PAPHOS, the name of two cities near the west coast of Cyprus. , Old Paphos was on the river Bocarus, about 10 stadia from the coast, near the promontory Zephyrium; it had a harbour at the mouth of the river. The city was distinguished by a temple of Aphrodite, to which an oracle was attached; the priest exercised a sort of hieratic supremacy over the whole island. Paphos was the favourite city of Aphrodite, who is often styled the Paphian goddess. The grave of Aphrodite was shown in the city, and her image in the temple was a conical stone. There is no doubt that both the city and the cultus were of Phoenician origin. Apollodorus says that the Syrian king Cinyras was the founder. The place was subject to earthquakes; it was totally destroyed by a shock in the time of Augustus, and, being restored by that emperor, took the name Augusta or '⅜eβaστη, which, however, did not displace the old name. New Paphos was situated in a fertile plain, about 10 miles inland from Old Paphos. There was a great festal procession from it every year to the temple of Aphrodite in the old city. It was a flourishing commercial place in the time of Strabo.

a celebrated city of Cyprus, lying on the western coast of the island, where Venus (who from hence took the name of Paphia) had her most ancient and most famous temple; and here the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus, resided, whom St. Paul converted to Christianity, Acts xiii, 6.