A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Ἐρυκίνη), a surname of Aphrodite, derived from mount Eryx, in Sicily, where she had a famous temple, which was said to have been built by Eryx, a son of Aphrodite and the Sicilian king Butes. (Diod. 4.83.) Virgil (Aen. 5.760) makes Aeneias build the temple. Psophis, a daughter of Eryx, was believed to have founded a temple of Aphrodite Erycina, at Psophis, in Arcadia. (Paus. 8.24.3.) From Sicily the worship of Aphrodite (Venus) Erycina was introduced at Rome about the beginning of the second Punic war (Liv. 22.9, 10, 23.30, &c.), and in B. C. 181 a temple was built to her outside the Porta Collatina. (Liv. 40.34; Ov. Fast. 4.871, Rem. Amor. 549 ; Strab. vi. p.272; comp. Cic. in Verr. 4.8; Hor. Carm. 1.2.33; Ov. Ep. 15.57.)

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