Cinyras

Cinyras was a king of Cyprus in Greek mythology, a wealthy ruler beloved by Apollo and a priest of Aphrodite. He is remembered for the corselet he sent to Agamemnon, for his clay ships, and, in Ovid’s account, as the father of Myrrha and through her of Adonis.

Family

The sources disagree on Cinyras’ ancestry. In Apollodorus he came to Cyprus from Cilicia, the son of Sandocus and Pharnace, and founded Paphos there. He married Metharme, daughter of the Cypriot king Pygmalion, and had sons Oxyporus and Adonis and daughters Orsedice, Laogore and Braesia. Because of the anger of Aphrodite, these daughters lived with foreigners and ended their lives in Egypt (Apollodorus, Library 3.14.3). Apollodorus also names a daughter Laodice, who married Elatus and bore Stymphalus and Pereus (Library 3.9.1). Pliny calls him the son of Agriopas (Natural History 7).

Pindar says that golden-haired Apollo loved Cinyras and that he served as a priest in the house of Aphrodite (Pythian 2.15–17), and that the god loaded him with riches in Cyprus (Nemean 8.18).

The Corselet for Agamemnon

In the Iliad, Cinyras gave Agamemnon a corselet as a guest-gift, because he had heard in Cyprus that the Achaeans were about to sail against Troy. Homer describes its stripes of dark blue enamel, gold and tin, and the three blue serpents on each side of the neck (Iliad 11.19–28).

The Epitome of Apollodorus tells that Menelaus went with Odysseus and Talthybius to Cinyras in Cyprus to persuade him to join the allies. Cinyras made a present of breastplates to the absent Agamemnon and swore that he would send fifty ships, but sent only one, commanded by the son of Mygdalion, and moulded the rest out of clay and set them in the sea (Epitome 3.9).

Cinyras, Myrrha and Adonis

In Ovid, Cinyras is the father of Myrrha. Myrrha fell in love with her father, and with the help of her nurse she lay with him in the dark during a festival of Ceres when his wife Cenchreis was away. When Cinyras brought a light and saw who she was, he drew his sword; Myrrha fled, and at last the gods turned her into the myrrh tree. From it Adonis was born (Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.298–502, 10.503–518).

Apollodorus gives two versions. In one, Adonis is a son of Cinyras and Metharme, as above. In another, which he attributes to Panyasis, Adonis is the son of Thias, king of Assyria, and Thias’ daughter Smyrna, who through Aphrodite’s anger fell in love with her father, slept with him for twelve nights without his knowledge and was changed into the myrrh tree (Library 3.14.3–4).

Inventor of Crafts

Pliny lists Cinyra, son of Agriopas, among the inventors who first made roof tiles and who discovered copper mines in Cyprus, and who invented tongs, the hammer, the lever and the anvil (Natural History 7).

Cinyras in Ovid's Tapestry

In Ovid, Arachne weaves a picture of Cinyras embracing the steps of a temple which were once his daughters’ limbs, lying on the stone and weeping (Metamorphoses 6.98–100).

Cinyras Sources

Homer, Iliad 11.19–28; Pindar, Pythian 2.15–17, Nemean 8.18; Apollodorus, Library 3.9.1, 3.14.3–4, Epitome 3.9; Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.98–100, 10.298–518; Pliny, Natural History 7.

See Also: Agamemnon, Trojan War, Apollo, Aphrodite, Adonis, Myrrha, Menelaus, Odysseus