For Valentine’s Day, I post about the Taíno spirit of romance, sexual delight, and virility, Corocote, and some counterparts in other cultures.
According to Fray Ramón Pané, Corocote sits on top of bohíos and comes down at night to lie with the women sleeping within. He goes from bohío to bohío, residing with one cacique after another. Pané doesn’t tell us whether he has a mother.
Some speculate Corocote is represented in the unique Taíno cotton cemí shown in the first photo, held in the collection of the University of Turin’s Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. The cemí was found in the 19th century in a cave near Barahona, Dominican Republic.
The second image is of the Greek god Eros, the third the Roman god Cupid, and the fourth the Hindu god Kamadeva. Eros, the son of Aphrodite, has wings and flies about, shooting his arrows to make the targets fall in love with unrestrainable passion and lust. Cupid, the son of Venus, does the same. Kamadeva does as well, riding a parrot, and his birth varies by tradition and his story also has other significances.
The photo of Corocote is with the express permission of the University of Turin’s museum, ©Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the University of Turin. Eros and Cupid are courtesy of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kamadeva is courtesy of the British Museum.