Lust

Lust

See also Profligacy, Promiscuity.

Aeshma

fiend of evil passion. [Iranian Myth.: Leach, 17]

Aholah and Aholibah

lusty whores; bedded from Egypt to Babylon. [O.T.: Ezekiel 23:1–21]

Alcina

lustful fairy. [Ital. Lit.: Orlando Furioso]

Ambrosio, Father

supposedly virtuous monk goatishly ravishes maiden. [Br. Lit.: The Monk]

Angelo

asked by Isabella to cancel her brother’s death sentence, Angelo agrees if she will yield herself to him. [Br. Drama: Shakespeare Measure for Measure]

Aphrodite Porne

patron of lust and prostitution. [Gk. Myth.: Espy, 16]

Armida’s Garden

symbol of the attractions of the senses. [Ital. Lit.: Jerusalem Delivered]

Aselges

personification of lasciviousness. [Br. Lit.: The Purple Island, Brewer Handbook, 67]

Ashtoreth

goddess of sexual love. [Phoenician Myth.: Zimmer-man, 32]

Asmodeus

female spirit of lust. [Jew. Myth.: Jobes, 141]

Balthazar B

shy gentleman afloat on sea of lasciviousness. [Am. Lit.: The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B]

Belial

demon of libidinousness and falsehood. [Br. Lit.: Paradise Lost]

Bess

Porgy’s “temporary” woman; she knew weakness of her will and flesh. [Am. Lit.: Porgy, Magill I, 764–766; Am. Opera: Gershwin, Porgy and Bess]

Brothers Karamazov, The

family given to the pleasures of flesh. [Russ. Lit.: The Brothers Karamazov]

Caro

loathsome hag; personification of fleshly lust. [Br. Lit.: The Purple Island, Brewer Handbook, 180]

Casanova

(1725–1798) loving (and likable) libertine. [Ital. Hist.: Espy, 130]

Cleopatra

(69–30 B.C.) Egyptian queen, used sex for power. [Egyptian Hist.: Wallechinsky, 323]

Don Juan

literature’s most active seducer: “in Spain, 1003.” [Span. Lit.: Benét, 279; Ger. Opera: Mozart, Don Giovanni, Espy, 130–131]

elders of Babylon

condemn Susanna when carnal passion goes unrequited. [Apocrypha: Daniel and Susanna]

Falstaff, Sir John

fancies himself a lady-killer. [Br. Lit.: Merry Wives of Windsor]

Fritz the Cat

a tomcat in every sense. [Comics: Horn, 266–267]

goat

lust incarnate. [Art: Hall, 139]

hare

attribute of sexual desire incarnate. [Art: Hall, 144]

horns

attribute of Pan and the satyr; symbolically, lust. [Rom. Myth.: Zimmerman, 190; Art: Hall, 157]

Hartman, Rev. Curtis

lusts after a young woman viewed at her window, but turns the experience into a hysterical sense of redemption. [Am. Lit.: Winesburg, Ohio]

John of the Funnels, Friar

monk advocating lust. [Fr. Lit.: Gargantua and Pantagruel]

Lilith

sensual female; mythical first wife of Adam. [O.T.: Genesis 4:16]

long ears

symbol of licentiousness. [Indian Myth.: Leach, 333]

Lothario

heartless libertine and active seducer. [Br. Lit.: Fair Penitent, Espy, 129]

Malecasta

personification of wantonness. [Br. Lit.: Faerie Queene]

Montez, Lola

(1818–1861) beguiling mistress to the eminent. [Br. Hist.: Wallechinsky, 325]

Obidicut

fiend; provokes men to gratify their lust. [Br. Lit.: King Lear]

Pan

man-goat of bawdy and lecherous ways. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 798]

Paphnutius

monk converts a courtesan but cannot overcome his lust for her. [Fr. Lit.: Anatole France Thaïs in Benét, 997]

pig

attribute of lust personified. [Art: Hall, 247]

Porneius

personification of fornication. [Br. Lit.: The Purple Island, Brewer Handbook, 865]

Priapus

monstrous genitals led him on the wayward path. [Rom. Myth.: Hall, 252]

Ridgeon, Sir Colenso

refrains from using his tuberculosis cure to save the life of a man whose wife he coveted. [Br. Lit.: Shaw The Doctor’s Dilemma in Sobel, 173]

Robinson, Mrs.

middle-aged lady lusts after young graduate. [Am. Lit.: The Graduate; Am. Music: “Mrs. Robinson”]

Salome

in her provocative Dance of the Seven Veils. [Aust. Opera: R. Strauss, Salome, Westerman, 417]

Spanish

jasmine flower symbolizing lust. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 175]

Vathek

devotes his life to sexual and other sensuous indulgences. [Br. Lit.: Beckford Vathek]

Villiers, George

first Duke of Buckingham and libidinous dandy. [Br. Lit.: Waverley]

widow of Ephesus

weeping over her husband’s corpse, she is cheered by a compassionate sentry and they become ardent lovers in the burial vault. [Rom. Lit.: Satyricon]

Zeus

the many loves of this god have made his name a byword for sexual lust. [Gk. Myth.: Howe, 297–301]