god of fire and the forge, but her best-known story is her affair with Ares, god of war, which produced a daughter, Harmonia.

Adonis, anemones and the golden apple

In Cyprus the story that matters most is that of Adonis. In the myth, he was born from the myrrh tree into which Myrrha, daughter of King Cinyras, had been turned. Aphrodite loved him, and a jealous Ares changed into a wild boar and killed him in the forests of Paphos. The goddess arrived too late, sprinkled his blood with nectar, and from each drop grew an anemone, a short-lived flower. Zeus ruled that Adonis should spend part of the year with her and part with Persephone, who also refused to give him up. The board says his death and return were marked in Paphos by the Adonia, on 25 and 26 March.

The island also features in the judgement of Paris. Aphrodite won the golden apple by promising him the most beautiful woman alive, Helen, and on the flight to Troy, the tale goes, a storm forced the pair to shelter in Cyprus.

The war that followed left another Cypriot anecdote. Cinyras, the island’s legendary king, promised Agamemnon fifty ships for the campaign against Troy, then sent just one real ship and forty-nine made of clay. Agamemnon cursed him, and while the Greeks fought for ten years, Cyprus stayed at peace and prospered. I can’t think of a myth that sums up the island’s instinct for self-preservation better.

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Pygmalion and the name of Paphos

Another story with a Cypriot stamp is that of Pygmalion, whom tradition places in Amathus, beside Limassol. The sculptor carved an ivory statue, Galatea, so perfect that he fell in love with it and begged Aphrodite to bring it to life. She did; they married and had a son, Paphos, who according to legend founded the city that bears his name.

The real places

Behind the myth there’s archaeology. At Kouklia, ancient Palaepaphos, about 14 km east of town, stood Aphrodite’s sanctuary, built in the 12th century BC and in use until Roman times. It belongs to the Paphos World Heritage property listed in 1980, covered in Palaepaphos. The rock where she was born is about 7 km away on the coast.

To the north, at the edge of Akamas, are the Baths of Aphrodite, a small grotto with a spring shaded by an old fig tree, where tradition says she bathed and met Adonis. Near Paphos, the Chalcolithic village of Lemba, home of the figurine known as the Lady of Lemba, is one of the stops on the cultural itinerary devoted to the goddess that the board promotes.

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Is an Aphrodite day worth it?

For me, yes, as long as you treat it as a reason to explore the Paphos coast rather than a theme park. The order above starts with the sanctuary for context, moves on to the rock, takes in the mosaics of the archaeological park and, light permitting, ends in Akamas. It all fits in a day from Paphos by car, and the rock and Kouklia are on a bus route too. In September, the Paphos Aphrodite Festival puts opera in front of the harbour castle.

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