PETRA TOU ROMIOU
In Greek, Petra tou Romiou means “rock of the
Romans,” but it was an ancient Greek goddess who
put this mighty boulder on the map of legends.
Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, Beauty and Bounty, was born
in the warm watery shadow of the rock, as imposing today
as it was in ancient times. According to one version of
her birth, beautiful Aphrodite was simply the daughter
of Zeus and Dione. Another has her emerging from the sea
foam swirling around the boulder. But it may well be
that the rebellious Titan Kronos castrated his father
Ouranos and tossed the unseemly package into the sea.
Aphrodite is said to have emerged from that foam —
again, right at Petra tou Romiou. And this makes her the
most ancient goddess in the Olympian pantheon.
Another version of
Aphrodite’s birth has her hatching from an egg
that, millennia ago, fell into the Euphrates River. Fish
apparently rolled the egg to the riverbank, where doves
alighted on it and kept it warm. Syrians have treated
fish and doves with god-like reverence ever since and
generally refuse to eat either.
