The present volume arose from the conference entitled ‘Cyprus: a place and topos in ancient literature’, which took place on the 21st and the 22nd September 2018 in Athens, Greece. Most of the papers originally presented there were subsequently revised for publication in this volume, which was further enriched with the welcome addition of four new papers (C. Fakas, N. Kanavou, S. Matthaios, and D. Spencer). The contributors’ editorial preferences when citing ancient sources have been respected throughout, including the use of [ ] and { } where necessary.
It is our pleasure to acknowledge here the contribution of people and institutions which helped the original conference and the present volume come to life. We would first like to thank all the speakers and participants in the conference for their papers and for stimulating discussion. We would also like to acknowledge the financial support of the A.G. Leventis Foundation that made it all possible, and we are grateful to the ‘House of Cyprus’ in Athens for providing an excellent venue for the conference. Thanks are also due to the Brill publishing house for accepting this book in the Mnemosyne Supplements series, to the anonymous reviewer for constructive feedback, and to Giulia Moriconi and Bart Nijsten for their patience and for the professional handling of the publication process. Finally, we would like to record a long-standing debt to Andreas Voskos, Emeritus Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Athens, for motivating us to explore further Cyprus in ancient literature.