The goddess, worshipped by the Cypriots in the Asilia region and especially
in the sanctuary of Cupra Marittima at Mount Agnesia, has an indisputable name: goddess Cupra.
Literature and epigraphy attest to this in an unequivocal and absolute manner.
Strabo speaks of the Cuprae fanum; the poet Silio Italico sings of the Cuprae altaria;
a plaque from the Roman period testifies to the restoration of the temple of the goddesses Cuprae by the munificence of Emperor Hadrian.
Regarding the origin of the cult and theogonic identification, opinions are divided in opposing camps.
The distinction between deities of a residential people and deities imported or brought by a people in their migration is not valid.
All peoples have in fact, sooner or later, migrated to the Italian peninsula.
Valid, on the other hand, is the distinction between the cult proper to a people, wherever they migrated to, and a cult transposed by external influences from other peoples.
The goddess Cupra is a divinity that finds its roots in the internal and ancient traditions of that people, who immigrated at a given time and became indigenous due to their centuries-long stay.
The goddess, worshipped by the Cypriots in the Asilia region and especially
in the sanctuary of Cupra Marittima at Mount Agnesia, has an indisputable name: goddess Cupra.
Literature and epigraphy attest to this in an unequivocal and absolute manner.
Strabo speaks of the Cuprae fanum; the poet Silio Italico sings of the Cuprae altaria;
a plaque from the Roman period testifies to the restoration of the temple of the goddesses Cuprae by the munificence of Emperor Hadrian.
Regarding the origin of the cult and theogonic identification, opinions are divided in opposing camps.
The distinction between deities of a residential people and deities imported or brought by a people in their migration is not valid.
All peoples have in fact, sooner or later, migrated to the Italian peninsula.
Valid, on the other hand, is the distinction between the cult proper to a people, wherever they migrated to, and a cult transposed by external influences from other peoples.
The goddess Cupra is a divinity that finds its roots in the internal and ancient traditions of that people, who immigrated at a given time and became indigenous due to their centuries-long stay.