22 CYPRUS. 
CHAP, subterraneous chambers, or sepulchres '. Not 
,- / long before our arrival, the English Consul, 
Signor Peristiani, a Venetian, dug up, in one 
place, above thirty idols belonging to the most 
antient mythology of the heathen world. Their 
origin refers to a period long anterior to the 
conquest of Cyprus by the Ptolemies, and may 
relate to the earliest establishment of the 
Phoenician colonies. Some of these are of terra 
cotta; others of a coarse limestone; and some 
of soft crumbling marble. They were all sent 
to our Ambassador at Constantinople, who pre- 
sented them to Mr. Cripps. The principal 
Nature of figurcs sccm to have been very antient repre- 
vi-nur""^ sentations of the most popular divinity of the 
island, the Paxtamorpha Mater; more fre- 
quently represented as Ceres than as Venus, 
(notwithstanding all that Poets have feigned of 
the Paphian Goddess,) if we may safely trust to 
such documents as engraved gems, medals, 
marbles, and to these idols, the authentic records 
of the country. Upon almost all the intaglios 
found in Cyprus, even among the ruins of Paphos, 
the representations are either those of Ceres 
(l) De La Roque was in Oipitis in May 1683. At that time, a 
relation of his, Mons^'. Feau, the French Consul at Larneca, shewed 
to him sundry antiquities recently discovered in sepulchres near the 
town. He particularly mentions lachrymatories and lamps. P'ny.de 
Syrk et du Mon Lihan, par De La Roque, torn. I. p. 2. Par. 1729. 
