The Island of Love

I will sing of stately Aphrodite, gold-crowned and beautiful, whose dominion is the walled cities of all sea-set Cyprus. There the moist breath of the western wind wafted her over the waves of the loud-moaning sea in soft foam.

–Homer

According to the Greek myth, Uranus and Cronus were fighting for control of Olympus and Uranus fell into the water in defeat. In the exact location where he plunged, Aphrodite emerged from the sea-foam. She was the goddess of love, beauty and fertility and was worshiped throughout the Mediterranean, (the Romans called her Venus). Her birth is celebrated in the beautiful painting, the Birth of Venus by Botticelli – which we saw back in Florence at the Uffizi gallery. In the painting, it shows how Zephyrus, (the Western wind) blew her to the shores of Cyprus which is considered to be her island.

According to the locals, the exact location of her birth is a place called Petra tou Romiou which means the Rock of Romius (the Greek). There are some incredibly large rocks which are on the shore and smaller ones in the Mediterranean. It’s a gorgeous coastal area and we decided to walk the beaches where “she” did. Another legend says that if you swim around the rock you will have eternal beauty….it was too cold for us to swim, so we’ll have to do it another time!

The Rocks of Romius

The family at the rocks!

Since she is the goddess of love and fertility, people tie ribbons on the trees in hopes of falling in love and/or having a child. It’s a beautiful beach where the sea actually looks more green and one can see the likeness between Botticelli’s painting and the area.

From the beach we drove to the small village of Kouklia where there is an alter and sanctuary dedicated to the goddess.

The alter of Aphrodite

Ruins from her sanctuary

Ruins of the alter

The altar and other building have been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times from earthquakes as well as war. At one point during the Roman period, they rebuilt her temple and made sure to continue to offer sacrifices to the lady of love. According to some of the legends, there was a belief that all women should participate in ritualized prostitution. Before getting married, a young woman was expected to visit the temple and offer herself to a man. In return, the man would give her money and she would then be free to marry. If one was young and pretty, it could happen fairly quickly, otherwise, some women had to wait years!

In the museum, there is evidence of the offerings to the lady as well as mosaics that date back to ancient times. One in particular is an original of Leida and Zeus that is over 3000 years old and is in fantastic condition.

The story of the mosaic is that Zeus had fallen in love with Leida, but she did not want to be with him. So he took on the form of a swan and as she exited the water he pulled at her bottom and she fell in love with the swan. It was not long after that she laid two eggs. In one egg were Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and in the other, twins Castor and Pollux.

The girls were amazed at the “birth” of these characters as they have now seen evidence of Castor and Pollux in Rome at the Forum, in Petra at the Treasury guarding the temple, and most recently in the newest Mockingjay movie that we saw while in Israel. They are now understanding how authors reach back to legend and antiquity to add richness and character to their stories. With all of their learnings, they are reading with a different lens and are constantly making connections to literature they read and the world they are discovering on our travels. As an educator…it’s amazing to see these lightbulbs going on!

Cyprus has been a welcome pause for us as we needed some rest after the intensive travels through Israel. We’ve enjoyed just puttering around the island, hanging out in the condo, swimming in the pool and the kids had a great time just playing with the barbies and toys in the activity room. It also made us feel somewhat better about RCI. We have been saving and bundling our weeks for the past 5 years in hopes of using it while on our trip, so finally, we were able to get a place in Cyprus with dates and a place that worked for us! We hope to use the rest of our weeks in Australia, Vancouver and/or California…we’ll have to keep checking!

Our Paphos home in Cyprus.

Cooking in Cyprus!

Playing with barbies – they look the same at home!

As part of our original itinerary, we were to go to Egypt and explore the ancient world there, but sadly, the Canadian embassy was closed a couple of weeks ago due to some threats against foreigners, so we decided it wasn’t worth taking the chance….we will have to keep it on our “bucket list” a little longer. So, time to move on and see some other parts of the African continent….like Tanzania!

We started taking our anti-malaria meds (Mefloquine) and have been having some incredibly vivid dreams which we share at breakfast and have a good giggle! We think these side effects are better than catching malaria!!