Baths of Aphrodite
The Baths of Aphrodite is one of the tourist attractions in Cyprus that always seems to get a mention.
The story goes that Aphrodite, Goddess of love, beauty, and sexual rapture soaped herself down to make herself look beautiful here.
Reputedly this is where the Goddess took a bath before her marriage to the Greek God Hephaestus. He forged weapons for the Gods, and Zeus thought it would be a good idea to give Aphrodite to him to prevent the other Gods fighting over who should marry her.
Good idea, the only problem being that she was she was a bit of a handful. Amongst the many notches on her bedpost was another of the Greek Gods, Adonis. The story that unfolds is a predictable tragedy of lust and men fighting over a woman’s affections.
Further along the coast is the site of the rock of Aphrodite where the story goes she came ashore after her birth. Local legend has it that if you swim around this rock at midnight during the full moon Aphrodite will make you ten years younger. Great idea, but a hazardous way down that’ll probably age you ten years in the process.