Changes: Love deity

Revision as of 09:37, 1 December 2020

Sandro Botticelli - La nascita di Venere - Google Art Project - edited — *The Birth of Venus* by Sandro Botticelli (1485), depicting Venus, the Roman goddess of sex and beauty.

A love deity is a deity in mythology associated with romance, sex, lust, or sexuality. Love deities are common in mythology and may be found in many polytheistic religions. Female sex goddesses are often associated with beauty and other traditionally feminine attributes.

List of love deities

Africa

Egyptian mythology

Bastet, goddess of felines, love, protection, perfume, beauty, and dance
Bes, god of music, love, and dance
Hathor, goddess of love, beauty, and music; originally a sky goddess
Min, god of reproduction, love, and sexual pleasure
Qetesh, goddess of love, beauty, and sex; apparently borrowed by the Egyptians from the Canaanites

Vodun

Baron La Croix, loa of the dead and sexuality
Baron Samedi, loa of the dead, sex, and resurrection
Erzulie Freda Dahomey, loa of love, beauty, jewelry, dancing, luxury, and flowers

Yoruba mythology

Oshun, goddess of luxury and pleasure, sexuality and fertility, beauty and love, the river and fresh water^[1]^[2] venerated in Ifá, Yoruba religion, Dahomey mythology, Vodun, Santería, Candomblé, Haitian Vodou

Efik mythology

Anansa, goddess of the Sea, allure and beauty

Americas

Aztec mythology

Ixcuiname, goddess of carnality
Teicu, goddess of sexual appetite
Tiacapan, goddess of sexual hunger
Tlaco, goddess of sexual longing
Tlazolteotl, goddess of lust, carnality, sexual misdeeds
Xocotzin, goddess of sexual desire
Xochiquetzal, goddess of sex and beauty
Xochipilli, god of love, art, games, beauty, dance, flowers, maize, fertility, and song

Guaraní mythology

Kurupi, god of sexuality and fertility

Asia

Buddhism

Aizen Myō-ō or Rāgarāja, a deity who transforms worldly lust into spiritual awakening; his red-skinned appearance represents suppressed lust and passion
Kuni, god of love

Hinduism

Kamadeva Hindu god of human love or desire.
Rati, consort of Kama, goddess of love, carnal desire, lust, passion and sexual pleasure.
Ushas, Hindu reflex of Hausos so she was likely the lust goddess before Rati appeared

Chinese mythology

Jiutian Xuannü, a goddess of war, sex, and longevity^[3]
Yue-Lao, a god of love, who binds two people together with an invisible red string
Tu Er Shen, a deity who oversees love between (effeminate) homosexual men
White Peony (Bai Mudan or Pai Mu-Tan), a goddess who tempts men, especially ascetics
Wutong Shen, a group of five wanton deities from Southern China. They ravished and possessed beautiful women.
Baimei Shen, Chinese prostitution god. On her first assignment with a client, a prostitute was supposed to make a sacrifice to him.
Qian Keng (Peng Zu), a god of health-focused sex
Chuangmu, goddess of the bedchamber. She and her husband Chuanggong look after everything that may happen in the bed room, including sex, sleep, and childbirth.
King Zhou, one of worst tyrants in Chinese history. He is known as the god of sodomy.

Mesopotamian mythology

Inanna/Ishtar, goddess of sex and war^[4]
Nanaya, goddess personifying voluptuousness and sensuality

Persian mythology

Anahita, seems to have gained an association with fertility and sex due to being influenced by the Mesopotamian Inanna; originally appears to have been a water goddess

Europe

Albanian folklore

Prende, goddess of love, beauty and fertility

Armenian mythology

Astghik, goddess of fertility and love

Celtic mythology (Irish)

Áine, Irish goddess of love, summer, wealth, and sovereignty; possibly originally a sun goddess
Cliodhna Irish goddess, sometimes identified as a goddess of love and beauty^[5]

Etruscan mythology

Albina, goddess of the dawn and protector of ill-fated lovers
Turan, goddess of love and vitality

Germanic mythology

Eostre, Germanic reflex of Hausos and thus Frigg/Frijjo's predecessor; she was apparently transformed into a spring/fertility goddess by the Anglo-Saxons and Continental Germanic tribes and thus kept her relevancy in these traditions. She does not appear to have survived in the Norse tradition, probably being replaced by Freyja.
Freyja, goddess of love/sex, beauty, seiðr, war, and death; often thought of as the Norse equivalent of Aphrodite
Freyr, phallic god of lust, marriages, peace, and pleasure
Frigg, goddess of marriage and women. Has numerous similarities with Freyja and in the Gesta Danorum acts more like her. This, combined with the fact that only cognates of her name, and not Freyja's, appear outside of Scandinavia has led to the theory that Freyja is just a hypostasis of Frigg and Frigg was the Common Germanic love and sex goddess.
Lofn, goddess who has permission from Frigg to arrange forbidden marriages
Sjöfn, goddess associated with love

Greek mythology

Hedone, goddess of pleasure
Aphrodite, goddess of sex and beauty, Greek version of Astarte and ultimately Inanna
Eos, Greek reflex of Hausos, who may have been the PIE lust/sex goddess
The Erotes
- Anteros, god of requited love
- Eros, god of love and procreation; originally a primordial deity unconnected to Aphrodite, he was later made into her son, possibly with Ares as his father; this version of him was imported to Rome where he came known as Cupid
- Himeros, god of sexual desire and unrequited love
- Hedylogos, god of sweet talk and flattery
- Hermaphroditus, god of hermaphrodites and effeminate men
- Hymen, god of marriage, weddings, and the bridal hymn
- Pothos, god of sexual longing, yearning, and desire
Pan, god of the wild, shepherds, flocks, rustic music, and fertility of the wild/flocks. Is portrayed as very lustful and often depicted with an erect phallus. He lusted after several nymphs, most importantly Echo and Syrinx. Diogenes of Sinope, speaking in jest, related a myth of Pan learning masturbation from his father, Hermes, and teaching the habit to shepherds. Pan's greatest conquest was that of the moon goddess Selene. He accomplished this by wrapping himself in a sheepskin to hide his hairy black goat form, and drew her down from the sky into the forest where he seduced her.^{[Citation needed]}

Peitho, personification of persuasion and seduction
Philotes, either a goddess of affection or a daimon of intercourse
Priapus, god of sexual intercouse, genitalia, nature, fertility, and lust

Roman mythology

Voluptas, Roman version of the Greek Hedone
Aurora, Roman reflex of Hausos and thus likely to originally have had characteristics of a lust/sex goddess
Cupid, Roman version of the Greek Eros, also called Amor
Suadela, Roman version of the Greek Peitho
Venus, Roman version of the Greek Aphrodite