Cythera (island) - Cultural References

Cultural References

• Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and other similarly themed paintings show the goddess Venus arriving either at the shore of Cythera or Cyprus, as classical mythology identifies both islands as her birthplace.
• The island's status as the birthplace of the goddess is also referenced in the title and subject of the Antoine Watteau painting Embarkation for Cythera.
• Charles Baudelaire, in the poem A Voyage to Cythera, called the island a "banal Eldorado".
• The Baudelaire poem is quoted and the island is referenced in Anthony Powell's The Kindly Ones (1962), part of A Dance to the Music of Time.
• A Voyage to Cythera is also the title of a short shory (1967) by Margaret Drabble.
• The song "In Cythera" was released by alternative rock group Killing Joke on their 2012 album MMXII.