Aphrodite delights YIANNIS PAPADAKIS The complexity of this goddess [Aphrodite] *mother, protectress, slayer, standing midway between Asia and Europe, instinct and order *is the complex- ity of Cyprus herself. 1 Stacked in large piles, boxes containing the same sugar-coated sweets will greet you in any souvenir shop in Cyprus. Only the name on the box differs: if you are on the Turkish Cypriot side of this divided island you will be buying Turkish Delight , or Cyprus Turkish Delight , while on the Greek Cypriot south you get Cyprus Delight . In English, they are known as Turkish Delight , but Greek Cypriots would be rather hesitant to sell Turkish Delight as their local, authentic and traditional sweets. Greek Cypriots call them loukkoumia , from the Turkish lokum *which is what Turkish Cypriots call them *though these terms are said to derive from the Arabic hulkum . The promise of sensual pleasures is present in their very name. Greek Cypriots often sell them in boxes with the sexier name Aphrodite Delights , featuring the naked form of Aphrodite on the outside. The box hints towards other kinds of sensual pleasures in this island marketed for tourists as ‘Cyprus, the island of Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty and Love’. Calling them Aphrodite Delights in English has the added advantage for Greek Cypriots that their English name now sounds more Greek than Turkish. Boxes of Turkish Delight imported from Turkey and sold in northern Cyprus draw from different traditions, though they, too, utilise the female form just as suggestively. One box features a scene from a harem with belly dancers surrounding the Sultan, under the name Sultan’s Secret Life. Another box of Harem’s Secret  Turkish Delight features a half-naked white woman in the foreground, while a black man sits in the background and looks furtively towards her. The Greek Cypriot boxes of Aphrodite Delights often attempt to enhance their exotic appeal for western tourists (many of whom may have arrived in Cyprus having travelled on Aphrodite Class with Cyprus Airways) by advertising them in flavours such as chocolate, coconut, pineapple, passion fruit and other exotic fruits, all far from being ‘a traditional taste of Cyprus’ as the box claims. Yet nowadays Cypriots of both sides rarely consume these sweets. They are mostly found in souvenir shops for European tourists who are their real consumers and the target of the boxes’ messages. The standard trays on which these are often served to tourists also have certain subtle differences. On the Greek Cypriot side, the tray presents an image of the map ISSN 1368-8790 print/ISSN 1466-1888 online/06/030237  14 # 2006 The Institute of Postcolonial Studies DOI: 10.1080/13688790600824963 Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 237  250, 2006