The Rock of Love and Dragon Slaying

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay

If there are two things the world needs today, they are LOVE and DRAGON SLAYERS.

Off the coast of Paphos, Cyprus, there is a sea stack that is better known as Aphrodite’s Rock (Βράχος της Αφροδίτης). According to Greek mythology, the goddess Aphrodite rose from the water surrounding the large, pillar-like rock mass as if being raised aloft by the foamy surf itself. She would. Aphrodite was not going to let anyone tell her how to be born. The goddess of love AND pleasure AND beauty AND passion AND procreation. She had to be born on her own terms, thank you very much.

Aphrodite picked the spot for her birth, and she selected the perfect place. Just like love itself, the sea surrounding Aphrodite’s Rock is very rough and few survive swimming in it. And how about climbing the goddess’s rock? Nope. She chose a sea stack that is beyond dangerous to climb. I know you’re surprised. Not. At all. Because that is love for you. One of life’s greatest challenges. AND, when we succeed in meeting the challenge, the bearer of one of life’s greatest rewards. (NOTE: No, that is not encouragement to try scaling Aphrodite’s Rock. Don’t be stupid.)

You may be surprised, though, to learn that while the sea stack is best known as Aphrodite’s Rock it is officially called Petra tou Romiou (Πέτρα του Ρωμιού, Rock of the Roman). This name references the Byzantinian emperor Basil, who 19th-century historian George Finlay asserted saw himself as "prudent, just, and devout; [while] others considered him severe, rapacious, cruel, and bigoted.” Does that description remind you of anyone? Well, in that description is where the similarities end, because some good came to Basil’s empire during his reign, unlike the devastation currently being wrought upon the U.S. and indeed the world by the 45th president of the U.S.

Basil is known by some as a dragon slayer. Aphrodite is known by most as the goddess of love. See if you can summon some of their dragon-slaying, love-generating power and embolden your own powers of love and dragon slaying to reach new depths. Or new heights, as the case may be.

But stay off the rock.