paphian

adj

1. (not-comparable)Of, from or relating to Paphos, the mythical birthplace of the goddess of love on the island of Cyprus.

   “[…] the Paphian deitie,”

   “Then thus incensed, the Paphian queen replies: / "Obey the power from whom thy glories rise: / Should Venus leave thee, every charm must fly, / Fade from thy cheek, and languish in thy eye. / Cease to provoke me, lest I make thee more / The world’s aversion, than their love before; / Now the bright prize for which mankind engage, / Than, the sad victim, of the public rage."”

   “So ſaying, the might of Vulcan loos’d the ſnare, / And they, detain’d by thoſe coercive bands / No longer, from the couch upſtarting, flew, / Mars into Thrace, and to her Paphian home / The Queen of ſmiles, where deep in myrtle groves / Her incenſe-breathing altar ſtands embow’r’d.”

2. (literary, not-comparable)Pertaining to love or sexual desire, especially when illicit.

   “Cease admiration, sit to Cupid's feast, / The preparation to Paphian dalliance.”

   “I lay, as it were, in the Paphian bower of bliss, in a state of exquisite sensations quite impossible to describe.”

   “People passed, but they held me not. Paphian eyes rayed upon me, and left me unscathed.”

noun

1. A native or inhabitant of Paphos.

   “Then there is the mastus. Apollodorus the Cyrenæan, as Pamphilus says, states that this is a name given to drinking-cups by the Paphians.”

2. (literary)A prostitute.

   “They reach'd the hotel: forth stream'd from the front door / A tide of well-clad waiters, and around / The mob stood, and as usual several score / Of those pedestrian Paphians who abound / In decent London when the daylight's o'er; / Commodious but immoral, they are found / Useful, like Malthus, in promoting marriage.”

   “A smile I had learned to know elsewhere lurked at one corner of my paphian's mouth.”