DESCRIPTION:

Cyprus was famous in antiquity for its copper. A complex of rooms, which functioned as an industrial quarter for copper, was excavated in this area. These rooms were in direct access from the Great Temple of the Great Goddess – Aphrodite.

Aphrodite, who was a fertility goddess, was also worshiped as the protector of metallurgy. A bronze statuette, dated to the 12th century BC, portrays her as a naked woman, her hands on her breasts. She stands on an ingot of copper. An associated bronze statuette of a warrior standing on an ingot must have been a representation of another god-protector of metallurgy. In ancient Greek mythology, Aphrodite was the consort of Hephaestos, god of blacksmiths, or Kinyras, a mythical king of Paphos associated with metallurgy.

Many European languages borrowed the word “copper” from Cyprus and its rich copper deposits (copper, cuivre, kupfer).