Paeon of Amathus was an early Hellenistic historian from

Amathus Amathus or Amathous () was an ancient city and one of the ancient royal cities of Cyprus until about 300 BC. Some of its remains can be seen today on the southern coast in front of Agios Tychonas, about east of Limassol and west of Larnaca. It ...

on the Island of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, mentioned in the writings of

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

and the lexicographer

Hesychius of Alexandria Hesychius of Alexandria () was a Greek grammarian who, probably in the 5th or 6th century AD, compiled the richest lexicon of unusual and obscure Greek words that has survived, probably by absorbing the works of earlier lexicographers. The ...

Theseus and Ariadne

recounts a story he attributes to Paeon concerning

Theseus Theseus (, ; ) was a divine hero in Greek mythology, famous for slaying the Minotaur. The myths surrounding Theseus, his journeys, exploits, and friends, have provided material for storytelling throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes desc ...

and

Ariadne In Greek mythology, Ariadne (; ; ) was a Cretan princess, the daughter of King Minos of Crete. There are variations of Ariadne's myth, but she is known for helping Theseus escape from the Minotaur and being abandoned by him on the island of N ...

. Theseus and Ariadne were driven off course by a storm and onto the island of Cyprus. Theseus put Ariadne, who was pregnant and in great distress from the motion of the ship, ashore alone but was himself swept out to sea again. The Cyprian women cared for Ariadne, comforting her in her loneliness, giving letters to Ariadne, which they had written, saying the letters had come from Theseus. But Ariadne died in childbirth. When Theseus returned, greatly distraught, he gave the island money, asking them to make sacrifices to Ariadne, and had two small statuettes, one silver, one bronze, set up in her honor. According to Plutarch, Paeon says that at the sacrifices made in Ariadne's honor on the second day of the month Gorpiaes, a young man lies down and imitates the cries and gestures of a woman in the pains of labor and that they call the place where the sacrifices were held the grove of Ariadne Aphrodite.

Bearded Aphrodite

Paeon of Amathus, quoted by

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC) was an ancient Greek Philosophy, philosopher and Natural history, naturalist. A native of Eresos in Lesbos, he was Aristotle's close colleague and successor as head of the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum, the ...

, who said that the Cypriot goddess could take the shape of a man.

Macrobius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, usually referred to as Macrobius (fl. AD 400), was a Roman provincial who lived during the early fifth century, during late antiquity, the period of time corresponding to the Later Roman Empire, and when Latin was ...

describes the statue of Venus in Cyprus as being bearded and having male genitals, but clad in female dress and holding a scepter.

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

knew of the existence of this

androgynous Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in humans, it often r ...

deity called Aphroditos. Hesychius confirmed that Aphroditos was a

hermaphrodite A hermaphrodite () is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are either male or female are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic. The individuals of many ...

.Parpola
p. 278
Hil
p. 79
Ellis
p. 410
Harris
p. 360

Notes

References

* Ellis, Robinson, ''A Commentary on Catullus'', Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007. . * Mitford, Terence Bruce, "The Cults of Roman Cyprus" in ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung, Volume 1'', Walter de Gruyter, 1972. . * Parpola, Simo, Robert M. Whiting, ''Sex and gender in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 47th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Helsinki, July 2–6, 2001, Part 1'', Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2002. . * Plutarch. ''Plutarch's Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin''. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914 * Harris, J. Rendel, ''The Origin of the Cult of Aphrodite'', in ''Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, Volume 3'', John Rylands Library, Henry Guppy, Manchester University Press, 1917. * Hill, Sir George Francis, ''A History of Cyprus, Volume 1'', University Press, 1952 {{authority control Hellenistic-era historians Ancient Cypriots Cypriot historians Ancient Greek historians known only from secondary sources