Paphos is a coastal town in the southwest of Cyprus. In Antiquity two locations denoted Paphos: Old Paphos and New Paphos. The currently inhabited city is New Paphos. Old Paphos, now the site of Kouklia was seated on an eminence, at the distance of about ten stadia from the sea, on which, however, it had a roadstead. It was not far distant from the promontory of Zephyrium and the mouth of the little river Bocarus.

New Paphos (Nea Paphos), the currently inhabited town, was founded on the sea, near the western end of the island, and possessed a good harbour. It lay about sixty stadia, twelve km northwest of the old city. New Paphos was said to have been founded by Agapenor, chief of the Arcadians at the siege of Troy, who, after the capture of that town, was driven by the storm that separated the Greek fleet, onto the coast of Cyprus. An Agapenor was mentioned as king of the Paphians in a Greek distich preserved in the Analecta ; and Herodotus alludes to an Arcadian "colony" in Cyprus.