Galatea

 

The Triremes of antiquity, were ships that could harness the wind through a large square linen sail or muscle their way across the Mediterranean with a team of men manning the ships many oars. The Paphos Beach Shelter looks back across the same ocean that 4 millennia ago brought the Mycenaeans of ancient Greece to settle the island Cyprus. Bringing with them a rich history of mythology that would later foster the origin of the goddess Venus. The deity Aphrodite, born from the depth of the sea, arrived on land at Petra tou Romiou ( series of Sea Stacks that lie 24 kilometers to the Southeast of the Beach). In the De Cypro ‘history of Cyprus’ by Philostgepanus, King Pygmalion crafts an icon in honor of Aphrodite from a single piece of Ivory. So taken back by his worship, Venus brings the statue ‘Galatea’ to life and joins the couple in matrimony.  From this wedlock, a daughter named Paphus is born, to which the town of Paphos is named.

 

The Paphos Beach Shelter is an aluminum extrusion kit of parts, that along with the large square shade cloth, allows for ease of storage, transportation and erection. Modular in nature, the single shelters assemble to form a fabric cloud that acts as a threshold between the sea and the land. This man made landscape frames views of the waters edge, while providing respite from the late summer sun. Large shade sails span between collapsible frame supports married by a pin connection. The 85% shaded polyethylene sail is fastened with jib hangers to cable shrouds that laterally tie down the aluminum frames to deadman anchors buried within the sand bed.