In Cyprus we encounter a population which essentially resembles the modern, rather than the ancient Greek in character.

One of the most pleasing features of the island is the everyday domestic life of its inhabitants. The members of every family cling inseparably together, and share among themselves whatever good or evil fortune awaits them. To pay for the education of a son or brother, parents and children will suffer both want and hunger. Brothers will not marry until their sisters are provided for, and it is often truly touching to see how the grey-headed fathers and mothers, who seem here to be particularly numerous, are honoured and cared for by their children.

Among the ancient Greeks the men allowed themselves much freedom in love affairs and worshipped at the shrine of beauty. The women, on the contrary, were chaste and modest, and lived retired, industriously employed in their household duties. Such are the Cyprian women at the present day. The influence of the female part of the community has, moreover, of late remarkably advanced. Perhaps among no other people do women hold a more influential position. The mother is the mistress of the household, and it is principally by her that the family is held together. It is a common saying, that men make laws, but women regulate the manners of a people. The laws, however, are dependent upon the manners, and the more strictly these latter are watched over, so much the better for the well-being of the State. The modern Greeks make the best sailors, and the most discreet and prudent men of business in the world; they are good hands at fine work, are fond of horticulture, and are skilled manufacturers and money dealers. Although fond of the warm slopes and sunny climate of their native land, they are ever ready to quit it at a moment’s notice to seek their fortune elsewhere. They are remarkable among all the dwellers in the East for their activity and the elasticity of their spirits, which nothing seems to subdue, and which, when repressed, is continually breaking out more cheerfully and brightly than before, like their own sunny sky after the storm has passed away. They are fond of literature, and are delighted with a graceful expression, or a witty saying. They take an interest in everything and delight in talking and telling tales. Their understanding and imagination in short are extraordinarily powerful and active.

And now having said so much on the bright side of their character, we must turn to their vices and faults. Their laughable conceit, which displays itself in a thousand unexpected forms, might be passed over, as also the grasping avarice which is conspicuous in most of their dealings, for vanity may rise into ambition, and niggardliness be refined into praiseworthy economy, were their other vices not so numerous and so grave. In social life we may place falsehood and faithlessness, knavery and lying, at the head of the catalogue. Of insatiable covetousness, heartless robbery, and implacable revenge, examples are numberless. Justice is so totally set aside that, if a man be placed upon a jury, he is compelled to acquit the offender, because he thinks in his heart that he himself may shortly be placed in the same unfortunate predicament.

If we are asked what is the political condition of Cyprus, we can only say that it is busied with small matters, in important affairs it is all baseness and subserviency. No one can deny to the modern Greeks the possession of political cunning. Nevertheless, in the great and necessary virtue of obedience, they are altogether wanting, and officers and soldiers will discuss and quarrel over political questions, forgetting that it is the duty of the one to command and of the other to obey. No sooner is an important proclamation issued, than it becomes the subject of criticism, and mockery, but no one thinks of obeying it.

The modern Greek is one of the slyest, most active, and most persevering of rascals, but his efforts are all for the purpose of over-reaching his antagonist, and cheating the State. In like manner, barefaced simony is practised throughout the Eastern churches. The whole country is full of combinations and parties, not employed in establishing principles, but merely in endeavouring to obtain power in order to reward their partisans with places and emoluments.

These evils cast so deep a shadow over the modern Greek that the few bright points remaining—hospitality, public spirit, courage, and patriotism—almost disappear in the general gloom.

In ancient times the effeminacy and luxury of the Cypriotes had passed into a proverb. The worship of Venus assumed the character of unbridled sensuality, and the young of both sexes, brought up in the midst of these luxurious festivals, soon learnt to look upon pleasure as the end and aim of their existence.

Clearcus de Soli gives the following account of the effeminate manners of the Cyprian kings: He says, “There were women attached to the household of the ladies of the royal family who were called ‘Flatterers;’ at a later date their name was changed to ‘Clemacides,’ because they were in the habit of curving their backs into a sort of step for the use of the ladies as they got into, and came down from, their litters.” Clearcus speaks angrily of this abject and despicable practice, which tended to increase the indolence and luxuriousness of the princesses who kept these women. “But,” he adds, “these ‘Clemacides,’ after having spent the early part of their lives in the midst of luxury and refinement, are left to an old age of misery. Decency will not allow me to relate to what degree of libertinism these women brought the princesses and ladies of the court. I will only add that practising upon themselves and upon others all sorts of abominable witchcraft, they offered by their shameful conduct a spectacle of the most repulsive vice.”

Clearcus, too, has given us the following description of a young Paphian king: “This young man carried the refinement of luxury, to the extent of lying on a bed, or sofa with silver feet, overspread with a splendid carpet or rug; under his head were three pillows covered with very fine linen of a rich colour, and handsomely trimmed. His feet rested upon two purple cushions, and he was dressed in a white robe. At some distance from the bed stood slaves, and near the young king were his flatterers, men of good position.” Clearcus adds: “Each of these devoted himself in some way to add to the indolence of the prince. One seated at the foot of the bed had the young man’s feet resting upon his knees; another seated near the bed, bent over the hand which the king allowed him to caress, and gently stretched out one finger after another; the third, who was highest in rank, stood at the head leaning over the cushions and passing his left hand through the young prince’s hair, whilst with the right he gently waved a fan.”

To such a height of notorious extravagance had the princes of Cyprus attained, that Antiphanes, a comic poet of Rhodes, wrote a most amusing comedy, in which he caricatured the folly of the Cypriotes.[12] Manners such as we have described had their origin in the luxurious example of neighbouring Persian satraps, and were brought to the utmost refinement of self-indulgence by the subtile mind of the Greek.