Goddess of love of Chuuk, 'the Venus of Chuuk' (Bollig 1927). English 'Goddess of Love' leads name.primary; native Inemes in transliterations/term. Entered at mythic era as an individuated named deity with a living love-magic cult; faculties cover the love/desire power, the love-magic she answers, and her descent on a medium, with the meeting-house spirit-canoe and the love-magic complex as materialCulture. SOLITARY: no parentage, spouse, or sibling is attested for Inemes in the Chuukese sources (Bollig 1927; Lessa in the Encyclopedia of Religion).
Domains
love
desire
Powers
kindles and compels sexual love and desire
answers the love-magic spells addressed to her
is called down upon a spirit-medium in the meeting house
Epithets
Venus of Chuuk
Sources
Laurentius Bollig, Die Bewohner der Truk-Inseln: Religion, Leben und kurze Grammatik eines Mikronesiervolkes (Anthropos-Bibliothek, Münster, 1927), p. 6 (Inemes, 'die Venus von Truk').
William A. Lessa, 'Micronesian Religions: Mythic Themes,' Encyclopedia of Religion (Macmillan), naming Inemes goddess of love, imprecated in surviving love magic.
Laurentius Bollig, Die Bewohner der Truk-Inseln (1927), on the Chuukese spirit cult and possession.
Micronesian Seminar (Francis X. Hezel), 'Spirit Possession in Chuuk' / 'Congeries of Spirits,' summarizing Bollig 1927 and Goodenough on the medium and the meeting-house canoe.