The Sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia was a sanctuary in ancient Paphos on Cyprus dedicated to the goddessAphrodite. Located where the legendary birth of Aphrodite took place, it has been referred to as the main sanctuary of Aphrodite, and was a place of pilgrimages in the ancient world for centuries.
History
The site of Paphos was a holy place for the ancient Greeks, who believed it to be the place where Aphrodite landed when she rose from the sea. According to Pausanias, her worship was introduced to Paphos from Syria, and from Paphos to Kythera in Greece. The cult was likely of Phoenician origin. Archaeology has established that Cypriots venerated a fertility goddess before the arrival of the Greeks, and developed a cult that combined Aegean and eastern mainland aspects. Before it was proved by archaeology it was understood that the cult of Aphrodite had been established before the time of Homer, as the grove and altar of Aphrodite at Paphos are mentioned in the Odyssey. Female figurines and charms found in the immediate vicinity date to the early third millennium BC. The temenos was well established before the first structures were erected in the Late Bronze Age. The sanctuary was closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire in the 4th-century, and had at that time been in function for thousands of years since the Late Bronze Age:
Cult activity
Sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia was the center of the worship of the goddess, not for Cyprus alone, but for the whole Aegean world. The Cinyradae, or descendants of Cinyras, of Phoenician origin but Greek by name, were the chief priests. Their power and authority were very great; but it may be inferred from certain inscriptions that they were controlled by a senate and an assembly of the people. There was also an oracle here. Few cities have ever been so much sung and glorified by the poets.
Architecture
The sanctuary are depicted on many Roman coins from the Roman Imperial period from the reign of Vespasian as well as on earlier and later ones, and especially in the style on those of Septimius Severus. The sanctuary was destroyed by an earthquake, but rebuilt by Vespasian.
Archeology
The remains of the vast sanctuary of Aphrodite are still discernible, its circumference marked by huge foundation walls. Gustav Friedrich Hetsch, an architect of Copenhagen, has attempted to restore the building from the descriptions of coins as well as from archeological remains.
Contemporary mentions
The sanctuary is frequently referred to by ancient writers. The Homeric Hymns written between 7th-4th centuries B.C. and spuriously ascribed to Homer in antiquity mention the sanctuary in Hymn 5 to Aphrodite: Strabo described it: Pausanias described the shrine: Tacitus described the altar and aniconic black stone worshipped at the sanctuary as the simulacrum of Venus: It was also referred to by Apuleius in The Golden Ass:
