CYTHERA (now Cerigo), an island in the Mediterranean, off the southern coast of Laconia. Its greatest length is about 19 miles from N. to S.; its greatest breadth about 10 from E. to W. It is for the most part rocky and barren, and is chiefly interesting from its association with the early worship of Venus. That goddess, whose worship was originally introduced into this island from Syria, was fabled in the ancient mythology to have sprung from the foam of the sea near Cythera. From this circumstance she was called by the Greeks Aphrodite. Cythera originally belonged to the Argives, from whom it passed to the Spartans. In the Peloponnesian war it was seized by the Athenians under Nicias. Before the close of the war it once more reverted to Sparta, but in 393 B.C. the Athenians again got possession of it. The chief towns of the island were Scandæia and Cythera. See IONIAN ISLANDS.