The island is the mythical birthplace of the Goddess Kythereia Aphrodite. The Ancient historians disagree whether the goddess was named after the island or vice versa. Its name suggests secret delights, and the liberation of love.
According to Hesiod's Theogony, the Titan Kronos, father of Zeus, after a battle cut the genitals from his father Ouranos (Greek for ‘Sky’). As they fell into the sea of ​​Kythira, the Goddess Aphrodite emerged from the deep. After her ‘birth’ the goddess was carried away by the waves, to Paphos, Cyprus, where she is revered as protector.
The island, however, has other, more contemporary myths to share. Over time, shepherds have found icons hidden since Byzantine times in various hiding places of the island. These icons are now venerated as miraculous. This island occupies a strategic spot in the Aegean Sea, where over the years many seafaring peoples have struggled to hold sway. The famous orchestrator of the Ottoman fleet, the pirate Barbarossa, used it occasionally as a base, before later ordering its devastation.
Nature also has its share of mythic characters: from the liveloula, a type of dragonfly that lives for only one day, flocking about the waterfalls of the island (carpe diem!), to the semprevivum, the flower that lives forever, covering the slopes of the island.