Hero or God Comes to Nea Paphos

Abstract

In September 2008, over the course of excavations at the Early Roman House, the bust of a young man was discovered in Room 24. He is depicted with curly hair and is wearing a conical cap. The author of this paper discusses the possible identification of the sculpture. There are two differing ideas. According to the first, the young man could be identified as one of the Dioskouroi, while the other theory considers him to be Attis. The author does not determine conclusively which of the concepts is appropriate, because both are supported by strong evidence.

Keywords

• Cyprus
• Nea Paphos
• the Hellenistic house
• hero-god
• bust
• sculpture