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The works of travellers and archaeologists in Cyprus during the second half of the 19th century abound in prurient descriptions of the supposed cult of Aphrodite or Ashtart in ancient Cyprus.“Abominable lust, bloodshed and depravity” is by no means the strongest. To these are added the stories of classical mythology and a series of ill-informed stereotypes about Oriental sexuality, both ancient and modern. These 19th century interpretations of the worship of Aphrodite in ancient Cyprus are a consequence of various ideologies prevalent among Europeans who travelled to the Eastern Mediterranean. Prurient travellers escaping the moralistic attitudes of Western Europe looked eagerly for exotic and Oriental titillation. Imperial officials and ideologues legitimised their rule by tracing a heritage of amorality from antiquity to the present. Missionaries of western religion and culture found ancient vice and modern heresy convenient tools for the justification of their unpopular proselytising. Two forces in particular drove British imperialist attitudes: colonial desire, the urge to conquer and master a feminised, exotic, oriental Other; and colonial fear, whether of the unknown, of being vastly outnumbered, or of the “unnatural practices” that they themselves had projected onto the Orient. Aphrodite, according to these writers, had corrupted the Cypriot people, and her influence was still to be seen. Because of the imperial relationship, however, it was these Europeans who had corrupted Aphrodite.