Cyprus is the home for a few of the most influential characters in Greek mythological stories. We put together the stories of some of those individuals:
Aphrodite
The birthplace of Aphrodite is believed to be in Paphos region. She is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. Aphrodite is born off the coast of Cythera from the foam produced by Uranus’s genitals, which his son Cronus has severed and thrown into the sea. She was also known as Cypris (Lady of Cyprus), because of the place of her birth.
In Greek mythology, Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, the god of fire, blacksmiths, and metalworking. Aphrodite was frequently unfaithful to him and had many lovers; in the Odyssey, she is caught in the act of adultery with Ares, the god of war.
Aphrodite was also the surrogate mother and lover of the mortal shepherd Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar. Along with Athena and Hera, Aphrodite was one of the three goddesses whose feud resulted at the beginning of the Trojan War and she plays a major role throughout the Iliad.
Adonis
Adonis was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite in Greek mythology. He was conceived after Aphrodite cursed his mother Myrrha to lust after her own father, King Cinyras of Cyprus. Myrrha had Intercourse with her father in complete darkness for nine nights, but he discovered her identity and chased her with a sword. The gods transformed her into a myrrh tree and, in the form of a tree, she gave birth to Adonis. Aphrodite found the infant and gave him to be raised by Persephone, the queen of the Underworld. Adonis grew into an astonishingly handsome young man, causing Aphrodite and Persephone to feud over him, with Zeus eventually decreeing that Adonis would spend one third of the year in the Underworld with Persephone, one third of the year with Aphrodite, and the final third of the year with whomever he chose. Adonis chose to spend his final third of the year with Aphrodite.
One day, Adonis was gored by a wild boar during a hunting trip and died in Aphrodite’s arms as she wept. His blood mingled with her tears and became the anemone flower. Aphrodite declared the Adonia festival commemorating his tragic death, which was celebrated by women every year in midsummer. During this festival, Greek women would plant “gardens of Adonis”, small pots containing fast-growing plants, which they would set on top of their houses in the hot sun. The plants would sprout, but soon wither and die. Then the women would mourn the death of Adonis, tearing their clothes and beating their breasts in a public display of grief.
Teucros
Teucros was the son of King Telamon of Salamis Island and his second wife Hesione, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy. He fought alongside his half-brother, Ajax, in the Trojan War and is the legendary founder of the city of Salamis on Cyprus. Through his mother, Teucer was the nephew of King Priam of Troy and the cousin of Hector and Paris all of whom he fought against in the Trojan War.
During the Trojan War, Teucer was mainly a great archer, who lost his shafts from behind the giant shield of his half-brother Ajax the Great. When Hector was driving the Achaeans back toward their ships, Teucer gave the Argives some success by killing many of the charging Trojans, including Hector’s charioteer, Archeptolemus son of Iphitos. However, every time he shot an arrow at Hector, the god Apollo, protector of the Trojans, would foil the shot. At one point in his rage at Teucer’s success, Hector picked up a huge rock and flung it at him. The rock injured Teucer, so that he retired from the fighting for a certain period of time. He picked up a spear to fight in the war after his bow was broken by Zeus. He once again challenged Hector, and narrowly avoided the path of Hector’s flying javelin in the ensuing battle. He was also one of the Danaans to enter the Trojan Horse. In total, Teucer slew thirty Trojans during the war; of those Homer mentions Aretaon, Orsilochus, Ormenus, Ophelestes, Daetor, Chromius, Lycophontes, Amopaon, Melanippus, Prothoon and Periphetes, as well as the aforementioned Archeptolemus. He also wounded Glaucus, son of Hippolochus.
Teucer eventually joined King Belus II in his campaign against Cyprus, and when the island was seized, Belus handed it over to him in reward for his assistance. Teucer founded the city of Salamis on Cyprus, which he named after his home state. He further married Eune, daughter of Cinyras, king of Cyprus, and had by her a daughter Asteria.
Pygmalion
Pygmalion is a legendary figure of Cyprus in Greek mythology who was a king and a sculptor. He is most familiar from Ovid’s narrative poem- Metamorphoses, in which Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved.
In book 10 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory. According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides prostituting themselves, Pygmalion declared that he was “not interested in women”, but then found his statue was so beautiful and realistic that he fell in love with it.
In time, Aphrodite’s festival day came, and Pygmalion made offerings at the altar of Aphrodite. There, too scared to admit his desire, he quietly wished for a bride who would be “the living likeness of my ivory girl.” When he returned home, he kissed his ivory statue, and found that its lips felt warm. He kissed it again and found that the ivory had lost its hardness. Aphrodite had granted Pygmalion’s wish.
Pygmalion married the ivory sculpture which changed to a woman under Aphrodite’s blessing. In Ovid’s narrative, they had a daughter, Paphos, from whom the city’s name is derived. In some versions Paphos was a son, and they also had a daughter, Metharme.