Erycina

(Ἐρυκίνη), a surname of Aphrodite, derived from mount Eryx, in Sicily, where she had a famous temple, which was said to have been built by Eryx, a son of Aphrodite and the Sicilian king Butes. (Diod. 4.83.) Virgil (Aen. 5.760) makes Aeneias build the temple. Psophis, a daughter of Eryx, was believed to have founded a temple of Aphrodite Erycina, at Psophis, in Arcadia. (Paus. 8.24.3.) From Sicily the worship of Aphrodite (Venus) Erycina was introduced at Rome about the beginning of the second Punic war (Liv. 22.9, 10, 23.30, &c.), and in B. C. 181 a temple was built to her outside the Porta Collatina. (Liv. 40.34; Ov. Fast. 4.871, Rem. Amor. 549 ; Strab. vi. p.272; comp. Cic. in Verr. 4.8; Hor. Carm. 1.2.33; Ov. Ep. 15.57.) [L.S]

(Ἐρυκίνη). A surname of Aphrodité, from Mount Eryx in Sicily, where she had a temple. The Erycinian Aphrodité appears to have been the same with the Phoenician Astarté, whose worship was brought over by the latter people, and a temple erected to her on Mount Eryx. In confirmation of this, we learn from Diodorus Siculus that the Carthaginians revered the Erycinian Aphrodité equally as much as did the natives themselves (Diod. Sic.iv. 83).