Aphrodite, Cyprus and Crete
https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/a-sanctuary-of-hermes-and-aphrodite-in-crete/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/2500-year-old-temple-aphrodite-found-turkey-180976694/
https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=90367
“The Luwians, for example, may have been the “Sea People” with whom Ramses III fought, the Trojans with whom the Myceneans fought during Homer’s Trojan War, and the confederate power which brought down the Hittites, all events occurring during the Late Bronze Age when several civilizations collapsed and recorded history entered a so-called Dark Age (Zangger, 2016).”
Interestingly, I would postulate that there may be a linguistic tie between the Luwians and the Biblical figure known as Jesus. Given that his Hebrew name is pronounced Yessua or Yessuwa, it is easy to see a connection the Luwian word ending of -wa to a possible tie between the two. And if Yessua was Luwian, the name “Luw” could have ties to the Tuatha de Danaan god, “Lugh.” While it is a stretch, this could explains some of the abilities attributed to the Biblical Yessua and why various groups took issue with him for apparently little to no reason. Perhaps he was in line for an exiled kingship or his Luwian lineage was seen as posing some other threat.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43077586
Author Ahmed Osman even goes so far as to say that Jesus and Akhenaten were the same person. It is Amenhotep III that was believed to be the co-regent with Akhenaten. Could they have also been the same person or even exchanged places? Does this tie to the “switch” theory, as written by Tracy Twyman and others? And if not Jesus, then Osman proposes that Akhenaten could have been Moses.
https://www.amazon.com/Moses-Akhenaten-Secret-History-Exodus/dp/1591430046
I believe a more likely candidate for being Moses is Queen Nefertiti. She was of unknown parentage and raised among the royal Egyptians.
And could Queen Nefertiti have faked her own suicide, or been proclaimed to have committed suicide when she actually was exhiled? Did Akhenaten have been exiled with Nefertiti or even killed and their history re-written? I have not compared timelines but the modern Irish and Scottish claim their ancestry back to the princess of an Egyptian pharoah. Could this have actually been Nefertiti and not her daughter Meritaten? Or could Meritaten actually be Mary Magdalen? Their history was almost erased and it is believed that their tombs have never been found.
How does Nefertiti tie to Aphrodite?
Recall that Aphrodite is seen as an equivalent goddess to the Egyptian Hathor and Isis.
Could Nefertiti have been a physical embodiment of the Goddess?
And how does Aphrodite relate to the sea people? She is a sea goddess was born of the sea and mist. The Tuatha de Danaan were said to have come from the mist when they arrived in Ireland. Some authors also believe that the Tuatha de Danaan may be related to the Tribe of Dan. I would go further to hypothesize that the spread of the Aphrodite cults followed the conquests of the Tribe of Dan(u).
https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2020/03/worship-of-egyptian-goddess-spread-egypt-england
https://neoskosmos.com/en/2011/09/04/dialogue/opinion/aphordite-sea-goddess-if-the-ancient-greeks/
“The Israelite Tribe of Dan had conquered Cyprus and Crete and had bases in Cilicia (i.e. northwest Syria and southeast Turkey), the north Galilee, and by the port of Jaffa in the land of Israel. An offshoot from the tribe of Dan at an early stage participated in a conquest of Greece that gave rise to Mycenean civilization. “
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0309089218778583?journalCode=jota
It is perhaps from the Tel-Dan that the Sheldens originated.
https://www.academia.edu/3537577/Flourishing_Aphrodite_An_overview_in_recent_scholarship
https://www.cyprusisland.net/attractions/baths-of-aphrodite