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| Goddesses of Love and Fertility |
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| APHRODITE The Goddess of Love and Beauty, was born from the foam of the sea. She was married to Hephaestus, the God of Fire and Smithy to the gods. Sacred to her are the Myrtle, Rose, Apple, Poppy, Sparrow, Dove, Swan, Swallow, Tortise, Ram, The planet Venus, and the month of April. Eros was produced from a liason with Zeus. Her favorite lover is the God of War Aries. she represented Sex, Affection, and the attraction that binds people together. |
| CERES The daughter of Saturn and Ops. Goddess of the growth of food plants. She and her daugther Proserpina were the counterparts of the Greek Goddesses Demeter and Persephone. Her worship involved Fertility rites and rites for the dead, and her chief festival was Cerealia (Our word cereal is derived from Ceres) |
| CHALCHIUHTLICUE She unleashed the flood (to punish the wicked) that destroyed the fourth world (according to the Aztecs, we are in the fifth world). She ruled over all the waters of the earth: oceans, rivers, rain, ect. The wife/sister of Tlaloc. The Goddess of Running Water, and of Fertility. She was also associated with marriage. |
| CYBELE Cybele was the Goddess of Nature and Fertility. Because Cybele presided over mountains and fortresses, her crown was in the form of a city wall. The cult of Cybele was directed by eunuch priests called Corybantes, who led the faithfull in orgiastic rites accompanied by wild cried and the frenzied music of flutes, drums, and cymbals. Her annual spring festival celebrated the death and resurrection of her beloved Attis, a Vegitation God. Her Greek mythology counterpart was Rhea. |
| DEMETER She was sister to Zeus, and Goddess of Fertility. She had various lovers, including her brother Zeus. One of her Children was Persephone (by Zeus), who was carried off by Hades (God of the Underworld), and in her grief, Demeter let the earth grow barren (winter) and only when Persephone was returned to her, six months of the year, did she let the earth become fruitful again (summer). Demeter is the Goddess of the Earth, Agriculture, and Fertility in general. Sacred to her are livestock and agricultrual products, poppy, Narcissus and the Crane. |
| DIANA She is Goddess of the Hunt. In Roman art Diana appears as a huntress with bow and arrow, along with a hunting dog or stag. She is also Goddess of the Moon, Forests, Animals, Women, and Childbirth. Both a Virgin Goddess and an Earth Goddess, she was identified with the Greek Artemis. She is praised for her strength, athletic grace, beauty, and her hunting skills. With two other deities she made up a trinity: Egeria the water nymph (her servant and assistant midwife) and Virbius (the woodland God). |
| FREYJA Goddess of Love, Fertility, and Beauty, sometimes identified as the Goddess of Battle and Death. She was also quite accommodating in sexual matters. |
| HATHOR The cow Goddess. Wife of the Hawk-God Horus. Daugther of the Sun God Ra. Goddess of Sexual Love, Joy, Music, and Dance. In architecture, she is usually pictured with a human face and bovine ears, in pantings as an elegant woman wearing a crown of cow-horns with the sun disk between them or as a cow suckling a young pharoh with her udder of divine milk. |
| HERA She was sister, and wife of Zeus. Hers is the supreme Goddess of the Greeks and Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth. Her children are Aries, Hebe, Hephaestus, and Eris. Sacred to her are the peacock, pomegranate, lily, and cuckoo. She was extremley jealous and vindictive, and vistied dire consequences upon those mortal women with whom Zeus carried on affairs.. |
| JUNO Queen of the Gods in Roman mythology; the wife and sister of the God Juniper. She was the protector of women and was worshiped under several names. As Juno Pronuba she presided over marriage; as Juno Lucina she aided women in childbirth; as Juno Regina she was the special counsler and protector of the Roman state. She is considered to be the female counterpart to Jupiter, King of the Gods. Every year, on the first of March, women held a festival in honor of Juno called the Matronalia. To this day, many people consider the Month of June, which is named after the Goddess, to the the most favorable time to marry. The peacock is sacred to Juno. Her Greek mythology counterpart was Hera. |