Goddess Aphrodite Loves On in Legend

Fading legend and tourist brochures sustain the mystique and mythology of a once-great cult surrounding Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.

Rigorously suppressed by early Christians, her cult has been almost erased from memory on this Mediterranean island, though the goddess whose name gave rise to the word aphrodisiac remains a powerful symbol.

At Aphrodite’s Baths, near the southwestern city of Paphos, a woman tourist sprinkles herself with sparkling water from the rock pool. A black-clad village grandmother, standing nearby, whispers: “Now she will stay young forever.”

A record 800,000 tourists last year visited Cyprus, where legend says Aphrodite--known to the Romans as Venus--was “born from the foam” near Paphos.

Homer referred to the birthplace in the “Odyssey.” Farther along the coast, pilgrims from all over the ancient world came to worship at Aphrodite’s main shrine.

The great Greek historian Herodotus, and later the angry early Christians, wrote that Cypriot women would give themselves to the service of Aphrodite by lying with strangers at the temple in “sacred prostitution.”

These sites, and a 2nd Century BC marble study of Aphrodite in the Cyprus National Museum, are the major relics of a legend freely milked by tour operators today.

Researchers say that even the few Aphrodite place names are relatively new and that the “Island of Love” tag used by tour operators has little to do with conservative Cypriot society.

A Cypriot cultural society has proposed that the annual Aphrodisia Festival be revived in Paphos after a break of nearly 1,700 years.

During the sea-centered festival, pilgrims gathered to march to Aphrodite’s temple for rites, including singing by girls at a bed made for Aphrodite and her lover, Adonis.