HISTORY ETHNOGRAPHY NATURE WINE-MAKING SITE MAP
Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 7

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Olyinpos, and on it is a temple of Aphrodite Acraia, inapproachable to women and invisible to them. The Cleides and several other islands lie not far off, thef the Carpasiaii islands, and next again Salamis, whence sprang Aristos the historian. Then Arsinoe, a city and harbour. Then another harbour Lencolla. Then C. Pedalion, over which hangs a steep and high hill, table-shaped, sacred to Aphrodite; the distance thither from Cleides is 680 stadia. Thence the coast is generally indented and precipitous up to Cition...it has an enclosed harbour : thence came Zeno, the leader of the Stoic sect, and Apollonios a physician. Thence to Berytos are 1500 stadia. Then Amathos, a city, and between a small town called Palaia, and the breast-shaped mountain Olympos. ["In Cyprus is the city Amathos, where is an ancient temple of Adonis and Aphrodite, and here they say is the necklace which was originally given to Harmonie, but it is called the necklace of Eriphyle, because she received it as a gift from her husband, and the eons of Phegeus dedicated it at Delphi. How they got it I have already related in my account of Arcadia (vili. 24). But it was earned off by the Phocian tyrants. I do not think however that the necklace in the temple of Adonis at Amathos is Eriphyle's, for that is emeralds set in gold, but the necklace given to Eriphyle is said by Homer in the Odyssey (xi. 327) to have been entirely of gold." Pausanias, IX. 41.] Then the promontory or peninsula Curias, seven hundred stadia distant from Thronoi. Then Curion, a city with a harbour, built by the Argives. Now then we can see the carelessness of the man who composed the elegy beginning Ipa'i τω Φοΐβω, πολλσν ΑκΊ κΐμα θίαυσαι η\βομ€Ρ al ταχιναί τόξα φνγιΐ* ίλαφαι, "sacred to Phoebus, counting over a broad sea, wo came, the hinds swift to avoid the bow"—whether it were Hedylos, or anyone else. For he says that the hinds started from the ridge of Corycia, and from the beach of Cilissae swain across to the headlands of Curias, and adds moreover that μνρΪαΥ ηνδμάσι θ αν μα vottv νάμα, trat àvèbwrov Χ*ϊ·μα Äl* ίαμιΐ'ά ί'δμάμημιν ζίφνμω, "an infinite wonder was given to men to see, how we rushed along the pathlesB stream with a spring-bearing west wind." For the course from Corycns round to C. Cnrias is not with the west wind, be the island on the right or the left, and there is no passage aciOSS. Curion then is the starting point of the western course aiming at Rhodes; very near it is a promontory from which they hurl those who have touched the altar of Apollo : then Trota and BooBOura and Palaipaphos, built as much as ten stadia from the sea: it has a roadstead and an ancient fane of the Paphinn Aphrodite. Then C. Zephyria, with an anchorage, and another Arsinoe which likewise has an anchorage, and a temple nnd grove. A little distance from the sea is Hierokepia. Then Paphos, built by Agapenor ; it has a harbour and temples well adorned. The distance to walk to Palaipaphos would be 60 stadia; and yearly along this road up to Palaipaphos men and women meet and keep a fair, coining from the other cities as well. Some folk say that from Paphos to Alexandria is 3600 stadia. Acamas comes next after Paphos. Then after Acamas going eastwards one sails to a city Arsinoe and the grove of Zeus. Then Soloi, a city with a harbour and a river and temple of Aphrodite and Isis; it was built by Phaleros nnd Acamas, Athenians. The inhabitants are called Solioi. Thence came Stasanor, one of the companions of Alexander, a man deemed worthy of rule. Beyond it inland is a city Limeiua. Then C. Crommyon. What ljoots it to wonder at the poets, particularly those who care for nought but phraseinaking, who endorse the opinion of EXCERPTA CYPRIA.

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