Loviatar

Blind daughter of Tuoni and Tuonetar and the worst of the death-realm daughters of Tuonela; a goddess of plague, disease and desolation. In the canonical Birth of the Nine Diseases (Runo 45) she was impregnated by the cold east wind and bore nine sons, the personified plagues sent by Louhi against Kalevala: pistos, ahki, luuvalo, riisi, paise, rupi, syoja, rutto, and an unnamed ninth and worst, the embodiment of envy, whom she banished to scourge mankind. She is the mother of disease in Finnish mythology. In the old folk-poems the names Loviatar and Louhi are frequently interchanged; Lonnrot made them two distinct characters. Wired as daughter of finnish_tuoni and finnish_tuonetar. The nine disease-sons are disease-personifications (and the ninth unnamed), not registered as standalone figures.

Parentage

• father: TuoniReciprocal-needed on finnish_tuoni — Loviatar is the blind daughter of Tuoni, lord of the dead, born in Tuonela.Kalevala (Lonnrot 1849), Runo 45; Tuoni the death-lord as father of Loviatar (primary)
• mother: TuonetarReciprocal-needed on finnish_tuonetar — Loviatar is the blind daughter of Tuonetar and Tuoni, the worst of the death-realm daughters.Kalevala (Lonnrot 1849), Runo 45; Tuonetar enumerated as mother of Loviatar (primary)

Powers

• Spawn the personified diseases

Epithets

• Tuonen tytti finnish · folkDaughter of Tuoni, a death-realm maiden epithetKalevala (Lonnrot), Runo 45 and disease-synty incantations (primary)
• Lovetar, vaimo vanha finnish · folkLovetar the old hag, a charm-epithet of the disease-motherSuomen Kansan Vanhat Runot, disease-origin incantations naming Lovetar / Loviatar (primary)

Relations

• mother: TuonetarReciprocal-needed on finnish_tuonetar — Loviatar is the blind daughter of Tuonetar and Tuoni, the worst of the death-realm daughters.Kalevala (Lonnrot 1849), Runo 45; Tuonetar enumerated as mother of Loviatar (primary)
• father: TuoniReciprocal-needed on finnish_tuoni — Loviatar is the blind daughter of Tuoni, lord of the dead, born in Tuonela.Kalevala (Lonnrot 1849), Runo 45; Tuoni the death-lord as father of Loviatar (primary)

Sources

• existence: Elias Lonnrot, Kalevala (1849 New Kalevala) Runo 45 (Birth of the Nine Diseases) (primary); Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (Old Songs of the Finnish People), disease-origin incantation runos (synty) (primary); Anna-Leena Siikala, Itamerensuomalaisten mytologia (2012) (secondary)