Petra Tou Romiou - Aphrodite's Rock (Paphos, Cyprus)
N 34° 39.846 E 032° 37.616
36S E 465818 N 3835857
Rock stack called Petra Tou Romiou near Paphos (Cyprus), known as Aphrodite's Rock, is one of the most mythic places of ancient Greek civilisation - here, according old legends, arose from sea foam goddess of love, beauty and sexuality - Aphrodite...
Waymark Code: WM8F6D
Location: Cyprus
Date Posted: 03/24/2010
Views: 32
Rock stack called Petra Tou Romiou near Paphos (Cyprus), known as Aphrodite's Rock, is one of the most mythic places of ancient Greek civilisation - here, according old legends, arose from sea foam goddess of love, beauty and sexuality - Aphrodite...
According legends "Foam-arisen" Aphrodite was born here, at Petra Tou Romiou, after Cronus cut off Uranos' genitals and threw them behind him into the sea, while the Erinyes emerged from the drops of blood. Hesiod's Theogony described that the genitals "were carried over the sea a long time, and white foam arose from the immortal flesh; with it a girl grew" to become Aphrodite. Aphrodite floated in on a scallop shell. When she arose, she was hailed as "Cyprian," and is referred to as such often, especially in the poetic works of Sappho. This myth of a fully mature Venus (the Roman name for Aphrodite), Venus Anadyomene ("Venus Rising From the Sea") was one of the iconic representations of Aphrodite, made famous in a much-admired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder.
This beautiful myth is most memorably depicted in Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus (Uffizi Gallery in Florence).