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 Nereides, reclining in a languishing posture in a sea-shell. The name of Cytheriades is given to the Graces which attended her on the shore without quitting her except when she chose rather to be waited upon by the Pleasures.