Xeíne/Xéne and Xenía: two badly known epithets of Aphrodite

Abstract

In this article we analyse two literary evidences from the word Ξείνη/Ξένη as an epithet for Aphrodite and we propose that it can be related with some particular function of the goddess as Patron of hospitality, guests and foreigners in the East Mediterranean, particularly in Cyprus. Furthermore we include an epigraphical text from Megalopolis (Arcadia) in which the epithet Ξενία could show that this function of Aphrodite was also known in continental Greece.