List of love and lust deities

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (1485), depicting Venus, the Roman goddess of love, lust and beauty

A love deity is a deity in mythology associated with sexual love, lust or sexuality. Love deities are common in mythology and may be found in many polytheistic religions.

List of love deities

Albanian folklore

• Prende, goddess of love and beauty

Armenian mythology

• Astghik, goddess of fertility and love

Aztec mythology

• Xochiquetzal, goddess of fertility, beauty, prostitutes, female sexual power, protection of young mothers, pregnancy, childbirth, and women's crafts
• Xochipilli, god of love, art, games, beauty, dance, flowers, maize, fertility, and song
• Tlazolteotl, goddess of lust, carnality, sexual misdeeds
• Ixcuiname, goddess of the carnality.
  • Tiacapan, goddess of sexual hunger.
  • Teicu, goddess of sexual appetite.
  • Tlaco, goddess of sexual longing.
  • Xocotzin, goddess of sexual desire.

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

Canaanite mythology

• Astarte, goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare
• Qetesh, goddess of love, beauty and sex

Celtic mythology

• Áine, Irish goddess of love, summer, wealth and sovereignty
• Cliodhna Irish goddess, sometimes identified as a goddess of love and beauty^[1]

Chinese mythology

• Jiutian Xuannü, goddess of war, sexuality, and longevity^[2]
• Yue-Lao, a god of love, who binds two people together with an invisible red string.
• Tu Er Shen, a deity who oversees the love between 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.
• Pan Jinlian or P'an Chin-Lien, goddess of fornication and prostitution
• Baimei Shen, Chinese god for prostitution and brothel. On her first assignment with a client, a prostitute was supposed to make sacrifice to him
• Qian Keng (Peng Zu), God of health-focused sex.
• Nüwa, Goddess of the wedding band and wedding jewelry. Represents Heaven and the never ending sexual desire between married couples.
• Chuangmu, Chinese 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

Egyptian mythology

• Bes, god of music, dance, and sexual pleasure
• Hathor, goddess of the sky, love, beauty, and music
• Bastet, goddess of felines, love, sexuality, protection, perfume, beauty, and dance
• Min, god of sexuality, reproduction, love, and sexual pleasure

Etruscan mythology

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

Greek mythology

• Aphrodite, goddess of love and sexuality
• The Erotes
  • Anteros, god of requited love
  • Eleni, goddess of oral sex, cunnilingus, and sexual pleasure
  • Eros, god of love and sexual desire
  • Himeros, god of sexual desire and unrequited love
  • Hedylogos, god of sweet talk and flattery.
  • Hermaphroditus, god of hermaphrodites and of effeminate men.
  • Hymen, god of marriage, weddings, and the bridal hymn
  • Pothos, god of sexual longing, yearning and desire
• Peitho, personification of persuasion and seduction
• Pan, god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, hunting and rustic music, and companion of the nymphs, also associated with sexuality and fertility. Famous for his sexual powers and is often depicted with an erect phallus. 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.
• Philotes (mythology), either Goddess of Affection or a Daimon of sexual intercourse.

Guaraní mythology

• Kurupi, god of sexuality and fertility

Hindu mythology

Kama (left) with Rati on a temple wall of Chennakesava Temple, Belur.

• Kama , god of love and sexuality
• Rati, goddess of passion and lust, wife of Kama
• Chama, god of young love

Lithuanian mythology

• Milda, goddess of love and freedom
• Enzo, god of love and stress

Mesopotamian mythology

• Inanna or Ishtar, goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare^[3]
• Nanaya, goddess personifying voluptuousness and sensuality

Moroccan mythology

• Booba valentino, Jinn (ghost) who first seduces women then drives them insane^[4]

Norse and Germanic mythology

• Freya, goddess associated with love, beauty, magic, shamanism, seiðr, sacrifice, war, death, and sexuality
• Freyr, worshipped as a phallic fertility god; he was said to "[bestow] peace and pleasure on mortals"
• Frigg, goddess of marriage, married women, household duty, and divination
• Lofn, goddess of forbidden loves; servant of the queen of Asgard, Frigg
• Sjöfn, goddess associated with love

Persian mythology

• Anahita, ancient water goddess, fertility goddess, and patroness of women, marriageable girls and childbirth

Roman mythology

• Venus, the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite
• Cupid, the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Eros
• Suadela, the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Peitho

Slavic mythology

• Dogoda, Polish spirit of the west wind, associated with love and gentleness
• Dzydzilelya, Polish goddess of love and marriage and of sexuality and fertility
• Lada, fakeloric goddess of harmony, merriment, youth, love and beauty
• Siebog, god of love and marriage
• Živa, goddess of love and fertility

Turco-Mongol

• Aisyt

Vodun

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

Yoruba mythology

• Mami Wata, a pantheon of water deities sometimes associated with love and lust
• Osun, goddess of love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy
• Yemoja, mother goddess of the oceans, fertility, prosperity, peace, and protection

References