Editing Cinyras (section)

== Mythology ==

=== Trojan War ===
In the earliest testimony for this character in ancient Greek literature (the account of [[Homer]]), Cinyras was a ruler on [[Cyprus]] who gave a [[corselet]] to [[Agamemnon]] as a guest-gift when he heard that the Greeks were planning to sail to Troy.<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' 11.20–23</ref> [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]] in his commentary on this passage relates that Cinyras promised assistance to Agamemnon, but did not keep his word: having promised to send fifty ships, he actually sent only one commanded by the son of [[Mygdalion]], while the rest were sculpted from earth, with figures of men (also made of earth) imitating the crew. He was cursed by Agamemnon and subsequently punished by [[Apollo]], who beat him in a musical contest (similar to that between Apollo and [[Marsyas]], to see who was a better musician with a [[lyre]]) and killed him, whereupon Cinyras' fifty daughters threw themselves into the sea and were changed into sea birds (alcyones).<ref>[[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]] on ''Iliad'' p. 87; cf. also scholia on the same passage</ref>

=== Myrrha ===
According to [[Ovid]], Cinyras' daughter [[Myrrha]], impelled by an unnatural lust for her own father (in retribution for her mother Cenchreis' hubris), slept with him, became pregnant, and asked the gods to change her into something other than human; she became a tree from whose bark [[myrrh]] drips.<ref name=":0">[[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 10.294–559 & 708–739 [http://mythfolklore.net/3043mythfolklore/reading/ovid/pages/07.htm Myrrha]</ref> From this incestuous union sprang the child Adonis. Cinyras was said to have committed suicide over the matter.<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#242 242]</ref> Other authors equate Cinyras and Myrrha with king [[Theias]] of [[Assyria]] and his daughter Smyrna, and relate the same story of them.<ref>Apollodorus, 3.14.4; [[Antoninus Liberalis]], [https://topostext.org/work/216#34 34]</ref> Hyginus uses the name Cinyras for the father, but Smyrna for the daughter.<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#58 58]</ref>

=== Priesthood of Paphian Aphrodite ===
Clement of Alexandria in his ''[[Protrepticus (Clement)|Protrepticus]]'' talks about the "Cyprian Islander Cinyras, who dared to bring forth from night to the light of day the lewd orgies of Aphrodite in his eagerness to deify a strumpet of his own country."

In his ''[[Histories (Tacitus)|Histories]]'', [[Tacitus]] relates the account of divination rites at the famous Temple of Venus at Paphos; according to traditional tales, this temple was founded by King Aerias, but others say Cinyras consecrated the temple, which was built right on the spot where the goddess had first stepped on the land after her birth from the sea. Here Tacitus describes him as having come to Cyprus from Cilicia, whence he introduced the worship of Paphian Aphrodite. The divination practices at the temple are said to have been introduced by Tamiras of Cilicia. The office of priesthood became hereditary in the families of both Cinyras (Cinyradae) and Tamiras, but the descendants of the latter were eventually displaced by those of the former; in the times of Tacitus, only the priest of Cinyras' line was consulted.<ref>[[Tacitus]], ''Histories'' 2.3</ref><ref>Pindar, ''Pythian Ode'' 2.26</ref><ref>Scholia ad [[Theocritus]], ''1.109''</ref> The footnotes to this story also state that Cinyras is ''"Another mythical king of Cyprus. [[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]] calls him a son of Apollo, and Ovid makes him the father of Adonis."''