1Ancient tradition records King Aerias as the founder of the temple; some say that this is the name of the goddess herself. 1A more recent account relates that the temple was consecrated by Cinyras, and that the goddess herself, conceived of the sea, was carried ashore here; 1but that the science and art of the soothsayers was brought in from abroad, and that the Cilician Tamiras introduced it, and so it was agreed that the descendants of both families should preside over the rites. 1Later, so that the royal line should not be without some distinction above the foreign stock, the strangers gave up the very science which they had introduced: only the priest of Cinyras' line is consulted.
1Victims are chosen as each person has vowed, but they must be male: the surest trust is placed in the entrails of kids. 1It is forbidden to pour blood on the altar: the altars are honoured with prayers and pure fire, and though they stand in the open air they are never wet by any rain. 1The image of the goddess is not in human form; it is a continuous rounded mass, broader at the base and rising, like a turning-post, to a slender circumference; but the reason for this is obscure.