in Mythology, the surname of Venus, so called from Cythera an island, where she had a temple esteemed the most ancient in Greece, and on the shores of which she was believed to be borne by the Zephyrs, surrounded by the Loves, the Tritons, and Nereids, reclining in a languishing posture in a sea-shell. They give the name of Cytherides to the Graces which attended her on the shore without quitting her, except on those occasions when the rather chose to be waited upon by the Pleasures.