The Gods and Goddesses of Love

Astarte

The Phoenician goddess of fertility and reproduction and the principal deity of the port city of Sidon. As Astarte she was worshipped as far west as Carthage, Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus. She was also the sister and co-consort of Baal, sharing this role with their sister Anath. Astarte is also known as Istar in Akkadian and Athtar in Sabaean.

Astrild

In Norse mythology, Astrild is the goddess of love.

Aphrodite

In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture. She's also known to the Greeks as Acidalia and Cytherea. According to Hesiod, she was born when Uranus (the father of the gods) was castrated by his son Cronus. Cronus threw the severed genitals into the ocean which began to churn and foam about them. From the aphros ("sea foam") arose Aphrodite, and the sea carried her to either Cyprus or Cythera. Hence she is often referred to as Kypris and Cytherea. Homer calls her a daughter of Zeus and Dione.

After her birth, Zeus was afraid that the gods would fight over Aphrodite's hand in marriage so he married her off to the smith god Hephaestus, the steadiest of the gods. He could hardly believe his good luck and used all his skills to make the most lavish jewels for her. He made her a girdle of finely wrought gold and wove magic into the filigree work. That was not very wise of him, for when she wore her magic girdle no one could resist her, and she was all too irresistible already. She loved gaiety and glamour and was not at all pleased at being the wife of sooty, hard-working Hephaestus.

Aphrodite loved and was loved by many gods and mortals. Among her mortal lovers, the most famous was perhaps Adonis. Some of her sons are Eros, Anteros, Hymenaios and Aeneas (with her Trojan lover Anchises). She is accompanied by the Graces. Her festival is the Aphrodisiac which was celebrated in various centers of Greece and especially in Athens and Corinth. Her priestesses were not prostitutes but women who represented the goddess and sexual intercourse with them was considered just one of the methods of worship. Aphrodite was originally an old-Asian goddess, similar to the Mesopotamian Ishtar. Her attributes are the dolphin, the dove, the swan, the pomegranate and the lime tree.

Benten

The Japanese goddess of love, eloquence, wisdom, the arts, music, knowledge, good fortune and water. She is the patroness of geishas, dancers, and musicians. Originally she was a sea goddess or water goddess, on whose image many local deities near lakes were based. Later she became a goddess of the rich and was added to the Shichi Fukujin. The island of Enoshima rose up especially to receive her footsteps.

Benten is portrayed as a beautiful woman, riding a dragon while playing on a stringed instrument. She has eight arms and in her hands she holds a sword, a jewel, a bow, an arrow, a wheel, and a key. Her remaining two hands are joined in prayer. It is often related that when a dragon devoured many children, she descended to earth to stop his evil work.

Branwen

Branwen ("White Raven") is the Celtic goddess of love and beauty, as well as in Manx and Wales. She is a daughter of Llyr and Penarddun, sister of Bran and Manawydan, and half-sister of Nisien and Efnisien. Matholwch of Ireland sued for her hand, and gave horses to Bran. Efnisien mutilated the horses, nearly precipitating warfare, but Matholwch was appeased by the gift of a cauldron that could resurrect the dead. Branwen wed him, and went to Ireland, where she bore him a son, Gwern. But the Irish began to complain about their foreign queen, and she was banished to the kitchen, where she was a slave and boxed on the ears by the butcher daily. This lasted three years, during which Branwen trained a starling to speak and sent it to Wales, where it told Bran of her plight, and he sailed to rescue her.

Matholwch was terrified at the sight of a forest approaching Ireland across the sea: no one could make it out, until he called for Branwen, who explained it as Bran's navy, and Bran himself wading through the water. He sued for peace, they built a house big enough for Bran, and Matholwch agreed to settle the kingdom on Gwern. Some Irish lords objected, and hid themselves in flour bags to attack the Welsh. But Efnisien, scenting Irish treachery, cast them into the fire, and then cast Gwern himself in (avoiding the geas against shedding kinsmen's blood thereby). A war broke out, and the Irish replenished themselves through the cauldron. Efnisien, repenting, sacrificed himself by feigning death and being thrown into the cauldron, which he then broke, dying in the process.

Only seven Welshmen survived, and Bran was fatally wounded. His head, which remained alive and talking, was returned to Wales and buried, and soon afterwards Branwen sailed to Aber Alaw and died. She is one of the three "matriarchs of Britain", along with Rhiannon and Arianrhod.

Chama

The Hindu god of young love. His consort is Rati.

Erzulie

The Haitian voodoo goddess of love, beauty, dancing, flowers, jewels, and pretty clothes. She belongs to the loa. She is the wife of the snake deity Damballa, but also of Agwe and Ogoun. As Erzulie Ge-Rouge she is portrayed sitting with clenched fists, weeping over the transitory of life and the limitations of love. She is also called Ezili.

Ishtar

Ishtar was the ancient Sumero-Babylonian goddess of love and fertility. She is often described as the daughter of Anu, the god of the air. In most of the myths concerning her, she is described as an evil, heartless, women who destroyed her mates and lovers. Her greatest lover was the farm god Tammuz, who is similar to the Greek Adonis. After he died she went into the underworld to retrieve him but her efforts were vain and she returned to the living world alone.

Later, in the great epic of Gilgamesh, she tried to make Gilgamesh her husband, but he refused her and reminded her of her former lovers, whom she mercilessly killed or left injured. She reported this to her father, Anu, and he gave her the mystical bull of heaven to avenge herself. Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu stopped and killed the mighty creature and threw its headless body at her feet. They also insulted her, and she responded by sending disease to kill Gilgamesh's best friend Enkidu.

Kama

The god of love in Hindu myth. He is a son of Lakshmi. Kama is represented as a winged youth bearing bow and arrows (similar to the Greek Eros).

Kurukulla

A popular Tibetan goddess of love and wealth who enchants gods and humans to serve her. In her hands she often holds the lotus flower, as well as a bow and arrow. She is portrayed in the lotus position, sitting on the god of love Kama and his partner.

Musubi-no-Kami

The Japanese god of love and marriage. To girls he appears in the shape of a handsome young man, leaping suddenly forward from Kanzakura, the sacred cherry tree in which he lives. He will offer her a bough of cherry blossom, promising love in the future. An old shrine of his can be found in Kagami in the province of Mimasaka.

Qetesh

Originally a Syrian goddess who was later she worshipped in Egypt as a goddess of love. She is one of the forms of the mother-goddess Hathor.

Qi Gu-niang

A daughter of the Jade Emperor, Yu-huang. She is known as the "Seventh Lady" and is venerated by all girls wanting to know whom they will marry. Another name for her is Ch’i Ku-niang.

Turan

The Etruscan goddess of love, health, and fertility, and the patroness of the city Vulci (in the current Italian province Viterbo). Turan is usually portrayed as a young woman with wings on her back. The pigeon and black swan are her symbolic animals and she is accompanied by the Lasas.

Venus

The Roman goddess of love and beauty, but originally a vegetation goddess and patroness of gardens and vineyards. Later, under Greek influence, she was equated with Aphrodite and assumed many of her aspects. Her cult originated from Ardea and Lavinium in Latium. The oldest temple known of Venus dates back to 293 BC, and was inaugurated on August 18.

Later, on this date the Vinalia Rustica was observed. A second festival, that of the Veneralia, was celebrated on April 1 in honor of Venus Verticordia, who later became the protector against vice. Her temple was built in 114 BC. After the Roman defeat near Lake Trasum in 215 BC, a temple was built on the Capitol for Venus Erycina. This temple was officially opened on April 23, and a festival, the Vinalia Priora, was instituted to celebrate the occasion.

Venus is the daughter of Jupiter, and some of her lovers include Mars and Vulcan, modeled on the affairs of Aphrodite. Venus' importance rose, and that of her cult, through the influence of several Roman political leaders. The dictator Sulla made her his patroness, and both Julius Caesar and the emperor Augustus named her the ancestor of their (Julian) family: the 'gens Julia' was Aeneas, son of Venus and the mortal Anchises. Ceasar introduced the cult of Venus Genetrix, the goddess of motherhood and marriage, and built a temple for her in 46 BC. She was also honored in the temple of Mars Ultor. The last great temple of Venus was built by the emperor Hadrianus near the Colusseum in 135 AD.

Xochipilli

Xochipilli ("Flower Prince") is the Aztec god of flowers, maize, love, games, beauty, song and dance. He is the husband of Mayahuel and the twin brother of Xochiquetzal. He is also referred to as Macuilxochitl, which means "five flowers". Xochipilli is depicted with a stick of which the sharp tip penetrates a human heart.

Xochiquetzal

Xochiquetzal is the Aztec goddess of the earth, flowers, plants, games and dance, but mainly she is a goddess of love. She is also the patroness of artisans, prostitutes, pregnant women and birth. Originally Xochiquetzal ("Flower Feather") was associated with the moon. This goddess is the most charming of the Aztec pantheon and her retinue consists of butterflies and birds. Every eight years a feast was held in her honor where the celebrants wore animal and flowers masks. She is the twin sister of the flower prince Xochipilli and sometimes mentioned as the wife of the rain god Tlaloc.

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