Cinyras- Greek FigureMortal"King of Cyprus"

The Breastplate and the Sanctuary

In Iliad 11, Homer names Cinyras as the man who sent Agamemnon a magnificent corselet when word of the Greek expedition reached Cyprus. The breastplate had bands of gold, tin, and dark enamel, with dark blue serpents that reached toward the neck. It crossed the sea as a gift from a king wealthy enough to arm another kingdom's war.

Pindar calls Cinyras "beloved of Apollo" and priest of Aphrodite at Paphos. Apollodorus gives his lineage: son of Sandocus, who migrated from Syria to Cilicia and on to Cyprus, where Cinyras married Metharme, daughter of Pygmalion. He served Aphrodite's sanctuary at Paphos, and ancient sources credit him with founding the goddess's cult on the island.

Myrrha

Ovid in Metamorphoses 10 tells how Aphrodite cursed Cinyras's daughter Myrrha with desire for her own father. The girl's mother Cenchreis had boasted that Myrrha was more beautiful than the goddess. Myrrha's nurse, horrified but loyal, arranged secret meetings during a festival of Ceres. For several nights Cinyras lay with his daughter in darkness, not knowing who she was. When he brought a lamp and saw her face, he seized his sword. Myrrha fled.

She wandered for nine months, pregnant and beyond help, until the gods took pity and turned her into the myrrh tree. The bark split open and the infant Adonis fell out. Apollodorus preserves a variant in which Cinyras killed himself when he learned the truth.