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Meaning & History
Latinized form of Greek Κύθηρα (Kythera), the name of an island of Greece, as well as an ancient town on the island. In Greek mythology, Cythera was the birthplace of the goddess Aphrodite, being the island to which she first arrived after emerging from the sea, and the source of her epithet KYTHEREIA (Latin: CYTHEREA). L'Embarquement pour Cythère (1717) is the title of a painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau, also known in English as The Embarkation for Cythera, Voyage to Cythera and Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera.