 To judge by the number of Byzantine churches that it contained, Hypaepa flourished under the Byzantine Empire.The women of Hypaepa were reputed to have received from the mythological Aphrodite the gift of beauty of form and dancing Ovid placed at Hypaepa the home of Arachne before she was turned into a spider.The Persian goddess Anahita, identified with Artemis and therefore called Artemis Anaitis or Persian Artemis, was worshipped at Hypaepa, which had been part of the Achaemenid Empire.