Love deity



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.

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 venerated in Ifá, Yoruba religion, Dahomey mythology, Vodun, Santería, Candomblé, Haitian Vodou

Efik mythology

 * Anansa, goddess of the Sea, allure and beauty

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

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
 * 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/ʻAṯtartu, goddess of sex and war
 * 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

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

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
 * Sjofn, 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.
 * 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

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
 * Siebog, god of love and marriage
 * Živa, goddess of love and fertility
 * Lada, goddess of beauty and fertility

Lithuanian mythology

 * Milda, goddess of love and freedom

Fakelore

 * Lada, fakelore goddess of sex and beauty, a made up Slavic version of Aphrodite almost certainly influenced by Greek mythology.

Canaanite mythology

 * Astarte, goddess of sex and war, Canaanite version of Inanna
 * Qetesh, goddess of love, beauty, and sex; "Qetesh" is her Egyptian name

Hausa mythology

 * Zamani, god of sex and beauty