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The association of the island with the goddess resounds mythologically in king Cinyras being the founder of Paphos and its fane of Aphrodite. Her very first temple was according to Herodotus I, 105 erected in Asqalon by the Semitic Phoenicians. The very locality is known to be related to the goddess Δερκετώ(Derketṓ), identical to Ugaritic𐎄𐎗𐎋𐎚f(drkt, “rule, power”) – recalling the idea of greatness, Arabicالْكُبْرَى(al-kubrā).
The island taking its relevance from being the major source of copper during the Near East’s Bronze Age, the name of a local cult became associated—in no discernible order!—with the metal and with the island itself. It spread, notably to Sumerian𒌓𒅗𒁇(ud-ka-bar/zabar, kabar/, “bronze, copper”), Eblaite𒂵𒁀𒈝(ga-ba-lum/kabalum/, “copper”), Hurrian(kabali, kābli, “copper”), and Latinaes Cyprium(“Cypriot copper”), later cuprum.
Before that, a time is known where ancient Cyprus did not have the present name, in view of its division into kingdoms which usually served for more specific names; the name for the whole island is just barely known in Phoenician as 𐤀𐤋𐤔𐤉(ʾlšy/ʾalašiya/) and Ugaritic𐎀𐎍𐎘𐎊(ảlṯy/ʔalaṯiya/). Nonetheless Mycenaean Greek attests the adjective 𐀓𐀠𐀪𐀍(ku-pi-ri-jo, “Cypriot”).
^ The weekday names in Arab antiquity, like in European languages, come from theonyms, which were used in greater variety to express similar ideas and idioms of different tribes, before suffering unification by monotheism. In polytheist times there was a main or preferred female deity in each tribe. The same idea, with subtle distinction, could be termed Arabicالْكُبْرَى(al-kubrā, literally “the great”) as well as in Meccaالْعُزَّى(al-ʕuzzā, literally “the most powerful”), rendered Ancient GreekΝαζαία(Nazaía), عَرُوبَة(ʕarūba, literally “the one who enables love”), and اللَات(al-lāt), now provided but by اللّٰه(allāh). Either occurred in the takbir and basmala:[2] beside the present male given name عَبْد اللّٰه(ʕabd allāh, literally “slave of god”) we also had عَبْد الْعزّى, عَبْد الشَّمْس(ʕabd aš-šams, “slave of the Sun”), عَبْد الْمَسِيح(ʕabd al-masīḥ, “slave of the Messiah”), عَبْد اللَّات(ʕabd al-lāt, “slave of Allat”), and just as one now says بِسْمِ ٱللّٰه(bismi llāh), there are variants of this invocation like بِسْمِكَ ٱللّٰهُمَّ(bismika llāhumma), and we should imagine that ancient Arabs shouted اللَّاتُ كُبْرَى(al-lātu kubrā) instead of اللّٰهُ أَكْبَر(allāhu ʔakbar) as a set phrase, functionally equivalent.
To return to the interpretation of Greek history and historiography, in the Greek pantheon any such Oriental female god equates to Aphrodite (interpretatio graeca).
References
^ Rotter, Gernot (1993) “Der dies veneris im vorislamischen Mekka, eine neue Deutung des Namens „Europa“ und eine Erklärung für kobar = Venus”, in Der Islam (in German), volume 70, number 1, →DOI, pages 122–129
^ Alhatlani, Abdullah Saad, Al‐Otibi, Ajab Mohammad (2023) “A Palaeo‐Arabic inscription from the Ḥismā Desert (Tabūk region)”, in Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, volume 34, number 1, →DOI, pages 183–193
Further reading
Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “Κύπρος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 805, according to whom possibly from a Pre-Greek language
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 1,007
“Στέφ. Βυζ. Ἐθν. σ.λ. Κύπρος (Κωνστ. Πορφ. Περὶ θεμ. 1.13)”, in Ψηφιακή Αρχαία Κυπριακή Γραμματεία, 2017 December 6 (last accessed), archived from the original on 5 October 2017, ancient etymologies about the origin of the island's name by Stephanus of Byzantium in his work Ἐθνικά
^ Κύπρος - Babiniotis, Georgios (2010) Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας Etymologikó lexikó tis néas ellinikís glóssas [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek language] (in Greek), Athens: Lexicology Centre