Today we got a lesson in mythology as we visited Aphrodite’s rock, the Tombs of the Kings and the House of Dionysus in Pafos. Aphrodite’s rock is believed to be the birthplace of Aphrodite, where she rose up from the foam of the sea and stepped onto the beaches of Cyprus. Aside from the impressive rocks rising out of the tides at this site, the beach was filled with many smaller stones that were smooth from years of weathering from the ocean. I found the Tomb of the Kings a fascinating and impressive sight to visit, considering the tombs were one to two stories buried into the ground created fully out of stone. I thought it was interesting to think about their construction, considering they didn’t have modern machinery or tools to create them. It is also impressive that they are still standing and structurally sound to this day, though it is tragic that they have been raided and weathered over the years so it isn’t a perfect view of their history. Regardless, they were cool to walk around in and a fascinating dive into history. We then traveled to Pafos, and had some free time in the port before going to visit the archeological site containing many ancient mosaics there. These mosaics contained scenes describing stories of Greek mythology and were believed to be from both the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. The oldest mosaic there, from the Ptolemaic period, was made only out of grey and black stones and created the image of Scylla, a monster who was said to wreck any ships that attempted to pass between Italy and Sicily. The other mosaics were made using colorful, cubic stones and contained images of gods and deities such as Apollo, Zeus, Helena, and the four Seasons. These displayed stories of Greek mythology and animals and symbols from around the world, showing both a pride for their culture but also the depth of their international travel. The larger mosaics found in the house, despite being incomplete, were impressive in their size and detail. Even without explanation, many of the stories could be inferred with only little background knowledge of Greek mythology, showing the power of storytelling and detail of these images.