Herentas is the Oscan goddess of desire, whose name derives from the Italic verb meaning 'to wish' or 'to desire' and who corresponds to the Roman Venus. She is securely attested in Campania, above all by an Oscan altar from Herculaneum of about 100 BCE that was dedicated to 'Herentas of Eryx' by a Samnite-period public magistrate, the inscription declaring on one face 'I am of Herentas'. Through the epithet Herukina she stands behind the famous cult of Venus Erycina, the goddess of Mount Eryx in Sicily, and at the Lucanian sanctuary of Rossano di Vaglio she is fused with the local goddess in the formula Venus-Mefitis, showing how the Oscan power of desire was woven into both Punic-Sicilian and indigenous Italic cults.