ABSTRACT
Aphrodite was universally recognized as the Lady of Cyprus, the cosmopolitan island where Greek colonists and mariners were exposed at an early date to the cultures of the Near East. Because of the many similarities between Aphrodite and Semitic Ishtar/Astarte, and the lack of clear evidence for a Mycenaean Aphrodite, many scholars view the goddess of sexual desire as a relatively late addition to the Greek pantheon, borrowed from the Phoenicians. A persistent minority, however, argue that her roots were IndoEuropean, and that she was a cousin to Ushas, the Vedic dawn goddess, brought to Cyprus by the Mycenaeans. A third view holds that her ancestor was a Bronze Age Cypriot goddess who incorporated both indigenous and Phoenician elements by the time the Greeks adopted her.1
