Which Pantheon/Gods/Goddesses represent generosity and selfless love?

[eros_eleutherios]

Does any pantheon represent selfless love for others? Does any God/Goddess represent selfless love?

[Lana288]

Does any pantheon represent selfless love for others? Does any God/Goddess represent selfless love?

 
I don't know about pantheons, but to  my knowledge, there are several deities that represent selfless love- Saule, Amun, Quan Yin*, and arguably Aset off the top of my head. Why? What are you looking for?

*At least, that's what I've heard about her. I know very little about her, honestly,  beyond that she's a very benign deity.

[Faemon]

Does any pantheon represent selfless love for others? Does any God/Goddess represent selfless love?

There's Hotei, who gets confused for Gautama Buddha. The Christian God has a sort of epithet as a god of love, and the New Age god seems to me to have adopted that aspect along with the cosmic.

Why would selfless love require representation, though, rather than being around as a thing or as a performative concept? Especially selfless love, attributed to a representation that would usually have agency and, therefore, self. And thus self would remain present, and would not be selfless.

[eros_eleutherios]

Why would selfless love require representation, though, rather than being around as a thing or as a performative concept? Especially selfless love, attributed to a representation that would usually have agency and, therefore, self. And thus self would remain present, and would not be selfless.

 
Maybe I should have said a God/Goddess of giving, kindness, and generosity without selfishness.

[Louisvillian]

Does any pantheon represent selfless love for others? Does any God/Goddess represent selfless love?

Whole pantheons? No. The plethora of gods in any particular culture represent (or have power over) many aspects of the natural world and of human experience. Selfless love is far too narrow for an entire string of gods to be framed around it.
Even for a specific deity, that might be too narrow of a focus. Certainly various Love Deities have some aspect or epithet that is framed around selfless or unconditional love. For the Greeks, it would have been the Ouranic or "Celestial" Aphrodite; the goddess of "higher" or "purer" love untouched by baser instincts or drives.
I've heard that later Roman and Hellenistic interpretations of Isis share some elements with that variation on Aphrodite, along with elements of Demeter's maternal personality. Which is certainly another kind of "selfless" devotion.

Honestly, the literary depiction of Jesus of Nazareth is about the closest thing you're going to get to a figure that is 1. considered a deity by some people, 2. framed around love and selflessness, and 3. framed around generosity. But that's fraught with its own baggage, like the whole Christianity thing.

[Darkhawk]

Honestly, the literary depiction of Jesus of Nazareth is about the closest thing you're going to get to a figure that is 1. considered a deity by some people, 2. framed around love and selflessness, and 3. framed around generosity. But that's fraught with its own baggage, like the whole Christianity thing.

 
I know a heathen who at least at one point referred to Jesus specifically in those terms, for what it's worth.  (I don't know if he still would.)

[Louisvillian]

I know a heathen who at least at one point referred to Jesus specifically in those terms, for what it's worth.  (I don't know if he still would.)

Though, now that you mentions Germanic mythology and all that, one does think a bit about Baldr in this subject. He's depicted, in what I've seen, as gentle and benevolent in general; he dies and all that, but comes back after Ragnarok to start a new, utopian world. But aside that, I know little else about him, and I don't know if he'd fit into the category being discussed.

[Ivory Roe]

Though, now that you mentions Germanic mythology and all that, one does think a bit about Baldr in this subject. He's depicted, in what I've seen, as gentle and benevolent in general; he dies and all that, but comes back after Ragnarok to start a new, utopian world. But aside that, I know little else about him, and I don't know if he'd fit into the category being discussed.

 
if your looking for a whole pantheon i would suggest looking at the pantheon leaders and see what they represent, they would most likely rub off on the rest of the gods because they are who they look up to.

[Sarah]

if your looking for a whole pantheon i would suggest looking at the pantheon leaders and see what they represent, they would most likely rub off on the rest of the gods because they are who they look up to.

 
Honestly, I'm not sure this is true. my understanding is that pantheons are communities/families/tribes and, like all more or less functioning groups of people, need different personalties to survive and thrive as a group, so there are often nurturers, tricksters, warriors etc who don't always of often have a lot in common with each other except for the fact that the group matters

[Darkhawk]

Honestly, I'm not sure this is true. my understanding is that pantheons are communities/families/tribes and, like all more or less functioning groups of people, need different personalties to survive and thrive as a group, so there are often nurturers, tricksters, warriors etc who don't always of often have a lot in common with each other except for the fact that the group matters

 
Or, to say this more bluntly: part of the point of a pantheon is to cover every human concern relevant to the culture of origin.

If someone has a concern that is not about "selfless love" then there will exist no plausible pantheon that is focused on "selfless love".

[Louisvillian]

if your looking for a whole pantheon i would suggest looking at the pantheon leaders and see what they represent, they would most likely rub off on the rest of the gods because they are who they look up to.

I mean, I'm not looking for it. The OP is. In fact, I was pointing out to him the same thing that Darkhawk and Jake are: pantheons are divine communities, and at the same time represent the human communities to which they are tied. As a result, they cover the gamut of human and natural experience.

[PrincessKLS]

There's Hotei, who gets confused for Gautama Buddha. The Christian God has a sort of epithet as a god of love, and the New Age god seems to me to have adopted that aspect along with the cosmic.

Why would selfless love require representation, though, rather than being around as a thing or as a performative concept? Especially selfless love, attributed to a representation that would usually have agency and, therefore, self. And thus self would remain present, and would not be selfless.

I wouldn't consider Yahweh a god of selfless love, more like a jealous warlord. Jesus and Mary I might consider more of selfless deities. This is coming from a self-described Christian witch.

[Faemon]

I wouldn't consider Yahweh a god of selfless love, more like a jealous warlord. Jesus and Mary I might consider more of selfless deities. This is coming from a self-described Christian witch.

Neither would I, but whoever wrote 1 John 4:7 simply had a very different UPG (or else met like...El instead of Yahweh, or something.)

[RecycledBenedict]

Does any pantheon represent selfless love for others?

The Buddhist one, but the beings most advanced in that one are not the gods and goddesses of Kamadhatu, Rupadhatu and Arupadhatu, but the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, and they are, technically, not deities.

[Juniperberry]

I wouldn't consider Yahweh a god of selfless love, more like a jealous warlord. Jesus and Mary I might consider more of selfless deities. This is coming from a self-described Christian witch.

I don't know. It kind of seems like with the first group of crazies, God was like "you people are fucked up, I have to start over". And even after that people were still fucked up and God was like, "ok, how about if I actually walk among you and show you how it's done?", and that still went all to shit. Now God's like, "whatevs. You're going to do what you want anyway." And he just sits back and let's people come to him.

God has historically disagreed with mankind and their interpretations of his spirit and will. So just because he comes across as an evil warlord isn't proof that he truly is. I mean, maybe we're the jealous, vengeful warlords.  Maybe?