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The
Temple of Venus |
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The history of the temple of Venus is situated
at the very old years. They exist two traditions for its foundation.
According to Pavsanias, the temple of Venus was built by Agapinoras,
who while returning to his homeland, from Troia, was drifted from
the sea in the coasts of Cyprus. An other fable attributes the foundation
of the temple in the very rich Cypriot king Kinyras, the father of
Adonis that lived still very old during the season of the war at Troia.
From this came also the royal house of Paphos.
The space that sometimes was covered by the temple of Venus and the
Temenos, it is extended from the most southern residences of the village
up to the "Tsifliki". Because the holy altar was one of
the bigger religious centers of the ancient world, classic writers
often report its buildings and the rituals.
The representations of the goddess were not having the human shape.
Her symbol was a conical stone that was found in the space of the
holy altar, and today is found in the Museum of Palaipaphos. At the
big feasts, this holy stone was spread with oil. The main altar, where
certain offers were allowed such as fire, was found at the outside,
without being ever rained by the rain. The holy prostitution is said
that it constituted part of the rituals of the temple.
The holy altar of Palaipaphos was not a representative type of the
traditional Greek temples, but it was a type of the Eastern Mediterranean:
a big spaces that it encompassed, apart from many homages and other
monuments of religious character, one small constructed holy altar.
Roman currencies portray the temple of Paphos as a tripartite holy
altar with conical idol in the central department. The type of the
tripartite holy altar has proportional samples in the architecture
of the Minoikis at Crete, and also in the Near East.
The excavation of the buildings of the holy altar, showed that they
had suffered serious damages during the passed centuries. The dues
of 4th century AC had abandoned it as one of the main idolatric places,
and its ruins became space for the construction of a refinery of sugar
at the same place. The culture of sugar cane in the coastal plains
of western Cyprus it was lucrative at the 15th and 16th century. The
plantation in the village Kouklia constituted a royal possession.
From the components of the refinement of sugar, that sometimes covered
the entire space, only certain departments are saved today: residues
of cooking components in the courtyard the holy altar II (here the
fluid sugar was boiled in copper boilers on square hearths built in
symmetric lines), many carved water reservoirs ( they have been covered
again by a big reservoir easterly of the Southern Gallery), and traces
of the water board system. Some foundations of a medieval aqueduct
are maintained in the courtyard. From here it led, passing from the
southeastern corner of Agrepavli, down to the coastal plain of the
easterly Diarizos, where it supplied two partly saved mills for the
crashing of the sugar cane.
The saved ancient residues in the space of temple constitute two clusters
of buildings: Roman holy altar II in the northern side, that was built
again afterwards the earthquake of the year 77 AC, and the holy altar
I of the later season of Copper in the southern side of the holy altar
IΙ, that had been erected as the first monumental holy altar around
the 1200 BC.
Entering from the side of the village, the visitor first sees at his
left the holy altar II. Two oblong rooms in the northern and in the
southern and an eastern place with some rectangular rooms encompass
a spacious outdoor courtyard. A passage of width of 5.50 meters leads
to the courtyard from the east. All the traces of the western place
of the Roman buildings have been disappeared by medieval and newer
manufactures.
In the stonemasonry of the Roman walls they are included a lot of
bulky hewers stones from limestone of the type that was used in the
holy altar I. A big monolith of this type marks the south-western
corner of the northern gallery. The flooring of the northern gallery
was previously covered with mosaics, but minimal departments are maintained
today. In the consequence of the northern gallery, to the side of
the village there exists a building with three rooms and flooring
covered with limestone plates. It appears that it had been built simultaneously
with the Roman holy altar and it could be useful as a monumental entry
for the pilgrims that reached from the street of the New Paphos the
Temenos. When this "northern room" was built again at the
later Roman period, one of its rooms was decorated with mosaic flooring
with a strict geometric drawing.
It is very difficult to attempt one detailed representation of these
Roman buildings, despite that they have been found a lot of splinters
from architectural members of the period. In any case, for the initial
architectural drawing of the southern gallery we can have a very precise
picture. This oblong room did not have any internal partitions. A
low internal wall with ledges, that obviously supported some seats,
it surrounded a mosaic flooring of initial dimensions 56X11 meters.
Only a small department , with elaborately geometric drawings, is
maintained in the western utmost of the building. The interval between
the interior and the exterior walls had been filled up and shaped
an elevated corridor of roughly 0.80 meters, from where the mosaic
flooring was accessible with a small stair. In the central axis, a
line of Doric columns with square bases supported the roof.
The holy altar I had different orientation from the holy altar II.
A big part of its upper construction and the entire south-eastern
department had been destroyed at the Medieval ages, it is maintained
however a lot in order to show that this old monumental holy altar
of Venus was composed from two elements: an outdoor Temenos and a
covered room. The region of Temenos was surrounded by a wall built
with huge stones of limestone, from which are maintained the western
side and a department of the southern side. A mystery covers they
deep erratic holes in the blocks of stone of the wall of Temenos.
These holes could not have any use for the transport or the handling
of the blocks of stones. At the opposite side of the entry at the
western wall, from where steps lead down to the Temenos, a plate was
revealed under the Roman flooring from processed stones of second
use. This basin incorporated in the flooring of Temenos was probably
used for the ritual washing for those entering the holy altar. A big
stone from limestone with marks of treatment, that is still found
in its initial place, it can be useful as base for ` consecration
horns' or for square "epikrano" with gradual sides. Both
types of this votive monuments, common in the Later Season of Copper
in Cyprus, have been found in the Palaipaphos. The best-maintained
samples are exposed at the opposite side of the wall of Temenos. Apart
from the basin and the votive monuments, the Temenos was supposed
to contain also one or more altars, traces of which are not saved.
The room probably accommodated the sanctuary of Holy Later Season
of Copper. The northerner and the southern wall were built with axed
stones (they are only saved the lower down lines of the southern wall).
Between these walls, their existed two lines of square bases along
the eastern side and at the center of the building. The bases supported
square columns with processed corners. The column at northern utmost
of the eastern line is found still at its original place for more
than 3,000 years. There are serious reasons to suppose for the room
being closed with compact walls in the westerner and in the northern
side, while the southern and eastern sides were open. In one circular
carved ditch in the Room there was placed one entire stocking cask
of the 13th or 12th century BC, remarkable for its embossed decor
in one of its handholds (now it is exposed in the Museum of Palaipaphos).
The cask and the rectangular basin in the eastern side, could be useful
for worship purposes.
No residues of buildings were found that could be dated between the
Later Season of Copper and the Roman period. As it appears, the absolute
reformation of the holy altar at the Roman period, it destroyed all
the residues of previous buildings in the space where the rock is
found very close to the surface. However their exists abundant testimonies
for the continuous life of the holy altar, so much in the ancient
literature and from discoveries from this place. The most remarkable
are the hundreds of splinters of earthen votive elements of the Archaic
and the Classic period, that were found recently in the eastern side
of the Roman columned residence that will be described below. Also
the excavations did not reveal any traces of the tripartite building
that are portrayed in the currencies. Probably this central holy altar
was not built with walls and roof, but it was a construction supported
by pillars. Such a simple construction could not leave traces for
the later years, it can however give some explanation in the strange
but insistence tradition for the altar of Venus in Paphos.
Roughly 40 meters westwards of the holy altar II there were found
residues of a big Roman Columned Residence. It was built the 1st century
AC and rebuilt at the later Roman period. The big outdoor impluvium
in the center is covered with a simple mosaic. Departments of mosaic
floorings with geometric drawings are maintained in and in adjacent
rooms.
Precisely behind the modern wall of the northwesterly Columned Residence,
more residues came out from the Roman residences. Above the ruins
of these residences, it was built the 16th century the small Byzantine
Church of Saint Nicholas. It was destroyed by fire the 18th century,
but the down part of the walls of arch and the central declinable
part are still saved and include departments of Roman elements, that
supported the holy table. Around the church, there were found a lot
of Byzantine burials, in which the dead people were usually accompanied
with a ceramic bowl.
Residues of other Roman buildings, that testifies the wealth of Palaipaphos
at the later Roman period, they were revealed in distance of 120 meters,
north-westerly of Saint Nicholas: it is about the "Residence
of Leda". Here the mosaic flooring of the dining room that is
dated in the dues of the 2nd or in the beginning of 3rd century AC
it was found almost completely. A central pictured scene of exceptional
quality that is surrounded by areas with geometric drawings shows
Leda and Kyknos in an unusual composition.
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