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The religion of ancient Cyprus was that of ancient Greece and rooted in rituals and orgies. Most of the Olympian Gods were worshipped in Cyprus but the most significant cult was indisputably that of Aphrodite, the Grecian goddess of conjugal love and beauty and one of the oldest deities in the Olympian pantheon. The island of Paphos on south western Cyprus was one of the prime centres of her worship and pre-Hellenic fertility cults; in fact the ancient Greeks believed that the goddess stepped onto the shores of Paphos soon after she emerged from the sea. |
Aphrodite has captured the imagination of many a poet and artist down the ages and was essentially associated with fertility and regeneration, rather than the spiritual aspect of love. It is in this role that she dominates the philosophy of Parmenides and is recognized in the cosmogony of Empedocles where she appears as ‘Queen Kipris.’
The name Aphrodite means ‘foam born.’ Three of Homer’s hymns are dedicated to this lovely deity and actually mention the Cypriot island of Paphos being her place of worship. Thus Homer describes her as, ‘stately Aphrodite, gold-crowned and beautiful’, ‘sweetly-winning, coy-eyed goddess.’
Imbued with a seductive charm that was often deceptive, Aphrodite was revered as a principal deity in Cyprus up to the Christian era; hers was a cult that did not inculcate awe or dogmatic faith, rather it was earthy in spirit and was associated mainly with material pursuits. Archaeological evidence and inscriptions point to the existence of countless sanctuaries or temples dedicated to the goddess throughout Cyprus – at Paphos, Kouklia, Yieroskipou, Marion, Soloi, Amathus, Morphou, Trikomo, Chytroi, Golgoi, Akhna, Arsos, Idalion and others.
Aphrodite’s Temple at Paphos was one of the oldest and richest places of worship during antiquity. It was originally built by the Myceneans in the 12 century BC. This shrine was unique in that it offered devotees a mix of age-old Aegean and Oriental rites for cult ceremonies; these and a lot more lent the place a peculiar charm or attraction. Prominence and distinction of Paphos amongst Aphrodite’s sanctuaries stemmed from the myth that the goddess had first foot on this island after rising from ocean foam near the rock of Petra tou Romiou, a few miles southeast of Kouklia.
According to Pausanias the cult of Aphrodite was introduced at Paphos from Syria; but it is much more probable that it was of Phoenician origin. Earlier, much before the archaeological excavations, it was held that this stream of worship had been established prior to the age of Homer (around 700 BC), as the grove and altar of Aphrodite at Paphos are mentioned in Odyssey.
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By Mini Sreenarayanan
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