Cinyras is said to have been famed for his exquisite beauty and to
have been wooed by Aphrodite herself. Thus it would appear, as
scholars have already observed, that Cinyras was in a sense a
duplicate of his handsome son Adonis, to whom the inflammable
goddess also lost her heart. Further, these stories of the love of
Aphrodite for two members of the royal house of Paphos can hardly be
dissociated from the corresponding legend told of Pygmalion, a
Phoenician king of Cyprus, who is said to have fallen in love with
an image of Aphrodite and taken it to his bed. When we consider that
Pygmalion was the father-in-law of Cinyras, that the son of Cinyras
was Adonis, and that all three, in successive generations, are said
to have been concerned in a love-intrigue with Aphrodite, we can
hardly help concluding that the early Phoenician kings of Paphos, or
their sons, regularly claimed to be not merely the priests of the
goddess but also her lovers, in other words, that in their official
capacity they personated Adonis. At all events Adonis is said to
have reigned in Cyprus, and it appears to be certain that the title
of Adonis was regularly borne by the sons of all the Phoenician
kings of the island.
Pages:
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944