List of love and lust deities

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Kama (left) with Rati on a temple wall of Chennakesava Temple, Belur, India Kama Rati sculpture at the group of monuments at Belur, Hassan, Karnataka, India (2009).jpg
Kama (left) with Rati on a temple wall of Chennakesava Temple, Belur, India

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

Contents

Sub-Saharan Africa

Western African-Congo

Efik

Vodun

Yoruba

Afroasiatic Middle East

Canaanite

Egyptian

Hausa

Mesopotamian

Moroccan

Western Eurasia

Albanian

Balto-Slavic

Lithuanian

  • Milda, goddess of love and freedom.

Slavic

  • Dogoda, Polish spirit of the west wind, associated with love and gentleness.
  • Dzydzilelya, Polish goddess of love and marriage and of sexuality and fertility.
  • Siebog, god of love and marriage.
  • Živa, goddess of love and fertility.
  • Lada, goddess of beauty and fertility.
  • Jarilo, god of fertility and springtime, sometimes regarded as god of lust and passion.
The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (1485), depicting Venus, the Roman goddess of sex and beauty Sandro Botticelli - La nascita di Venere - Google Art Project - edited.jpg
The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (1485), depicting Venus, the Roman goddess of sex and beauty

Celtic

Esoteric

Norse-Germanic

Statue of Eos L'Aurore Philippe Magnier Louvre MR3243 - 20141107.jpg
Statue of Eos
Statue of Eros Eros Farnese Napoles 01.jpg
Statue of Eros

Graeco-Roman

Greek/Hellenic

  • Aphrodite, goddess of love, sex, and beauty.
  • Apollo
  • Dionysus, god of wine and pleasure.
  • Eos, the Greek dawn goddess.
  • The Erotes
    • Anteros, god of requited love.
    • Eros, god of love and procreation; originally a 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.
    • Heracles
    • Hermaphroditus, god of hermaphrodites and effeminate men.
    • Hermes
    • Hymen, god of marriage, weddings, and the bridal hymn.
    • Pothos, god of sexual longing, yearning, and desire.
  • Hedone, goddess of pleasure.
  • Helios, the sun, who played a role in love-magic; according to Pindar, lovesick men would pray to him.
  • 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. [5] [6]
  • Peitho, personification of persuasion and seduction.
  • Philotes, either a goddess of affection or a daimon of intercourse.
  • Priapus, god of sexual intercourse, genitalia, nature, fertility, and lust.
  • Selene, the moon, who played a role in love-magic, and according to Pindar, lovesick women would pray to her.

Roman

  • Aurora, Roman equivalent of the Greek Eos.
  • Bacchus, Roman equivalent of the Greek Dionysus.
  • Cupid, Roman equivalent of the Greek Eros, also called Amor.
  • Hercules, Roman equivalent of the Greek Heracles.
  • Suadela, Roman equivalent of the Greek Peitho.
  • Venus, Roman equivalent of the Greek Aphrodite.
  • Voluptas, Roman equivalent of the Greek Hedone.

Etruscan

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

Western Asia

Armenian

  • Astghik, goddess of fertility and love.

Hindu-Vedic

Persian Zorostarian

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

Turkic-Altai

Asia-Pacific / Oceania

Filipino

Far East Asia

Chinese

  • Jiutian Xuannü, a goddess of war, sex, and longevity. [10]
  • 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.[ citation needed ]

Japanese

Vietnamese

  • Ông Tơ and Bà Nguyệt are the two gods of love and marriage. Bà Nguyệt is depicted as someone holding a fan to bring harmony to love and Ông Tơ is depicted as holding a red thread, which he uses to tie a couple together.

Buddhist

North America

Central American and the Caribbean

Aztec

  • 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 homosexuality, love, art, games, beauty, dance, flowers, maize, fertility, and song.

Haitian Vodou

Mexican folk religion

South America

Guaraní

References

  1. Murrell, Nathaniel Samuel (2009). Afro-Caribbean Religions: An Introduction to Their Historical, Cultural, and Sacred Traditions. Temple University Press. ISBN   9781439901755.
  2. Coleman, Monica A. (2006). "African American Religion and Gender". In Pinn, Anthony B. (ed.). African American Religious Cultures. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 501. ISBN   9781576074701.
  3. Leick, Gwendolyn (1994). Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature. Routledge. p. 320. ISBN   0-415-06534-8.
  4. Evans-Wentz, W. Y. (1998). The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. Citadel. p. 572. ISBN   0-8065-1160-5.
  5. Virgil, Georgics 3.391–93.
  6. Hard, p. 46; Gantz, p. 36; Kerenyi, p. 175, 196; Grimal, "Selene", p. 415.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jocano, F. L. (1969). Philippine Mythology. Quezon City: Capitol Publishing House Inc.
  8. Arbues, L. R. (1960). Philippine Sociological Review Vol. 8, No. 1/2: The Negritos as a Minority Group in the Philippines. Philippine Sociological Society.
  9. Plasencia, J. (1589). Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalos.
  10. Cahill, Suzanne E. (18 July 2013). "Sublimation in Medieval China: The Case of the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens". Journal of Chinese Religions. 20 (1): 91–102. doi:10.1179/073776992805307692.