Hathor, Venus, Clíodhna… are gods representing love and beauty in myths…
Hathor is the Egyptian goddess of the sky, love, and joy, the daughter of the sun god Ra. Hathor usually appears as a bull with two horns lifting the Sun disc and wearing a Menat necklace, or as a beautiful woman with the head of a bull and the eyes of Ra.
Goddess Hathor often took care of mothers and children. Although capable of destroying humans, Hathor always nurtures the living and leads the dead to the underworld.
There, she revived them with food and drink taken from the sycamore tree, believed to be her embodiment. The coffins of kings are also made from sycamore trees, with the belief or hope that death is just a return to the mother’s womb.
According to Greek mythology, Eros is the god of love. The god Eros always carries with him a bow and arrows of love. When Eros shoots a golden arrow at someone, that person will immediately fall in love with the first person of the opposite sex he meets if not a blood relation or relative. And when Eros shoots the bronze arrow, it will be the first person who hates the opposite sex to meet.
At that time, on earth, there was a certain country princess named Psyche who possessed a water-slanting beauty, and the people were so enamored with her that they were no longer eager to worship the goddess Aphrodite.
This made the goddess annoyed and jealous, Aphrodite sent her son to enchant Psyche to fall in love with the ugliest man in the world. However, as soon as he entered the room where Psyche was sleeping, Eros fell in love with her beautiful beauty.
The image of the god Eros with his wife – the beautiful Psyche
He asked Apollo to give him a false oracle and eventually married the beautiful Psyche. But Psyche never saw her husband’s face. Her husband only came to her at night and was very gentle.
After listening to the encouragement of the two sisters, Psyche secretly lit a lamp to look at her husband’s face. Realizing that she was secretly looking at him, Eros angrily left. Regretfully, Psyche went everywhere looking for her husband, and finally, through many hardships and trials, Psyche and Eros also lived happily together for life.
According to Norse mythology, Freya is the goddess who embodies love, beauty, and fertility. Usually appearing in the form of a beautiful girl, long hair, wearing long white clothes, Freya also helps people with her superhuman magic.
She is the daughter of the god Njord and has an older brother, the prosperity god Freyr. Goddess Freya often traveled the world in a chariot pulled by cats.
The beautiful Freya is also known for her boundless loyalty to her husband Ódr – who later turned into a sea monster and was murdered. Sympathizing with the pain of losing Freya’s husband, the gods revived Ódr, the two later gave birth to two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi.
Venus is a Roman god, equivalent to Aphrodite in Greek mythology. Initially, Venus was the patron goddess of gardens and plants, later she became the embodiment of love and beauty. Venus brings joy and warm spring to humans and gods.
She is the daughter of Jupiter and has a son, Cupid, the god of love (Eros in Greek mythology). Despite being the goddess of love, Venus is the embodiment of purity. She only had an affair with the war god Mars when she was young and later became the wife of the fire god Vulcan.
The goddess Clíodhna is one of the most revered gods of the Irish people. She is known as the goddess of love, beauty and the queen of the goddess of death – the head of the afterlife.
Clíodhna inherited the beauty of her father – the sea god Gebann, so she was awarded the title of goddess of beauty. Like the Greek goddess Aphrodite, Cliodna is quite… peachy, so there are many lovers in the world and she often pulls her lover back to… the other side to have fun together. The young Ciabhan was the only one who made Clíodhna accept to give up the afterlife to come to earth to enjoy.
This displeased Gabann. He put his daughter to sleep and then used the waves to drown Ciabhan. Clíodhna wakes up, knowing the truth and suffering immensely. Because of that, she often appears in the form of an albatross, a symbol of death according to the Celtic concept.
Like Venus in Roman mythology, Aphrodite in Greek mythology is the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. According to the Iliad and Homer epics, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and the giant goddess Dione.
When asked which of the three Olympians was the most beautiful, the Trojan prince Paris chose Aphrodite, not Hera or Athena. Paris then gave Aphrodite the Apple of Discord. Since then, Aphrodite has fully supported the prince of Paris and the people of Troy.
Ishtar is the Babylonian goddess of love, fertility and war. She is the daughter of the sky god, Anu. Ishtar is known for wreaking havoc, killing the things she loves, including a lion, horse and shepherd.
When the harvest god Tammuz, whom Ishtar loved dearly, died, she followed all the way to the Underworld, but in the end could not bring Tammuz back to earth. According to legend, Ishtar is a “copy” but more promiscuous, more promiscuous than the Sumerian fertility goddess Inanna (Mesopotamia). She was the wife of King Sargon of Agade.
In the Mesopotamian plains, Inanna was the goddess of love, while in the Sumerians she was the goddess of love and war. Despite being a virgin, Inanna is the goddess responsible for sex and fertility. In order to bring crops and life to the world, Inanna voluntarily became the wife of King Dumuzi, the legendary first king of the Sumerians. Later, people worshiped her as the goddess of war raising the majestic banner on a chariot drawn by seven lions.
Ashtart or Astarte is the Jewish goddess of lust, pregnancy, and childbirth. Astarte is also worshiped as the goddess of war, always associated with the image of a mighty lion or leopard. In some regions such as Babylon, Syria, Phoenicia (near present-day Middle East), it was always thought that the nuns serving the god Astarte were always willing to sacrifice themselves to men to contribute money to build temples. They were collectively called with the phrase “sacred prostitution”, prostitution for the common good of the ancient community.
In Egyptian myths, Isis is the goddess of magic, fertility and the love of a great mother. She is the daughter of the earth god Ged and the sky goddess Nut, and the sister and wife of the god of death Osiris.
Isis usually appears with large wings outstretched to protect and is very selfless. When her brother, the evil god Seth, killed her husband, out of love and loyalty, she went around looking for pieces of Osiris’ body and using magic to bring him back to life. The two have a son, Horus.
Nu Wa is the goddess who has the ability to create humans according to Chinese mythology. After creating humans on Earth, Mother Nu Wa taught them how to maintain the species, making all things proliferate and flourish. She also has the ability to repair the wall in Heaven to avoid destruction when this wall falls to earth. Later, Nu Wa created domestic animals such as chickens, dogs, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, etc. to help people do their own business and live.