When greek poet George Seferis paid a visit to the ruins of the greatest sanctuary of Aphrodite in Palaepaphos, he also visited the church of Panaghia, which is built right next to the site. While standing in the church yard, the scent of oil coming from an old oil press invoked a vision. He saw a girl, a sacred prostitute, offering herself to a stranger, as an act of paying her duties to Goddess Aphrodite.

In the Goddess’s Name I Summon You...

Oil on limbs,

maybe a rancid smell

as on the chapel’s

oil-press here,

as on the rough pores

of the unturning stone.

Oil on hair

wreathed in rope

and maybe other scents

unknown to us

poor and rich

and statuettes offering

small breasts with their fingers.

Oil in the sun

the leaves shuddered

when the stranger stopped

and the silence weighed

between the knees.

The coins fell:

‘In the goddess’s name I summon you...’

Oil on the shoulders

and the flexing waist

legs grass-dappled,

and that wound in the sun

as the bell rang for vespers

as I spoke in the churchyard

with a crippled man.

Filming at the ruins, the church in the back

By George Seferis 1900–1971 George Seferis