SYNOPSIS, Aphrodite’s Sacred Virgins: Set in 40-50 AD, Aphrodite’s Sacred Virgins is a formidable novel and all the more poignant given it is based on historical events. It is vividly written with a spellbinding storyline surrounding the demise of an ancient culture of idolatry and the rise of a Messiah professed to be the Son of God and the Anointed One.
It portrays the introduction of Christianity by St. Paul and St. Barnabas on the island of Cyprus, endeavouring to convert Jews and Hellenes into the new faith. It is an inspiring novel that illustrates slavery, debauchery and rivalry between religious cults that pose a threat to Aphrodite Urania’s worship in fertility rites at her Sanctuary at Nikokleia.
The novel is not only powerful but also has a witty side executed by daring young men (kouros). It transports the reader into a bygone era of intrigue and reveals an exciting adventure filled with historical revelations of times past.
APHRODITE’S SCARED VIRGINS is a 240-page novel with global readership potential, translation rights and certainly film production possibilities. It will be available to the reading public, bookshops and online book providers in December 2016.
AUTHOR
Andreas C Chrysafis was born in the village of Ayios Ambrosios, Kerynia, Cyprus. He was educated in the UK and was also accepted in the Royal Academy of Music. He lived in UK and Canada for most of his life. where he practiced his profession as an architectural designer. He is the published author of: Andartes, Porphyra in Purple and Who Shall Govern Cyprus-Brussels or Nicosia? His books are available worldwide and he’s a prolific writer of books, novels including political articles under the Vanishing Cyprus Series and the Revolution of the Mind Series. He’s other passion in life is to produce original works of art for exhibitions. Today, he lives between London and Cyprus.
APHRODITE URANIA 70x 100cm 09/2015 ©
The birthplace of Aphrodite (Venus) on the shores of Petra tou Romiou in Cyprus has inspired ancient and modern writers, sculptors and artists for centuries. APHRODITE URANIA goddess of Fertility, Beauty and Love portrays the most beautiful woman ever born to mystify males and females alike. Her mesmerising image is infused as being a part of the landscape where she gracefully materialized out of the foam of the sea. Andreas C Chrysafis
APHRODITE’S SACRED VIRGING
BY
Andreas C Chrysafis
A short excerpt from Chapter One…
The Paphian wench, she has refused his amorous intentions one more time! This was his fifth attempt to bed Legia the Temptress and he was getting desperate. Time was not in his favour; at seventy-three years old there was not much time left. His bones creaked at his every move like dried up timber and his bodily ailments, they too had begun to cause him problems but again he could not complain. He had reached a ripe old age!
It was more than he could say for most of his friends. Some died during combat battles in the bloom of their youth, while others suffered aches and pains from old age. He had already succumbed to his destiny for the ultimate solitary journey and was more than ready to make the giant leap to eternity. Not only was he ready but he was also mentally prepared to make the final passage into the black abyss of the afterlife. If only he could be granted one last wish – one night’s pleasure with that mesmerising Legia who drove him insane!
Like a wily thief in the night, Death could easily sneak behind him, snatch his soul and sling it right across the Styx and if Persephone were on duty, she would have a feast with his soul! He was not scared of death, but if suddenly the inevitable came upon him, he’d lose the chance of ever intoxicating his nostrils with the wonderful scent of the Paphian vixen. Rumour has it – bragged by the privileged few – that she had warm kisses sweeter than nectar and a gentle breath to sooth the inner spirit of those who touched her lips. What a wonderful death that would be…
He had tried so many times to lure the temptress into his web but she was too smart for him; she had him going around in spins from blind passion! He threw at her all his charm and fine mannerism but all those persuasive attempts had failed him miserably; she behaved like a wild filly refusing to be tamed! Of all feral creatures, this woman proved to be the most unruly feline he had ever known; this Paphian strumpet proved to be the champion of them all.
How did he become so lustful for Legia’s tender body? That obsessive passion was beyond logic and reason! After all, she was only twenty-six and voluptuously full of life with a young exuberance about her and bursting with an untamed passion and he… a beguiled old man! Whenever he caught sight of her at the market place, he turned into a useless jellyfish; wobbly and limp without the strength to make a move. She never walked, but glided along the ground like a deity in flowing long black hair and bouncy cantilevered breasts that only goddesses possessed. As for her hips, no one else’s could come near them, not even Aphrodite’s and hers were made in heaven grafted by divine intervention!
He never considered himself a geriatric lover at all, but the wench cast a spell on him and he could not sleep at night; not without thinking of her at least once! Besotted and dejected he knew that he was certainly doing something wrong but had no idea what. It certainly was not his age! That, he was most sure it was not!
For his age he was as strong as an ox with the vigour of a young ram…okay; his outer peel may have not been as supple as a young man’s skin and also true…there were a few wrinkles here and there to consider, but those wrinkles were markings of life’s experiences. He had outlived two wives and four children and four wars and here he was…obsessed with bedding this one woman who drove him out of his mind!
To look at Legia in her magnificence one was instantly mesmerised by her beauty! She was a symbol of female loveliness and truly a goddess of love with a beautiful oval tanned face, high cheekbones and stunning dark eyes. A single glance from those raven eyes of hers, ensnared a man forever! Only kings and the wealthiest of aristocrats could cross over her threshold and wallow in debauchery. As for the rest of the men; they had no chance of ever climbing those famous portico steps to her palatial love nest.
The lucky ones would spend a few days there before marching off to an expedition of plundering and enslavement. The privileged few were ready and willing to give her anything to stimulate their senses in anticipation that some harm may come to them in battle. If that were their destiny, they would at least die happily knowing they had spent a few nights with that icon of loveliness. For those moments of utter bliss, they paid her handsomely with plenty of gold coins, houses, land and glory.
Legia was a child born to a temple priestess. As a result of her sacred origins she too had become a divine goddess at Aphrodite’s Sanctuary at Nikokleia. Keeping the ancient tradition of fertility rites, girls offered their body and soul in worship of Aphrodite Urania. Each and every one of those temple maidens became earthly goddesses and the personification of the Cyprian Goddess herself.
Legia devoted her blossoming years within the confines of the Sanctuary. She tended the sacred hearth by keeping the fire alight and partaking in nightly processions, chanting and carrying blazing torch lights around the symbolic phallus of the black conical monolith. Dressed in fine white tunics, and garlands in their hair, the string of earth goddesses would dance under the moonlight to perform the harvesting, fire and the water-rites. But the most important ritual of them all was their performance of fertility rites.
As a devoted young priestess, Legia not only learned the art of love-making and how to please a man, but had also learned the art of speaking and titillating mannerisms, poise of elegance and ways to make men squat in servitude at her feet in search of heaven for one night. She was no man’s toy but man’s dream that he would do anything for a night’s passion with her.
From a young age she had learned that love was a bitter hunger for passion that consumed people’s mind and soul and knowing that, she played on it. Soon after her duties as a sacred temple priestess came to an end, she left the sanctuary. At twenty-six years old her name soon had become a household icon across the island; while men desired the pleasures of her body, the women envied her power over their men!
*************
Old-Stratos, the son of Aegisthus from Salamina was beguiled by this seductress and had difficulty sleeping at nights – even at his old age! There was only one obsession left in his life; to collapse into her soft bosom and get a hint of her intoxicating supple skin!
He was often angry with himself for this unnatural obsession of his and could not explain it. His old friends had mellowed and no longer sought out the pleasures of the flesh. Those cherished bodily pleasures faded away and they soon gained greater pleasure in conversation rather than frolicking in bodily desires. For him, there was no such blessing. He was totally consumed by passion for this young Paphian and vowed to find a way to be with her once before Death came knocking at his door.
