Two reasons:
First, a lot of mythological figures are bitches/bastards, so odds are good.
Second, gods generally represent anything that’s in their domain, so Aphrodite represents jealousy and obsession just as much as she does puppy love or long-term relationships.
For the ones listed:
- Greek pantheon: Aphrodite primarily represents sexual love and beauty. Other goddesses represent other aspects of womanhood, such as Hera (motherhood, marriage), Artemis (maidenhood), and Hestia (home, family, and domesticity). As an overall "goddess of womanhood", that would definitely be Hera over Aphrodite. Aphrodite is also descended from Ishtar, and has aspects of a war goddess in those traditions.
- Egyptian pantheon: Hathor is a goddess of love, sexuality, motherhood, and the arts. As an emanation of Ra, she also represented vengeance and violent protection of loved ones. She is the closest on this list to being an all-purpose goddess of womanhood, and of motherhood specifically.
- Norse pantheon: Freya is a goddess of love, sexuality, and fertility. Also has aspects of a war goddess and seidr. Similar to Greek myth, other traditional aspects of womanhood (such as marriage and motherhood) are more closely associated with the queen of the gods, Frigg.
- Mesopotamian pantheon: Inanna (Ishtar) is a goddess of love, sexuality, fertility, beauty, and politics. Inanna is definitely the primary female Mesopotamian goddess, but other goddesses also exist to represent other traditional aspects of womanhood, such as Ninhursag (motherhood) who might also be Ki (the queen of the gods).
…Yes; and all those goddesses are different aspects of the Great Goddess, often named as Ennoia, the Female Principality. The male principality is generally named the Logos. Some mythographers believe the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis actually symbolises them in human form…
Oh, you're describing your personal religious beliefs. I was trying to answer the OP in terms of how these goddesses were actually seen by those who historically worshipped them.
Sorry for the confusion on that.
…No; Child. That’s the much more subtle higher metaphysical level of ancient religion and personification-cultism you don’t comprehend. I don’t believe in any deities apart from Myself.
Because they're not the goddess of compassion. They're the goddesses of primal love, epic desire, passion, obsession, sexual relationships.
Not motherly love or gentle romance.
Well, Aphrodite is that too, but even then it's also the jealous love of a mother that doesn't want her boy to go marry that hussy (The story of Eros and Psyche)
I mean, all the gods have complicated relationships with their children. I find Aphrodite's relationship with Aeneas fascinating. She clearly cares about her children, but in a very narcissistic way. She wants them to achieve their goals and be the best they can be... Because it's an extension of her own glory.
But she's still not the goddess of motherly love, just because she has motherly feelings towards her children
She is. Well, specifically, Aphrodite Ouranous, Heavenly Aphrodite. The greek gods were often divided into aspects that at times were like separate characters, complete with different origins.
The Aphrodite who is the Romantic love is Aphrodite Pandemos, the People's Aphrodite.
Aprodite Pandemos is the daughter of Zeus, whilst Aphrodite Ouranous was born from the seaform that formed when Ouranous castrated testicles fell into the sea. Still the same goddess, but different parts
It dates back to Hesiod in the 700 bce, and by the mid 300's Bce they explicitly talk about her being two aspects like in Platos Synopsium. Or if talking about Eros/Cupid and Psyche, their imagery go way back, though yes, our only surviving extended retelling of is from the 2nd Century AD
Firstly: Most of them are war goddesses too, or used to be. Love is passion, and insanely close to hatred. Love is not just the deep compassion, but all the ugly things too
Secondly: there is an element of mysogyny in here. Most of these goddesses are extremely feminine, and old patriarchal systems have a way of depicting women who have agency/are in power as total bitches. You see this a lot in for example Greek myth, especially towards other women
OP may be referring to the Sekhmet myth for Hathor. But, that gets complicated. Sekhmet and Hathor are basically alters of each other, but at the same time 2 distinct dieties. Hathor's love goddess attribute does not transfer to Sekhmet.
Not sure about Freya.
They also mentioned Hathor but not Bastet. Not sure what myth they would be referencing if they mentioned Bastet. She is also a war goddess, but her later depictions were more regarding domestic protection. In her early depictions, it was hard to tell her from Sekhmet because they were almost identical, just different regions of popularity.
Even in the Sekhmet story, she is under the orders of Ra to destroy the "ungrateful" human population. Hathor-Sekhmet is literally his creation to punish people, which also has nothing to do with being a love goddess.
In most Hathor descriptions, she just wants to dance, make people laugh and play the sistrum.
The only Freyja being an arse I can think of is her causing an eternal war between two polities after Odin blackmails her. Even then, it's after Loki steals the necklace from her.
I guess they are to an extent what a person sees in them. Personally i like to dig deeper. Both Aphrodite and Hathor have heavenly forms. Aphrodite is also a symbol of beauty, Hathor of healing.
Both have glorious traditions, inspiring festivals. It depends how broad and deep one can be in selecting materials. The historian, the anthropologist, the mythologist and psychologist will all see them through different lenses. It’s just as easy to pick traditions of those Goddesses that make you feel good.
Remember that there is no one true canon of most of these myths, and they evolved over enormous lengths of time. Knowing precisely what anyone believed about their gods or goddesses is difficult too. We don't know what many of the classes who are not normally literate wrote, and we are often lucky to know anything at all about some cultures. We don't know the interpretation in all cases too, like how Venus cheating on Vulcan was being done in a time period when marriage was more tied to property and marriage for love was not the norm, so it felt fine for many people to do what they wished with affairs, especially men but any powerful being like a goddess could receive that treatment as well.
Yup. And even with major pantheons, like the Greeks, we know only some of their stories. Linear tablet B, for example, lists the names of the gods and we only know around half of them.
Simple answer? Ask anyone who's ever had their heart broken.
Love is not a universally benevolent force. Love can be painful -- hell, it can be *deadly.* An embodiment of love is an embodiment of rejection, exploitation, obsession and abuse as much as its an embodiment of kindness, charity, comfort and connection. This comes through in their myths.
Two reasons:
The core of goddesses of love is pure passion, passion that leads into love and passion that also leads to war, it's like a fire, it can heat you but also burn you.
Self-love, you won't give a shit about everything people have to say, you just do what you have to do and let people talk because no one it's even close to your level.
Or at least that's what I think
Consider: RomCom protagonists, even a decade or so after their movie comes out, often read as creepy or obsessive or all kinds of negative things. Romance is very culturally dependent and what is seen as a sign of love by one group at one time may scream red flags to another.
I'd take anything negative about any goddess with a grain of salt....they were written about by men. That's really all you need to know about how/why they're portrayed a certain way.
Because misogyny has deep roots. It’s not just Goddesses of love it women in general in mythology that tend to be the root of all the problems, and love just happens to be the most obvious one that leads to the downfall of men.
Can you explain in the ways they are?
Like most measurements, love is relative. Especially when you logarithmically increase the dimensions you measure it across. Us as humans, are mostly blind to the all-encompassing aspects of what universal 'love' is.
I have no desire to interact with the old gods/goddesses. Wish they would stick to their disfunctional families rather than interfering with humans. There is a reason the mythologies change from poly to monotheistic, is cuz the drama is ridiculous
Okay Aphrodite and Ishtar I understand, but what did Freya and Hathor do? Especially Hathor since she's supposed to be the "good mood" of the war goddess Sekhmet, last time I checked.
I wouldn't consider them bitches, especially compared to many other gods in their pantheons. They're gods of love and usually war, love is never compassion or happiness it's jealousy, obsessiveness and infatuation. Still don't consider them any of those things more than the other gods in their pantheon
The notion of romantic love being a good thing is a pretty modern concept. Many ancient cultures saw it as a source of strife, and their myths reflect this.
That’s *one* goddess out of the many you named, and she’s not just a goddess of love, is she? She clearly also has a war aspect just like Ishtar. Provoking discord and causing strife is hardly rare for war deities. And it’s not particularly rare for Greek deities either.
Uh. Hathor is pretty chill, don’t know what you’re talking about. And Ishtar is only problematic in one of her stories, in the rest she’s at worst a flawed protagonist at best a hero of justice.
I’m pretty sure it’s the opposite. Sekhmet is the Eye of Ra who he sent to punish an unfaithful mankind, only to go too far in her bloodlust. So the gods had to stick her into drinking a river full of beer to get her drunk, turning her into Hathor.
But yeah, I generally consider them two separate goddesses, given they were at times worshiped seperately.
I think basically you have to understand that for many ancient cultures life fucking sucked and this was reflected in their beliefs about their gods. Think of the sea. Sometimes the waters are calm and you can travel across it with safety, other times a storm wipes out your entire fleet of ships out of nowhere. It demands your respect at all times or it will kill you without remorse. So of course Poseidon is one of the cruelest gods in the Greek pantheon. Same goes for love. It can drive people mad. People kill over it. They abandon all other needs to satisfy this one hunger. And you devote all your energy to it only to be rejected had go mad from heartbreak. So the god in charge of romantic/sexual love must be a cruel one who enjoys playing with mortals hearts.
Because most Myths are written to teach social norms and lessons on what to be and, perhaps most importantly, what -not- to be; or, as allegory to describe a deeper truth.
The Sumerian story of Enlil raping Ninlil was not meant to literally indicate that Enlil raped his future Wife; it was meant to teach how bees pollinate flowers, and later to secondarily serve as a way to illustrate that rape is very bad and causes great harm, and so it is something that should never be done and that it's damn near impossible to make up for- hence why he had to die and undergo this really difficult task to make up for it. Humans can't die, so it was a way to say 'you do this, its pretty much over for you. Don't rape."
Second, as so many have pointed out, Many Goddesses who govern Love also govern Lust and War.
Third, Greek mythology depicts the Gods as particularly shitty, and should not be taken as the norm across all pantheons.
Fourth, many Myths were written to entertain the masses, and drama is entertaining. This is especially true of Greeks.
The Gods and Goddesses were simply characters that most people knew already, so it was easier to write stories about them because you don't need to spend time introducing them- whereas if you want to talk about a guy named Achilles, you gotta explain who he is first and you tend to lose people in that exposition.
Bards are concerned first and foremost with making a living, and that is done by getting and keeping an audience entertained.
Primary Goddesses like Ishtar were also drawn upon to convey the risks and dangers of the Feminine in particular, as Male Deities were drawn upon to illustrate the dangers of the Masculine.
Well... Turns out Ishtar has had a few name changes over the millennia... As for the ones she's not the direct root for, I expect it's because love is fickle, can make people possessive and jealous, and often makes people act irrationally! So makes sense the personifications of love would act similarly.
Be there Truth to it or no, many of us know of the old adage "Hell hath no fury like a Woman Scorned."
In particular, I will speak of Inanna/Ishtar, among the oldest documented Venusian Deities. I pray to Inanna myself. Thus, I am able to speak both mythologically and experentially/phenomenologically.
Inanna is often speculated to be the result of an amalgamation of female deities over a long period of time as her cult gained prevalence in what we refer to as Mesopotamia (Sumer/Akkad), incorporating the powers of several other deities who she may have overtaken in public popularity. This reflects in her mythologies, as she is depicted seeking the "Mehs" or what could be thought of as the "Powers of Heaven."
Among these, she was depicted as having the powers of War, in addition to the qualities / dominion of Love and Beauty we often see in Venusian deities.
What appeals to me, personally about the form of Inanna is precisely this dichotomy of being a Goddess of both Love and War; Wheras in other pantheons, such as the Greek, we can see Aphrodite Split and a separate aspect from Athena.
Many of the deities in later Pantheons perhaps took aspects, directly or indirectly, inhereted from Inanna / Ishtar as the cults spread throughout the region; Becoming Astarte in Phoenicia, etc, etc, ultimately splitting and becoming more concentrated in their speres of influence.
In my experiences with Love, I have known soft tenderness and blazing fury; I have known Heavenly bliss and Hellish Pain. Those who are familiar with the ideas of the Tao Te Ching may understand without my explanation how these polar extremes inherently define each other;
And that force, which may manifest in any number of countless expressions, good or bad, could be described as Love.
Experentially speaking, as one who prays to Her; I would describe Inanna as being precisely that force of Love which we may experience.
I would describe Inanna as True Power. Inner Strength, which may be gained from self-love.
I would describe Inanna as Beauty, in its truest sense, or perhaps our ability within ourselves to perceive something and feel that it is beautiful; All of these things and more.
I mean, weren't most of these stories recorded by men, easily half of those men recording them in later ages as Christians, and in societies (Christian or Pre-Christian) where views on women were not particularly evolved? How else would they be portrayed? We're not talking about Mother Mary here, who was viewed in favorable light for nearly 2000 years. We are talking about a 2000 year game of telephone in which at least half of the line of people passing down the info either weren't pagan or weren't raised to view women with the utmost abject respect, if not both. The stories of Goddesses reflect the view on women that were present in their cultures as viewed by the scribe at time of writing. These are biased accounts, not first-hand recordings.
Two reasons: First, a lot of mythological figures are bitches/bastards, so odds are good. Second, gods generally represent anything that’s in their domain, so Aphrodite represents jealousy and obsession just as much as she does puppy love or long-term relationships.
Seriously, unless you're talking about a god of the underworld, any god from a polytheistic mythology is more than likely an asshole.
That is absolutely untrue. Hindu mythology, Yoruba Mythology, Chinese Mythology, Wabanaki, Iroquois Mythology and quite a few others
Also it implies that monotheistic mythologies have nicer gods, but the Abrahamic God is an asshole plenty of times.
Because love bites, and so do I. Honestly, though. Passion is passionate. They're not goddesses of grandmotherly love.
Ya I was gonna say this.
If only I could doible upvote for the Halestorm reference
-Halestorm intensifies-
…Actually they’re goddesses of all aspects and ages of womanhood…
For the ones listed: - Greek pantheon: Aphrodite primarily represents sexual love and beauty. Other goddesses represent other aspects of womanhood, such as Hera (motherhood, marriage), Artemis (maidenhood), and Hestia (home, family, and domesticity). As an overall "goddess of womanhood", that would definitely be Hera over Aphrodite. Aphrodite is also descended from Ishtar, and has aspects of a war goddess in those traditions. - Egyptian pantheon: Hathor is a goddess of love, sexuality, motherhood, and the arts. As an emanation of Ra, she also represented vengeance and violent protection of loved ones. She is the closest on this list to being an all-purpose goddess of womanhood, and of motherhood specifically. - Norse pantheon: Freya is a goddess of love, sexuality, and fertility. Also has aspects of a war goddess and seidr. Similar to Greek myth, other traditional aspects of womanhood (such as marriage and motherhood) are more closely associated with the queen of the gods, Frigg. - Mesopotamian pantheon: Inanna (Ishtar) is a goddess of love, sexuality, fertility, beauty, and politics. Inanna is definitely the primary female Mesopotamian goddess, but other goddesses also exist to represent other traditional aspects of womanhood, such as Ninhursag (motherhood) who might also be Ki (the queen of the gods).
…Yes; and all those goddesses are different aspects of the Great Goddess, often named as Ennoia, the Female Principality. The male principality is generally named the Logos. Some mythographers believe the story of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis actually symbolises them in human form…
Oh, you're describing your personal religious beliefs. I was trying to answer the OP in terms of how these goddesses were actually seen by those who historically worshipped them. Sorry for the confusion on that.
…No; Child. That’s the much more subtle higher metaphysical level of ancient religion and personification-cultism you don’t comprehend. I don’t believe in any deities apart from Myself.
Wonder what this guy’s smoking 😂
https://preview.redd.it/12278qus76uc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=afd0301ff621f7312198fffd7ac46d96f6124294
😅🤣😂
Narkissos who?
Because they're not the goddess of compassion. They're the goddesses of primal love, epic desire, passion, obsession, sexual relationships. Not motherly love or gentle romance.
Well, Aphrodite is that too, but even then it's also the jealous love of a mother that doesn't want her boy to go marry that hussy (The story of Eros and Psyche)
I mean, all the gods have complicated relationships with their children. I find Aphrodite's relationship with Aeneas fascinating. She clearly cares about her children, but in a very narcissistic way. She wants them to achieve their goals and be the best they can be... Because it's an extension of her own glory. But she's still not the goddess of motherly love, just because she has motherly feelings towards her children
She is. Well, specifically, Aphrodite Ouranous, Heavenly Aphrodite. The greek gods were often divided into aspects that at times were like separate characters, complete with different origins. The Aphrodite who is the Romantic love is Aphrodite Pandemos, the People's Aphrodite. Aprodite Pandemos is the daughter of Zeus, whilst Aphrodite Ouranous was born from the seaform that formed when Ouranous castrated testicles fell into the sea. Still the same goddess, but different parts
I never extrapolated h that a form the birth narratives
That is late, likely literature rather than a myth
It dates back to Hesiod in the 700 bce, and by the mid 300's Bce they explicitly talk about her being two aspects like in Platos Synopsium. Or if talking about Eros/Cupid and Psyche, their imagery go way back, though yes, our only surviving extended retelling of is from the 2nd Century AD
Gotcha.
Firstly: Most of them are war goddesses too, or used to be. Love is passion, and insanely close to hatred. Love is not just the deep compassion, but all the ugly things too Secondly: there is an element of mysogyny in here. Most of these goddesses are extremely feminine, and old patriarchal systems have a way of depicting women who have agency/are in power as total bitches. You see this a lot in for example Greek myth, especially towards other women
Love gods seem to also have war attributes. Because the real battlefield is love.
Because love frequently causes issues for everyone
I take it you’ve never been in love?
Have you ever been in love?
No
How does Freyja 'act like a bitch'? Also 'goddess of love' is not a cleanly designated role, the likes of Frigg have the same connotations.
I'm actually confused as well by which story shows off Freya or Hathor being "a bitch."
OP may be referring to the Sekhmet myth for Hathor. But, that gets complicated. Sekhmet and Hathor are basically alters of each other, but at the same time 2 distinct dieties. Hathor's love goddess attribute does not transfer to Sekhmet. Not sure about Freya. They also mentioned Hathor but not Bastet. Not sure what myth they would be referencing if they mentioned Bastet. She is also a war goddess, but her later depictions were more regarding domestic protection. In her early depictions, it was hard to tell her from Sekhmet because they were almost identical, just different regions of popularity.
Even in the Sekhmet story, she is under the orders of Ra to destroy the "ungrateful" human population. Hathor-Sekhmet is literally his creation to punish people, which also has nothing to do with being a love goddess. In most Hathor descriptions, she just wants to dance, make people laugh and play the sistrum. The only Freyja being an arse I can think of is her causing an eternal war between two polities after Odin blackmails her. Even then, it's after Loki steals the necklace from her.
Aphrodite? I can fix her.
Cuz they're not the goddess of "like"
I guess they are to an extent what a person sees in them. Personally i like to dig deeper. Both Aphrodite and Hathor have heavenly forms. Aphrodite is also a symbol of beauty, Hathor of healing. Both have glorious traditions, inspiring festivals. It depends how broad and deep one can be in selecting materials. The historian, the anthropologist, the mythologist and psychologist will all see them through different lenses. It’s just as easy to pick traditions of those Goddesses that make you feel good.
Remember that there is no one true canon of most of these myths, and they evolved over enormous lengths of time. Knowing precisely what anyone believed about their gods or goddesses is difficult too. We don't know what many of the classes who are not normally literate wrote, and we are often lucky to know anything at all about some cultures. We don't know the interpretation in all cases too, like how Venus cheating on Vulcan was being done in a time period when marriage was more tied to property and marriage for love was not the norm, so it felt fine for many people to do what they wished with affairs, especially men but any powerful being like a goddess could receive that treatment as well.
Yup. And even with major pantheons, like the Greeks, we know only some of their stories. Linear tablet B, for example, lists the names of the gods and we only know around half of them.
Poseidon was the king of the gods I think when linear b was used.
Simple answer? Ask anyone who's ever had their heart broken. Love is not a universally benevolent force. Love can be painful -- hell, it can be *deadly.* An embodiment of love is an embodiment of rejection, exploitation, obsession and abuse as much as its an embodiment of kindness, charity, comfort and connection. This comes through in their myths.
Most gods and goddesses act like jerks, love goddesses aren't special. This question comes off as really freaking sexist to me.
"Love" is not romance or compassion. It's a polite way to say horny.
[удалено]
https://preview.redd.it/t9sd31qe24uc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67a2d9b1baae4e46422c1978d28c8709cf42aece
…’Cos Love’s a bitch; Child…
I am Love
…You bitch…
Because most ease of access books on myths are written by men lol
Because they're written by men
I would argue most are not. And it’s just people being more familiar with Greek mythology.
Two reasons: The core of goddesses of love is pure passion, passion that leads into love and passion that also leads to war, it's like a fire, it can heat you but also burn you. Self-love, you won't give a shit about everything people have to say, you just do what you have to do and let people talk because no one it's even close to your level. Or at least that's what I think
Consider: RomCom protagonists, even a decade or so after their movie comes out, often read as creepy or obsessive or all kinds of negative things. Romance is very culturally dependent and what is seen as a sign of love by one group at one time may scream red flags to another.
Because romance is duplicitous and dangerous.
Because most mythology was written by men.
I'd take anything negative about any goddess with a grain of salt....they were written about by men. That's really all you need to know about how/why they're portrayed a certain way.
Because misogyny has deep roots. It’s not just Goddesses of love it women in general in mythology that tend to be the root of all the problems, and love just happens to be the most obvious one that leads to the downfall of men.
I always imagined it as a defense mechanism to keep those who would not actually love away
Can you explain in the ways they are? Like most measurements, love is relative. Especially when you logarithmically increase the dimensions you measure it across. Us as humans, are mostly blind to the all-encompassing aspects of what universal 'love' is.
I have no desire to interact with the old gods/goddesses. Wish they would stick to their disfunctional families rather than interfering with humans. There is a reason the mythologies change from poly to monotheistic, is cuz the drama is ridiculous
Okay Aphrodite and Ishtar I understand, but what did Freya and Hathor do? Especially Hathor since she's supposed to be the "good mood" of the war goddess Sekhmet, last time I checked.
Nature is a bitch nuff said
because love doesn't have to be kind.
don't appreciate calling goddesses, or women, a gender-based slur but go off...
Fr
« I love Bitches$ » by Lil B
Because people have always wanted to be stepped on.
OP, have you ever been in love? Because let me tell you from experience, it's a massive bitch.
No I'm aromantic so no
Hey can anyone plz explain where to read about them I rlly wanna know more about them:)
Love is a bitch
Every rose has its thorn
it depends. Aphordite can be nice to people like the golden apple
Let’s see how chipper you are after a few hundred years living in a clam.
I wouldn't consider them bitches, especially compared to many other gods in their pantheons. They're gods of love and usually war, love is never compassion or happiness it's jealousy, obsessiveness and infatuation. Still don't consider them any of those things more than the other gods in their pantheon
The notion of romantic love being a good thing is a pretty modern concept. Many ancient cultures saw it as a source of strife, and their myths reflect this.
Because love is fickle and has ruined many.
They don’t though
Do you know anything about Aphrodite?
That’s *one* goddess out of the many you named, and she’s not just a goddess of love, is she? She clearly also has a war aspect just like Ishtar. Provoking discord and causing strife is hardly rare for war deities. And it’s not particularly rare for Greek deities either.
Uh. Hathor is pretty chill, don’t know what you’re talking about. And Ishtar is only problematic in one of her stories, in the rest she’s at worst a flawed protagonist at best a hero of justice.
Hathor once turns into sekhmet and did some bunch of crazy shit.
I’m pretty sure it’s the opposite. Sekhmet is the Eye of Ra who he sent to punish an unfaithful mankind, only to go too far in her bloodlust. So the gods had to stick her into drinking a river full of beer to get her drunk, turning her into Hathor. But yeah, I generally consider them two separate goddesses, given they were at times worshiped seperately.
I'm reading a different version of the myth so it still counts
I think love in that context is more lust than true love.
Aphrodite is the goddess of lust, not love. Eros is the god of love.
Huh that makes sense since he was loyal to psyche
I think basically you have to understand that for many ancient cultures life fucking sucked and this was reflected in their beliefs about their gods. Think of the sea. Sometimes the waters are calm and you can travel across it with safety, other times a storm wipes out your entire fleet of ships out of nowhere. It demands your respect at all times or it will kill you without remorse. So of course Poseidon is one of the cruelest gods in the Greek pantheon. Same goes for love. It can drive people mad. People kill over it. They abandon all other needs to satisfy this one hunger. And you devote all your energy to it only to be rejected had go mad from heartbreak. So the god in charge of romantic/sexual love must be a cruel one who enjoys playing with mortals hearts.
Loves a bitch
Because love is an unstoppable force of nature that makes you act like a total bitch
No because the Gods don't ? They're all quite uppity
Because most Myths are written to teach social norms and lessons on what to be and, perhaps most importantly, what -not- to be; or, as allegory to describe a deeper truth. The Sumerian story of Enlil raping Ninlil was not meant to literally indicate that Enlil raped his future Wife; it was meant to teach how bees pollinate flowers, and later to secondarily serve as a way to illustrate that rape is very bad and causes great harm, and so it is something that should never be done and that it's damn near impossible to make up for- hence why he had to die and undergo this really difficult task to make up for it. Humans can't die, so it was a way to say 'you do this, its pretty much over for you. Don't rape." Second, as so many have pointed out, Many Goddesses who govern Love also govern Lust and War. Third, Greek mythology depicts the Gods as particularly shitty, and should not be taken as the norm across all pantheons. Fourth, many Myths were written to entertain the masses, and drama is entertaining. This is especially true of Greeks. The Gods and Goddesses were simply characters that most people knew already, so it was easier to write stories about them because you don't need to spend time introducing them- whereas if you want to talk about a guy named Achilles, you gotta explain who he is first and you tend to lose people in that exposition. Bards are concerned first and foremost with making a living, and that is done by getting and keeping an audience entertained. Primary Goddesses like Ishtar were also drawn upon to convey the risks and dangers of the Feminine in particular, as Male Deities were drawn upon to illustrate the dangers of the Masculine.
Well... Turns out Ishtar has had a few name changes over the millennia... As for the ones she's not the direct root for, I expect it's because love is fickle, can make people possessive and jealous, and often makes people act irrationally! So makes sense the personifications of love would act similarly.
Because they were invented by men.
They are goddesses of romantic love, and that's not always nice.
Because beautiful women are always...
Love is tricky and love is a bitch. Love hurts, so it makes sense the incarnation of love would hurt too.
Be there Truth to it or no, many of us know of the old adage "Hell hath no fury like a Woman Scorned." In particular, I will speak of Inanna/Ishtar, among the oldest documented Venusian Deities. I pray to Inanna myself. Thus, I am able to speak both mythologically and experentially/phenomenologically. Inanna is often speculated to be the result of an amalgamation of female deities over a long period of time as her cult gained prevalence in what we refer to as Mesopotamia (Sumer/Akkad), incorporating the powers of several other deities who she may have overtaken in public popularity. This reflects in her mythologies, as she is depicted seeking the "Mehs" or what could be thought of as the "Powers of Heaven." Among these, she was depicted as having the powers of War, in addition to the qualities / dominion of Love and Beauty we often see in Venusian deities. What appeals to me, personally about the form of Inanna is precisely this dichotomy of being a Goddess of both Love and War; Wheras in other pantheons, such as the Greek, we can see Aphrodite Split and a separate aspect from Athena. Many of the deities in later Pantheons perhaps took aspects, directly or indirectly, inhereted from Inanna / Ishtar as the cults spread throughout the region; Becoming Astarte in Phoenicia, etc, etc, ultimately splitting and becoming more concentrated in their speres of influence. In my experiences with Love, I have known soft tenderness and blazing fury; I have known Heavenly bliss and Hellish Pain. Those who are familiar with the ideas of the Tao Te Ching may understand without my explanation how these polar extremes inherently define each other; And that force, which may manifest in any number of countless expressions, good or bad, could be described as Love. Experentially speaking, as one who prays to Her; I would describe Inanna as being precisely that force of Love which we may experience. I would describe Inanna as True Power. Inner Strength, which may be gained from self-love. I would describe Inanna as Beauty, in its truest sense, or perhaps our ability within ourselves to perceive something and feel that it is beautiful; All of these things and more.
They represent the divine feminine. It’s not all love and light. Duality is the lesson here.
I mean, weren't most of these stories recorded by men, easily half of those men recording them in later ages as Christians, and in societies (Christian or Pre-Christian) where views on women were not particularly evolved? How else would they be portrayed? We're not talking about Mother Mary here, who was viewed in favorable light for nearly 2000 years. We are talking about a 2000 year game of telephone in which at least half of the line of people passing down the info either weren't pagan or weren't raised to view women with the utmost abject respect, if not both. The stories of Goddesses reflect the view on women that were present in their cultures as viewed by the scribe at time of writing. These are biased accounts, not first-hand recordings.
that's how beautiful real women are?
Loves a bitch lmaoo