Dhéǵhōm

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The root for the word "earth", *dʰéǵʰōm, is one of the most attested in Indo-European languages.[1] On the other hand, the linguistic evidence for the ritualization of the name *dʰéǵʰōm is not systematically spread across traditions, as she also appears under other names and epithets, principally *Pleth₂-wih₁ (the "Broad One").[3] If the goddess-earth is reliably reconstructed under the name *dhéǵhōm, she was the Earth itself conceived as a divine entity, rather than a goddess of the earth.[5]

The commonest epithet applied to the earth in Indo-European poetic traditions is *Pléth₂wih₁ (the "Broad One" ; from *pléth₂us, "flat, vast, broad"). A group of cognates appear in Prithvi, the Vedic earth-goddess, in the Greek nymph Plataia, and most likely in the Gaulish goddess Litavis.[4][6] It is also attested in linguistically related poetic expressions that associate the two roots dʰéǵʰōm and *pléth₂wih₁: Avestan ząm pərəϑβīm ("broad earth"), Sanskrit kṣā́m ... pṛthivī́m ("broad earth") and Old Hittite palḫiš ... dagan(-zipaš) ("broad ... earth[-genius]").[7][8][9]

Another similar epithet is the "All-Bearing One", the one who bears all things or creatures.[10] She was also referred to as "much-nourishing" or "rich-pastured" in Vedic, Greek, and Old Norse ritual expressions that shared the root *plh₁u- ("much").[3]

Similar expressions of the width of the land or earth are attested in relation to Gaia: "wide-bosomed" (Γαῖ᾽ εὐρύστερνος),[11] "wide-pathed" (χθονὸς εὐρυοδείης)[12] and "vast" (πελώρη, although the word is also used in relation to the "monstrous" progeny of the earth goddess).[13] Greek scholar Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, Book 7, tells of a temple dedicated to "Broad-bosomed Gaia" (Γαῖος ἐπίκλησιν Εὐρυστέρνου).[14]

The Earth-goddess was widely celebrated with the title of "mother", and often paired with Dyēus, the Proto-Indo-European god of the daylight sky. She is called annas Daganzipas ("Mother Earth-spirit") in Hittite liturgy, and paired with the Storm-god of heaven. To the goddess of the earth Prithvi is often attached the epithet Mata ("mother") in the Rigveda, especially when she is mentioned together with Dyaus, the sky-father.[15]

Slip in to this Mother Earth, the wide-extending Broad One, the friendly...

— 10.18.10, in The Rigveda, translated by M. L. West.[16]

The goddess of the harvest and agriculture Demeter could also be a cognate, deriving from the Illyrian root Dā- (possibly from *dʰǵʰ(e)m-) attached to māter ("mother").[15] The Roman evidence for the idea of Earth as a mother is doubtful, as it is usually associated with the name Terra, not Tellus, and it may be due to Greek influence.[17] The Anglo-Saxon goddess Erce (possibly "bright, pure") is titled the "mother of Earth" (and likely identified with Mother Earth herself) in a ritual to be performed on plough-land that is unfruitful.[15] She is also called Fīra Mōdor ("Mother of men") in Old English poetry.[5]

A similar epithet is ascribed to Gaia, as Μητηρ Παντων (Mother of All), recorded, for instance, in Aeschylus' Prometheus Unbound (παμμῆτόρ τε γῆ; "Oh! universal mother Earth"),[18] and in The Libation Bearers (ἰὼ γαῖα μαῖα; Mother Gaia).[19] In a Samaveda hymn dedicated to the Vedic fire god Agni, he is described as "rapidly ... [moving] along his mother earth".[20] In the same vein, the word bhūmi, an epithet of Prithvi meaning "soil", is used in reference to a threefold division of the universe in heavens, sky and earth.[21][22][23] On her own, Bhūmi is another Vedic deity with Mother-Earth attributes.[24][25][26] In an Atharveda Hymn (12.1) (Pṛthvī Sūkta, or Bhūmī Sūkta), the celebrant invokes Prithvi as his Mother, because he is "a son of Earth".[27]

A Proto-Indo-European epithet, reconstructed as *dʰéǵʰōm dʰṇgu-/dʰengwo- ("dark earth"), is also attested in several traditions. The formula dankuiš daganzipaš ("dark genius of the earth") is frequent in Hittite literature; it was used especially to name the underworld, but sometimes also the earth's surface.[28][10][7] Other reflexes are found in Greek γαîα μέλαινα / Gaia Melaina ("black earth"), in Albanian dhe të zi ("black earth"), in Slavonic *črnā(yā) zemyā ("dark earth") or in Old Irish domun donn ("brown earth").[10][29] A Lithuanian expression takes the form "may the black earth not support me".[30]

The formula of the dark earth seems to be related to invocation or oaths, where the announcer summons the Earth as an observer or witness, as seen by Solon's elegiac Fragment 36.[31]

In the Indo-European cosmology, the earth *dhéǵhōm was perceived as a vast, flat and circular continent surrounded by waters ("The Ocean"),[6] and the Earth goddess as the dark dwelling of mortals, in contrast with Dyēus, the bright diurnal sky and the seat of the gods.[10] The Earth and Heaven couple is however not at the origin of the other gods, as the Divine Twins and Hausos were probably conceived by Dyēus alone.[32] According to Jackson however, Dhéǵhōm is "a more fitting partner of Perk^wunos than of Dyēus", as the former is associated with the fructifying rains as a weather god.[3]

Both deities often appear as a pair, the Sky Father (*Dyḗws Ph₂tḗr) uniting with Mother Earth (*Dʰéǵʰōm Méh₂tēr) to bring fertility.[16][33] In the Vedic texts, Prithvi the mother is usually paired with Dyaus the father,[34][16] as shown for instance in Samaveda hymns.[35][36] In an Atharveda Hymn (12.1), Prithvi is coupled with Parjanya (Sanskrit: पर्जन्य, parjánya), a deity of rain and fertilizer of earth.[37][38]

In Hittite mythology, the Storm God of Heaven, one of the most important in the Hittite pantheon,[39] has been syncretized with local Anatolian or Hattian deities, merging with a local storm god with terrestrial characteristics. At a later point, the Storm God of Heaven was paired with local goddess Wurulemu, with chthonic traits.[40]

Zeus is associated with Semele, a possible descendant of Dhéǵhōm, but also with Demeter, which could be another cognate stemming from the Mother Earth.[41][5] In the Danaids, Aeschylus describes how Ouranos and Chthôn are seized by a mutual desire for sexual intercourse: the rain falls, then Earth conceives and brings forth pasture, cereal crops, and foliage. According to Herodotus, the Scythians considered Earth to be the wife of Zeus.[41] Likewise, "Heaven and Earth" regularly appear as a duo among deities invoked as witnesses to Hittite treaties, and the Roman Tellus Mater is paired with Jupiter in Macrobius's Saturnalia.[16]

The mating of Zeus and female characters with chthonic elements (Démeter) or associated with earth (such as Semele, Plataia and Themis) may be a remnant of the Sky/Earth coupling.[41] Other religious expressions and formulas in Greek cultic practice attest to a wedding or union between a sky-god and an earth-mother: the Homeric Hymn to Gaia calls her "Wife of Starry Ouranos";[42] weddings in Athens were dedicated to both Ouranos and Gaia;[43] an Orphic hymn tells that the cultist is both "a child of Earth and starry Sky";[44] in Athens, there was a statue of Gaia on the Acropolis depicting her beseeching Zeus for rain;[45]

In Norse Mythology, the goddess Jörd, a giantess or jötunn, whose name means "earth" (cognate to Germanic Erde), begets the thunder-god Thor (Donar) with Odinn–not a sky-god, although a chief god of the Norse pantheon.[46] A line in the Gylfaginning by Norse poet Snorri Sturluson mentions that the Earth is both daughter and wife ("Jörðin var dóttir hans ok kona hans") of the All-Father,[47] identified as Odinn.

The word for "earth" underlies the many formations for designating humans as mortals, either because they are "earthly" or because they were fashioned from the earth itself.[48] It is attested in descendent cognates of *dʰéǵʰōm: Latin humus and homo ("man"); Germanic *guman ("man"); Lithuanian žmuõ ("man"),[49] Gaulish Xtonion (*gdonion?),[50][51][52] (Neo-)Phrygian ζεµελως.[53] This suggests a hierarchical conception of the status of mankind regarding the gods, confirmed by the widespread use of the term "mortal" as a synonym of "human" rather than "living species" in Indo-European traditions.[54]

Dhéǵhōm had a connection with both death and life, as the deceased shall return to her and the crop grows from her moist soil, fertilized by the rain of Dyēus.[55] The Earth is thus portrayed as the giver of good things: she is exhorted to become pregnant in an Old English prayer and Slavic peasants described Zemlja, Mother Earth, as a prophetess that shall offer favourable harvest to the community.[5][41] The unions of Zeus with Semele and Demeter is likewise associated with fertility and growth in Greek mythology.[41]

A reflex of *Dhéǵhōm as the mother of mortals and their final resting place may be found in Demetrioi ("of Demeter"), an Athenian designation for the dead,[56] and in Aeschylus's verses in his Choephori 127: "Yea, summon Earth, who brings all things to life, / And rears and takes again into her womb."[57][58]

Cognates stemming from the root *dʰéǵʰōm are attested in the following mythologies:

• PIE: *dʰéǵʰōm, the "earth",[1]
  • Anatolian: *déǵ-m,[59]
    • Hittite: Dagan-zipas ("Genius of the Earth"), a chthonic deity also serving as a witness in treaties (composed of the root dagan-, "earth", attached to šipa, "genius"),[60][28][61]
  • Proto-Greek: *kʰtʰōn, "earth" (the initial sound *dʰǵʰ- evolved through metathesis),[62]
    • Greek: Chthonie, attested in fragmentary passages of Pherecydes of Syros as a primordial goddess of earth who changed her name to Gaia after Zeus married her;[63] she is depicted as Chthôn (Χθών), the partner of Ouranos in Aeschylus' Danaids; the epithet Chthonia (Χθωνία "of the earth") is also associated with the grain goddess Demeter;[64][65] and another cognate appears in the chthonic deities of the underworld,[66]
  • Old Avestan: Zām ("Earth"), a sanctified being in the Zoroastrian tradition that embodies the concept of Earth,[67]
    • Young Avestan: Zamyād (a contraction of *zām huδād yazad), divinity of the Munificent Earth in the Zamyād Yašt.[68][69][70]
      • Persian: zamindar or zemindar (from zamin, "earth", and dar, "holder"), the title of a landowner.[71]
  • Balto-Slavic: *źem- (from*dʰǵʰ-em-),[72]
    • Baltic: *žeme,[2]
      • Lithuanian: Žemyna, a goddess celebrated as the bringer of flowers, and a recipient of prayers and sacrifices,[60][5]
      • Latvian: Zemes Māte ("Mother Earth"), one of the goddesses of death in Latvian mythology,[5][73]
    • Slavic: *zeml'à,[72]
      • Old Church Slavonic: Mati Syra Zemlya ("Mother Moist Earth"), a vocable pronounced during oaths as the Earth goddess is called to witness in land disputes,[60][74]
  • Proto-Albanian: *dzo,[75]
    • Albanian: dhe ("earth"), ritualized in the cult of the earth and oath swearings (beja me dhè),[76][77] also appears in the divine names of Dheu, the chthonic serpent,[78] and E Bukura e Dheut ("Beauty of the Earth"), a chthonic goddess.[79][80]

Other cognates are less secured:

Jove and Semele (1695) by Sebastiano Ricci.

• Thracian: Zemelā (possibly from *gʰem-elā); with a cognate in the Greek goddess Semele,[60][5] and the obscure Dionysian epithet Semeleios (Semeleius, meaning "He of the Earth", "son of Semele").[81][82][83]
• Messapic: Damatura, from dā- (possibly from *dʰǵʰ(e)m-) attached to matura ("mother"); maybe at the origin of the Greek goddess Demeter.[84]
• Greek: Damia, one of the Horae, a minor deity related to spring, growth and vegetation, and usually paired with fellow Horae Auxesia.[85][86] Ancient literature suggests it might have been another name for Demeter.[87][88]
• Khotanese: evidence suggests that the Khotanese preserved some relics of an Indo-Iranian worship of the earth, as seen in the Saka roots ysam- and ysama-, both meaning "earth" and cognate to Avestan zam-.[89] The word is also attested in the personal name Ysamotika,[90] and in the religious expression ysamaśśandaā, meaning world.[91][92][93]
• Tocharian: the expression tkamñkät (Tocharian A) and keṃ-ñäkte (Tocharian B) are used in religious Buddhist texts written in the Tocharian languages, where it denotes the earth or an "earth-god" of some sort.[94][95][96]
• Old Irish: goddess Dana, taken by some Indo-Europeanist scholars to be an Irish earth goddess.[97][98]
• Phrygian: the epithet ΓΔΑΝ ΜΑ (Gdan Ma), taken to mean "Earth Mother",[99] or a loan from Anatolian languages.[97][100] However, the name appears as a compound in names of Asia Minor written in the Greek alphabet.[101] Phrygian also attests the word KTON as referring to the earth.[102]
• Italic: Semonia, obscure deity associated with crops and sowing,[103] of possible Roman or Sabine origin and worship, usually attested with the epithet Salus Semonia.[104] A possible male counterpart is Semo Sancus,[105] god of Sabine provenance whose traits merged with Dius Fidius's. Semonia and Sancus appear with other agricultural/crop deities Seia and Segetia.[106]

Additionally, remnants of the root *dʰéǵʰōm can be found in formulaic phrases and religious epithets:

• Vedic: the compound Dyāvākṣamā, ("heaven and earth"), with the root kṣamā associated with the earth goddess Prithvi (the “Broad One”).[60]
• Greek: the epithet χαμύνη (khamyne, "of the land"), in reference to Deméter (in Pausanias 6.21.1),[107][108][109] and Χαμοναῖος (khamonaïos, "of the ground"; "of the earth") in reference to Zeus,[110][111] both cognate with χαμαί (khamaí, "pertaining, belonging to the earth").[107][112]

Cognates stemming from the epithet *Pleth₂wih₁ (the "Broad One") are attested in the following traditions:

• Old Hittite: palḫiš dankuiš daganzipaš, "broad dark earth-genius",[7]
• Indo-Iranian: *prtHuiH-,[113]
  • Vedic: Prithvi Mātā (पृथ्वी) ("Mother Earth, the Vast One"), the most frequent Vedic word for both the earth and the Earth-goddess;[5][4] and the poetic formula kṣā́m ... pṛthivī́m ("broad earth"),[7][9]
  • Young Avestan: ząm pərəϑβīm, "broad earth",[8][7][9]
• Greek: Plátaia (Πλάταια), a naiad described as consort of Zeus and the daughter of the river Asopos; also the name given to the city of Plataea in Beotia,[4]
• Celtic: Litavis (Litaui), probably an earth goddess; also the divine name given to the peninsula of Brittany,[4][114]
• Germanic: *fuldō, "earth, ground, field, the world",[8]
  • Old Norse: fold; Old English: folde, same meaning.[9][8]
• Proto-Slavic: *poľe, "field".[115][116]
  • Slavic mythology: Polevoi or Polevik, male deity of the fields;[117] Polianitsa, name of a female bogatyr related to *poľe.[118]
  • Old Church Slavonic: polje, "field".[119]

Other cognates are less secured:

• Venetic: pletuvei, attested in a funerary monument;[120] and Pultovia.[121][122]
• Celtiberian: letontu; Letondonis (attested as a personal name);[123] leitasama (superlative form of adjective, attested in a coin).[124][125]
• Vestinian: Peltuinum.[126][122]
• Umbrian: Pletinas, a epithet assigned to Italic goddess Cupra.[126][127]
• Gallaecian: Bletisam(a) (modern Ledesma, Salamanca),[128] attested in a rock carving inscribed in a tombstone.
• Hispano-Celtic: toponym Ledaña, in Cuenca, Spain, thought to derive from *(p)litanya.[129]