In the land of Aphrodite

When I learnt that the conference was in Cyprus, I was excited. Every mythologist knows that Cyprus is the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, who was born when the Titan Cronus castrated his father, the sky god Uranus, on the instructions of his earth-goddess mother, Gaia, who found her lover’s clinginess exasperating. The blood of severed genitals mixed in the foamy sea and out came the love goddess, to the delight of the world.

Located in the Mediterranean, just south of Turkey and east of Lebanon, Cyprus is a tiny country with a population of approximately one million, with tourism as its main industry. I arrived earlier this month, a few weeks before the tourist rush, landing at Larnaca airport, located at the southern edge of the island, an hour’s ride from the capital, Nicosia. Further north is the area claimed by Turkey as its territory, beyond the UN-administered Green Line. The island gained independence from the British in 1960, after which there was much tension between the Turkish Cypriots, who are Muslim, and the Greek Cypriots, who are Christian, leading to an invasion by Turkey. The resulting division of the island continues to simmer in dispute.

As I drove to Nicosia, I noticed the golden soil and could imagine sheep grazing and shepherds collecting grapes for wine and olive for oil. I could imagine the characters from Greek mythology. I remembered the story of the king of Cyprus, Cinyrus, who had sex with his own daughter, Myrrha, and then tried to kill her. The gods turned the girl into a myrrh tree from which was born Adonis, so beautiful that both Aphrodite, the goddess of love and life, and Persephone, the goddess of death, fell in love with him and fought over him, until Zeus, king of the gods, declared that he would spend half the year above the earth in summer with Aphrodite, and the rest of the year below the earth, with Persephone. This ancient myth is strongly associated with the mother goddess, whose shrine is located in Paphos, in the south of the island, and is now marked by a church. Once, it was renowned for its sacred prostitutes, union with whom was part of ritual.

A visit to the Cyprus Museum, the only museum that I found open on Sunday morning—Cypriots party hard and most of the town is asleep; those who are not, are in church—is a highlight. It is possible here to get a glimpse of that ancient time, before the arrival of the Greek and Roman gods, and their patriarchal heroes. The images, pottery, jewellery and even furniture here predate the Buddha. With the rise of Christianity, the age of many gods came to a close and the age of one god began. Most Indians are familiar with Catholic Christians and Protestant Christians. We are not so familiar with the Greek Orthodox church, which was patronized by the Byzantine empire, and which was in the front line of the Crusades that saw Europe clash with the Middle East a thousand years ago. The tension between Greek Christians and Turkish Muslims is still palpable. On the gleaming white walls along the paved streets of the old city, I found graffiti welcoming, or insulting, refugees. The tall bell towers, the stone monasteries and the solemn images of archbishops in typical Greek Orthodox attire can be seen everywhere in Nicosia, a reminder that this is a deeply religious community.

I spent most of my time wandering about Ledra and Onasagorou, with short excursions into and around museums and monasteries. Ledra Street, named after the kingdom of Ledra, which thrived in this location around 3,000 years ago (when the Vedas reached their final form in the Indian subcontinent), no longer has the barricade that separated Nicosia from Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus until eight years ago. There are no cars on these streets. People just walk and enjoy the old houses, restaurants, cafés, shops and pubs that line the route. This is what I did on Saturday night and Sunday morning. As I lost my way in these winding roads I felt I was in the labyrinth of Minotaur. But that is in the Greek island of Crete, I reminded myself: another place a mythologist needs to visit in his lifetime.

Devdutt Pattanaik is a mythologist and author of 7 Secrets Of The Goddess (Westland).