On day 7, we started off bright and early. We packed all of our stuff and left the hotel Odysseia to go to Aphrodite’s rock. The road to get there was through the mountains and it was beautiful seeing the crystal blue waters. When I got on the beach, I was surprised at how windy it was and the waters seemed a bit rougher than the other beaches in Cyprus. As we were driving to Aphrodite’s rock, I learned from Demetra (our tour guide) that many of the islands in the Agean Sea were said to have formed from the breaking of Aphrodite’s pearl necklace. As we walked around the beach and say the rock where Aphrodite was allegedly born, it was surreal. However, I was curious how they chose that specific rock because there were so many large, mountainous rocks within the same area. According to Greek myth, Aphrodite was born in Paphos and likely in this region due to the beautiful, foaming waters.
After Aphrodite’s rock we made our way to the house of Dionysus where there were many mosaics found from different time periods. The first one I saw was this image of this mythical sea creature named Scylla who was a beast with five dog heads and a dragons tail who was also part fish. This mosaic was created around 300 BC and it was made of pebbles from a Hellenistic building. Another mosaic I saw was created based off the Greek myth narcissus. It was an image of Narcissus looking at himself in a pool of water. From Demetra I learned that Narcissus ended up drowning in the water where he would stare at himself due to his self obsession. One other mosaic that we learned about was known as the Triumph of Dionysus where it depicts Dionysus on a chariot coming back from his victorious travels to the East when he went to India. From india he brought back slaves and panthers. Detrema was very knowledgeable about the mosaics and specifically this one! I learned that the grape vine was discovered by Dionysus the god of wine. And in this mosaic, you always see Dionysus carrying this vine as this discovery of wine was and still is so important and evident in Cypriots way of life. There were also other mosaics that had different materials. There was one that depicted an eagle which represented Zeus, and the wings of the eagle had many vibrant colors such as green, yellow, red, and green that didn’t come from just rocks and pebbles, but we’re actually made of glass and enamel which allowed the colors to be preserved slightly better. I had no idea that such old mosaic existed and it was incredible to see the intricate detailing. The accuracy of the measurements and geometric shapes was fascinating to me and to think that there were teams of people who trained their whole life to work on mosaics was really cool to learn about.
Lastly, during our free time, a group of us got a nice “American” brunch which lasted around 2 hours! From pancakes to iced coffees, it felt like home. We also saw a huge pink pelican at the restaurant next to us. He was essentially a local celebrity. After our long and hearty lunch, some of us stopped by the shops to look at souvinear sand gifts. My favorite part was trying on all the fake designer sunglasses. After about an hour of wandering the streets and going to different shops, it started to drizzle and we made our way back to the bus. Once on the bus, we had a nice two hour long drive until we made it to Nicosia and I took full advantage of that by napping! It was a very fun, beautiful, and informative day marking our first officially week in Cyprus!
