Question 1

Where does my host deliver the car in Kythira?

Accepted Answer

Most Sync hosts deliver to Kythira Airport (KIT), 10km northeast of Chora, to Diakofti port (to meet you off the ferry), or to your accommodation anywhere on the island. If arriving by ferry, agree on a meeting point at Diakofti when you book: the port is small and easy to find. Your host will confirm before arrival.

Question 2

Why is Kythira said to be the birthplace of Aphrodite, and what is the island's mythological significance?

Accepted Answer

The myth of Aphrodite's birth is one of the oldest and most unusual in Greek mythology. According to Hesiod's Theogony (written around 700 BC, one of the earliest Greek texts we have), Cronos, the Titan, castrated his father Ouranos (the sky) with a sickle and threw the severed genitals into the sea. From the sea foam that gathered around them, Aphrodite emerged, fully formed. The Greek word for sea foam is aphros, which is where her name comes from.

The location of this event was disputed even in antiquity. Hesiod says the foam drifted to Cyprus, and the Cypriots claimed the goddess as their own. But an older tradition, possibly pre-Hellenic, placed the birth here in the waters off Kythira, specifically near the rocky outcrop visible from the south coast of the island. The cult of Aphrodite was established on Kythira before Cyprus, according to Herodotus (5th century BC), who wrote that the sanctuary at Kythira was the oldest and holiest in the Greek world.

The island's name in Latin is Cythera, and it gave rise to the adjective "Cytherean" as a poetic synonym for Aphrodite herself. The French painter Watteau painted "Embarkation for Cythera" (1717), depicting elegant figures departing for the island of love: the painting is one of the most famous in the Louvre and established Cythera as a romanticized symbol in 18th-century European culture, though few in Paris had any idea where the island actually was.

The Venetian castle at the top of Chora stands on the site of an ancient sanctuary, possibly the original Aphrodite temple mentioned by Herodotus. No significant ancient remains survive above ground, but the location and the view from it, looking out over the southern sea, are striking and appropriate for a place with this mythology attached to it.

Question 3

What is the connection between Kythira and Australia?

Accepted Answer

Kythira has one of the most intense emigration histories of any Greek island relative to its size. From the 1880s onward, and in larger waves after both world wars, Kytherians emigrated to Australia in numbers that eventually produced a diaspora many times larger than the island's remaining permanent population. The destination was overwhelmingly Australia, specifically Melbourne and Sydney, with Melbourne's Greek-Australian community (one of the largest Greek populations outside Greece) having a notable Kytherian core.

The reasons were partly push, partly pull. The island's economy was limited, agricultural land scarce, and the population growing faster than local opportunities could support. Australian shipping and labor recruitment connected Kythera to Australia relatively early, and chain migration did the rest: once a Kytherian community established itself in a city, it recruited from home, and cousins followed uncles who followed neighbors. By the mid-20th century, Kytherians in Melbourne were running cafes, fish and chip shops, and grocery stores in numbers disproportionate to their origin island's population.

The cultural consequence is visible on Kythira every summer. The island's permanent population is around 3,500. In July and August, when the Greek-Australian diaspora returns, the island fills with people who speak Greek with Australian accents, grandchildren visiting grandparents' villages for the first time, and elderly Australians returning to the houses they left sixty years ago. Some have kept the family home for three generations without ever permanently returning. The Kytherian Brotherhood in Melbourne, founded in 1919, is one of the oldest Greek diaspora organizations in Australia and maintains active cultural and charitable programs.

The Kythera Museum in Potamos covers this emigration history alongside the island's broader history. If you're visiting in summer and you hear Australian English in a village square, you're watching one of Greece's more unusual and persistent diaspora connections in action.

Question 4

What is Chora like and what else on the island is worth driving to?

Accepted Answer

Chora is the capital, perched on a ridge in the south-center of the island at about 280 meters. It is one of the better-preserved examples of a Venetian-influenced hilltop village in Greece: white cubic houses, narrow lanes, bougainvillea, and at the top a Venetian castle (kastro) with battlements intact and views south over the sea toward Antikythira and, on a clear day, Crete. The castle was built by the Venetians in the 13th century on the site of an older Byzantine fortification; it changed hands between Venice, the Ottomans, and the French before becoming definitively Greek. The village below the castle has several small churches, a small archaeological museum in the upper village, and a main lane with a few kafeneions and tavernas. It is quiet, even in summer, which is the point: Kythira's tourism profile is families and couples who specifically chose it over busier islands.

Kapsali, 2km below Chora, is the main beach village: two curved sandy bays separated by a small promontory, with the silhouette of Chora's kastro visible above. The beach nearest the village is the more developed one; the second bay (Fyri Ammos) is quieter and reached by a short walk. Good for a morning swim before heading inland.

Other drives worth making: Avlemonas on the east coast (25km from Chora) is a tiny fishing village with a small Venetian lookout tower and one of the best fish tavernas on the island, good for a long lunch. Mylopotamos in the north-center is a village built around a stream with working watermills, shaded plane trees, and a small waterfall (the Fonissa falls) a 15-minute walk downstream. The drive there from Chora (about 20km) passes through the agricultural interior of the island, which is very different from the coast. Paleopoli on the east coast is the site of the ancient city of Kythira, where significant bronze finds have been made, with a small museum nearby.

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Frequently asked questions about car rental in Kythira

Where does my host deliver the car in Kythira?

Why is Kythira said to be the birthplace of Aphrodite, and what is the island's mythological significance?

What is the connection between Kythira and Australia?

What is Chora like and what else on the island is worth driving to?

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