Love Goddess

God? Goddess? Doesn't matter, love is all you need.

This character is regarded as a deity of love. Most likely a member of the setting's ruling pantheon, but could be any character (including a mortal) who is regarded by other characters as a goddess of love.

Male love gods are included in this trope. It is called "Love Goddess" rather than "Love Deity" because the females are much more common.

When a Love Goddess (regardless of gender) is a character, s/he is likely to be in love, be an Ethical Slut, Good in Bed, Hot God, or all of the above. Either way, s/he is also likely to be a Love Interest of other characters.

Historical Domain Characters like Aphrodite and Freyja count as separate examples when they appear as characters in separate works of fiction. For example, Hercules and Xena count, since Aphrodite is a character in some episodes, while Order of the Stick so far does not count: Freyja is a part of the northern pantheon, but unlike Thor, she has so far never really been part of the plot.[1]

Constrast War God, this trope's polar opposite. Mythology and media in general tend to pair these two up regardless.

Examples of Love Goddess include:

Anime and Manga

  • Dragonball Z: The Namekian Dragon is also the Namekian God of Love. It is worth noting that Namekians are mono-gendered and reproduce asexually, which probably explains why it's the side-portfolio of a low-ranking high end wish-granter, rather than the central role of a major deity like for most human religions.
  • Urd from Ah! My Goddess likes to consider herself a Goddess of Love, but Peorth is probably a love goddess in a more literal sense.
  • Suzaku from Fushigi Yuugi is the God of Love. His rival, Seiryuu is the God of War.
  • Venus, mother of main character Samatarou from Kamisama Kazoku, is the goddess of love.

Comic Books

  • Mistress Love is one of the cosmic forces in the Marvel Universe.
  • Aphrodite appeared in The Incredible Hercules, but resigned because she no longer felt she could serve in that role. She was succeeded by the siren Venus.
    • It should be noted that Venus, who starred in her own comicbook series in the 50s, was supposed to be THE goddess of love; that she was a siren with identity issues all along is a later Retcon.
  • Freya is one of the main characters in Valhalla, and is presented as an Ethical Slut and one of the saner members of the cast. One album ("Freya's Necklace") focuses on Heimdall, Odin and Freya and how she as Godess of Love embodies both the physical and emotional acts of love (Odin is only interested in her sexually, while Heimdall is only interested her platonically).
  • The Predator Entity of the Emotional Spectrum in the DC Universe seems to be one, as it is the embodiment of the violet light of love.

Fan Works

  • In a Dungeons and Dragons Fanfic, even orcs have love goddesses.
    • Kislova: goddess of "light, kindness, mercy, growth, life, love, family"
    • Baalibastus: goddess of "love, beauty, fire, passion, animals, children"
      • Waitaminnit... "Kisslover" and "Ballbuster"?

Film

Literature

  • Discworld has at least three.
    • Astoria the Ephebian Goddess of Love. According to the Great God Om, "a complete bubblehead".
    • Petulia, Ephebian Goddess of, er, Negotiable Affection might count, too.
    • And the troll pantheon has Chondrodite, who makes trolls fall in love by hitting them with a rock.
  • The Redemption of Althalus has Dweia, who loves all things but especially Althalus.
  • In Around the World in Eighty Days, Sir Francis Cromarty points out a statue of Kali, and says that she is the Hindu goddess of love and death. "Of death, perhaps," replies Passepartout, "but of love -- that ugly old hag? Never!"
  • Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis, as a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, includes the primordial Ungit as a love goddess, and the God of the Mountain, as a love god.
  • Everworld gave a cameo to Aphrodite when the group went to Olympus. She basically strutted out, sexfully supported her lover Ares in an argument, and then strutted away, having basically made the male protagonists temporarily forgotten their own names. Meanwhile Eros hovers nearby and makes lewd comments at April.
    • There's also Hel, who could be called a sex goddess. In the most horrible way possible. Half of her body is the most magically irresistible woman possible, while the other half is a corpse.

Live Action TV

Cupid: (While hugging Castiel) Love is more than word to me you know. I love love. I love it and if that's wrong I don't wanna be right.

  • Charmed had an two-part season finale where the girls were given the powers of the Greek gods, with Phoebe as the goddess of love. Men fell in love with her instantly and she basically created a harem-cult when the power was going to her head.
    • The series also shows Cupids a few time, who are basically spirits who spread love. Phoebe ends up marrying one.
  • Vanna White played Venus in a forgettable 1988 romantic comedy TV movie titled (what else?) Goddess of Love.

Mythology

  • Norse Mythology has at least three:
    • Freyja
    • Baldur
    • Freyr (Freyja's brother, also known as Frikko)
    • There is yet another figure, Astrild, who lays claim to the title of Norse goddess of love, but s/he is actually a Canon Foreigner created by a 19th-century poet.
  • Egyptian Mythology has several, including:
    • Bast
    • Hathor
  • Classical Mythology has two or four depending on whether or not you consider the Roman pantheon to be separate or the same pantheon with different names:
    • Aphrodite in Greek Mythology
      • Venus (in the Roman version)
    • Eros (or Pothos) in Greek Mythology
      • Amor (or Cupid(o)) (in the Roman version)
  • The Babylonian Ishtar was a goddess of love and war. Cynics might argue that those aren't all that inappropriate together, though; and as would Shakespeare and a number of others say, "All's fair in love and war."
  • In Voudun/Voodoo, Erzulie Dantor is the lwa of love. (There is one God in the Voudun pantheon, and the lwa are intermediaries between him and the mortal world: they have distinct, multifaceted personalities, like the Greek Gods, but are considered more like the equivalent of angels).
    • The related religion Santeria, a blend of Catholicism and the religion of the African Yoruban people, has Oshun (also spelled Oxun). She's the orisha (a divine intermediary similar to lwa) of romantic and sexual love: people concealing Santeria under the guise of Catholicism represent her with a figure of the Virgin Mary.
  • Armenian pagan mythology had the goddess Astghik.
  • Hindu Mythology has at least two. First is Kamadeva, who's equivalent to Eros. Other is Lakshmi, who's also associate with fortune, wealth and wisdom.

Tabletop Games

  • Idra in the Dungeons & Dragons setting Scarred Lands.
  • The Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms setting has several Goddesses of Love, including:
    • Sune (humans)
    • Hanali Celanil (elves)
    • Sharindlar (dwarves)
    • Sharess - an aspect of Shar, strangely, but the goddess of lust, love, and sensual fulfillment
      • Some sources cast her as the Realms' version of Bast, who fell under Shar's influence at some point in the past but was liberated during the Time of Troubles (explains why she's also the goddess of cats). The fourth edition campaign guide mentions her as an exarch (basically semi-divine assistant) of Sune, not Shar.
  • Generic Dungeons and Dragons (works not specific to any certain setting) have a lot of them:
    • Ai Ch'hing: Kara-Turan goddess of love, marriage
    • Evening Glory (Libris Mortis), lesser goddess of love, beauty and immortality through undeath.
    • Iallanis, lesser goddess of good giants, love, forgiveness, mercy and beauty.
    • Isis (also known as Ishtar): Mulhorandi goddess of weather, rivers, agriculture, love, marriage, good magic.
    • Kiltzi: Maztican god of health, love, happiness, children
    • Lastai (Book of Exalted Deeds), demigoddess of pleasure, love, and passion.
    • Sehanine: Unaligned goddess of Illusion, Love and the Moon. Seasonal god of autumn and patron of elves.
    • Sheela Peryroyl: Halfling goddess of nature, agriculture, weather, song, dance, beauty, romantic love.
    • Sheyanna Flaxenstrand, intermediate gnome goddess of love, beauty and passion.
  • Warhammer 40,000 has two gods of love: One god of sexual love, and one god of parental love. These gods are named Slaanesh and Nurgle, and with Warhammer 40K being the Crapsack World that it is, both gods are genocidal soul-devouring demon-lords with maximized Squick factor.
  • The Dark Eye has at least two: Travia for familiar love (and home and hearth), and Rahja for romantic love and lust (passion, wine and horses, too)

Theater

Video Games

Web Original

Western Animation

  • In Disney's |Hercules animated series, Aphrodite appears as a secondary character once in a while. Her main trait is her Ear Worm Theme Tune.

Aphrodite, Aphrodite, Aphrodite...
...THE GODDESS OF LOVE!

    • Cupid also appeared in at least one episode
  • Daria had a A Day at the Bizarro episode where Cupid, the embodiment of Valentine's Day, showed up (along with the St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun). He winds up putting a love spell on Daria's bickering parents, making them act like a mixture of Sickeningly Sweethearts and Insatiable Newlyweds for most of the episode.
  • One of the Snuggly Duckling thugs from Tangled is dressed like Cupid.
  • Princess Cadence. Her cutie mark, depicting the one special thing about a pony, is a heart. Considering how powerful The Power of Love is in her world, she probably shouldn't be underestimated.
  1. ↑ Aphrodite, on the other hand, has made a cameo appearance, but that's just it: a cameo appearance in which her and her entire pantheon were unpersoned.
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