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CYNTHIA Gender: Feminine

Usage: English, Greek Mythology (Latinized)

Pronounced: SIN-thee-ə (English) key

Latinized form of Greek Κυνθια (Kynthia) which means "woman from Kynthos". This was an epithet of the Greek moon goddess Artemis, given because Kynthos was the mountain on Delos on which she and her twin brother Apollo were born. It was not used as a given name until the Renaissance, and it did not become common in the English-speaking world until the 19th century.

Sextus Propertius .

This romance is devoted entirely to a female figure called Cynthia. Cynthia prima suis miserum me cepit ocellis - 'Cynthia was the first to capture with her eyes my pitiable self,' the very first line of poetry proclaims. It then goes on to say:

Till then I was free from desire's contagion. Love Then forced me to lower my gaze of steady hauter And trampled my head with his feet Cynthia's exact social standing is not known. We are informed by a later writer the woman's real name was Hostia; it is speculated she may be have been a descendant of a second century BCE poet named Hostius. Cynthia is literary name with connections to Apollo, the Greek god of poetry. Quite possibly she was a courtesan. In any event, she was refined and elegant, but not entirely faithful to the relationship Propertius presumed he had with her. She courts other men, and breaks off cordial relations with Propertius quite frequently.

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