Gaia

In Greek mythology, Gaia (/ˈɡeɪə, ˈɡaɪə/;[1] from Ancient Greek Γαῖα, a poetical form of Γῆ Gē, "land" or "earth"),[2] also spelled Gaea /ˈdʒiːə/,[1] is the personification of the Earth[3] and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (the sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods), the Cyclopes, and the Giants; of Pontus (the sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.[4]

This article is about the primordial Greek goddess. For the theory of the Earth as an organism, see Gaia hypothesis. For other uses, see Gaia (disambiguation).
Gaia
Personification of the Earth
Gaea, by Anselm Feuerbach (1875)
AbodeEarth
Personal information
ParentsNone, or Chaos (Hesiod), or Aether and Hemera (Hyginus)
SiblingsNone, or Nyx, Erebus, Tartarus, Eros, or Uranus, Thalassa
ConsortUranus, Pontus, Aether and Tartarus
OffspringUranus, Pontus, the Ourea, the Hecatonchires, the Cyclopes, the Titans, the Gigantes, Nereus, Thaumus, Phorcys, Ceto, Eurybia, Aergia, Typhon, Python, and Antaeus
Roman equivalentTerra

Etymology

The Greek name Γαῖα (Gaĩa)[5] is a mostly epic, collateral form of Attic Γῆ (Gê),[6] and Doric Γᾶ (Gã, perhaps identical to Δᾶ Dã),[7] both meaning "Earth". The word is of uncertain origin.[8] Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin.[9]

In Mycenean Greek Ma-ka (transliterated as Ma-ga, "Mother Gaia") also contains the root ga-.[9][10]

Mythology

Hesiod

Hesiod's Theogony tells how, after Chaos, "wide-bosomed" Gaia (Earth) arose to be the everlasting seat of the immortals who possess Olympus above.[11] And after Gaia came "dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth", and next Eros the god of love.[12] Hesiod goes on to say that Gaia brought forth her equal Uranus (Heaven, Sky) to "cover her on every side".[13] Gaia also bore the Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea), "without sweet union of love" (i.e., with no father).[14]

Afterwards with Uranus, her son, she gave birth to the Titans, as Hesiod tells it:

She lay with Heaven and bore deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos (Cronus) the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.[15]

According to Hesiod, Gaia conceived further offspring with her son, Uranus, first the giant one-eyed Cyclopes: Brontes ("Thunder"), Steropes ("Lightning"), and Arges ("Bright");[16] then the Hecatonchires: Cottus, Briareos, and Gyges, each with a hundred arms and fifty heads.[17] As each of the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires were born, Uranus hid them in a secret place within Gaia, causing her great pain. So Gaia devised a plan. She created a grey flint (or adamantine) sickle. And Cronus used the sickle to castrate his father Uranus as he approached his mother, Gaia, to have sex with her. From Uranus' spilled blood, Gaia produced the Erinyes, the Giants, and the Meliae (ash-tree nymphs). From the testicles of Uranus in the sea came forth Aphrodite.[18]

By her son, Pontus, Gaia bore the sea-deities Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia.[19]

Because Cronus had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overthrown by one of his children, he swallowed each of the children born to him by his Titan older sister, Rhea. But when Rhea was pregnant with her youngest child, Zeus, she sought help from Gaia and Uranus. When Zeus was born, Rhea gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling-clothes in his place, which Cronus swallowed, and Gaia took the child into her care.[20]

With the help of Gaia's advice,[21] Zeus defeated the Titans. But afterwards, Gaia, in union with Tartarus, bore the youngest of her sons Typhon, who would be the last challenge to the authority of Zeus.[22]

Gaia hands her newborn, Erichthonius, to Athena as Hephaestus watches – an Attic red-figure stamnos, 470–460 BC

Other sources

According to Hyginus, Earth (Gaia), along with Heaven and Sea, were the children of Aether and Day (Hemera).[23] According to the mythographer Apollodorus, Gaia and Tartarus were the parents of Echidna.[24]

Zeus hid Elara, one of his lovers, from Hera by stowing her under the earth. His son by Elara, the giant Tityos, is therefore sometimes said to be a son of Gaia, the earth goddess.

Gaia also made Aristaeus immortal.[25]

Depiction

In classical art Gaia was represented in one of two ways. In Athenian vase painting she was shown as a matronly woman only half risen from the earth, often in the act of handing the baby Erichthonius, a future king of Athens, to Athena to foster). In mosaic representations, she appears as a woman reclining upon the earth surrounded by a host of Carpi, infant gods of the fruits of the earth.

Cult

Gaia was worshiped under the epithet "Anesidora", which means "giver of gifts".[26][27][28] Other epithets were Calligeneia,[29] Eurusternos,[30] and Pandôros.[31]

In ancient times, Gaia was mainly worshiped alongside Demeter and as a part of the cult of Demeter and does not seem to have had a separate cult. Being a chthonic deity, black animals were sacrificed to her:

[Sacrifices to the gods as witnesses of an oath :] Bring two lambs : let one be white and the other black for Gaia (Earth) and Helios (Sun). [N.B. Chthonic Gaia receives a black animal, heavenly Helios a white one.][32]

Temples

Gaia is believed by some sources[33] to be the original deity behind the Oracle at Delphi. It was thus said: "That word spoken from tree-clad mother Gaia's (Earth's) navel-stone [Delphoi]."[34] Depending on the source, Gaia passed her powers on to Poseidon, Apollo, or Themis. Pausanias wrote:

Many and different are the stories told about Delphoi, and even more son about the oracle of Apollon. For they say that in earliest times the oracular seat belonged to Ge (Earth), who appointed as prophetess at it Daphnis, one of the Nymphai (Nymphs) of the mountains. There is extant among the Greeks an hexameter poem, the name of which is Eumolpia, and it is assigned to Musaios (Musaeus), son of Antiophemos. In it the poet states that the oracle belonged to Poseidon and Ge (Earth) in common; that Ge (Earth) gave her oracles herself, but Poseidon used Pyrkon (Pyrcon) as his mouthpiece in giving responses. The verses are these:--‘Forthwith the voice of Khthonie (Chthonia) uttered a wise word, And with her Pyrkon, servant of the renown Earthshaker.’ They say that afterwards Ge (Earth) gave her share to Themis, who gave it to Apollon as a gift. It is said that he to Poseidon Kalaureia (Calaurea), that lies off Troizenos (Troezen), in exchange for his oracle.[35]

Apollo is the best-known as the oracle power behind Delphi, long established by the time of Homer, having killed Gaia's child Python there and usurped the chthonic power.[36] Hera punished Apollo for this by sending him to King Admetus as a shepherd for nine years.

Gaia or Ge had at least three sanctuaries in Greece which were mentioned by Pausanias. There was a temple of Ge Eurusternos on the Crathis near Aegae in Achaia with "a very ancient statue":[37]

It is a journey of about thirty stades [from the stream of Krathis (Crathis) near the ruins of Aigai (Aegae) in Akhaia] to what is called the Gaion (Gaeum), a sanctuary of Ge (Earth) surnamed Eurysternos (Broad-bossomed), whose wooden image is one of the very oldest. The woman who from time to time is priestess henceforth remains chaste and before her election must not have had intercourse with more than one man. The test applied is drinking bull's blood. Any woman who may chance not to speak the truth is immediately punished as a result of this test. If several women compete for the priesthood, lots are cast for the honor.[37]

Pausanias also mention the sanctuary of Ge Gasepton in Sparta,[38] and a sanctuary of Ge Kourotrophe (Nurse of the Young) at Athens.[39]

Aside from her temples, Gaia had altars as well as sacred spaces in the sanctuaries of other gods. Close to the sanctuary of Eileithyia in Tegea was an altar of Ge;[40] Phlya and Myrrhinos had an altar to Ge under the name Thea Megale (Great goddess);,[41] as well as Olympia which additionally, similar to Delphi, also said to have had an oracle to Gaia:

On what is called the Gaion (Gaeum, Sanctuary of Ge) [at Olympia] is an altar of Ge (Earth); it too is of ashes. In more ancient days they say that there was an oracle also of Ge (Earth) in this place. On what is called the Stomion (Mouth) the altar to Themis has been built.[42]

Her statues were naturally to be found in the temples of Demeter, such as the Temple of Demeter in Achaia: "They [the Patraians of Akhaia (Achaea)] have also a grove by the sea, affording in summer weather very agreeable walks and a pleasant means generally of passing the time. In this grove are also two temples of divinities, one of Apollon, the other of Aphrodite . . . Next to the grove is a sanctuary of Demeter; she and her daughter [Persephone] are standing, but the image of Ge (Earth) is seated."[43] The Temple of Zeus Olympios in Athens reportedly had an enclosure of Ge Olympia:

[Within the sanctuary of Zeus Olympios in the lower town of Athens :] Within the precincts are antiquities : a bronze Zeus, a temple of Kronos (Cronus) and Rhea and an enclosure of Ge (Earth) surnamed Olympia. Here the floor opens to the width of a cubit, and they say that along this bed flowed off the water after the deluge that occurred in the time of Deukalion, and into it they cast every year wheat mixed with honey . . . The ancient sanctuary of Zeus Olympios the Athenians say was built by Deukalion (Deucalion), and they cite as evidence that Deukalion lived at Athens a grave which is not far from the present temple.[44]

In Athens, there was a statue of Gaia on the Acropolis depicting her beseeching Zeus for rain[45] as well as an image of her close to the court of the Areopagos in Athens, alongside the statues of Plouton and Hermes, "by which sacrifice those who have received an acquittal on the Areopagos".[46]

Interpretations

Some modern sources, such as James Mellaart, Marija Gimbutas, and Barbara Walker, claim that Gaia as Mother Earth is a later form of a pre-Indo-European Great Mother, venerated in Neolithic times. Her existence is a speculation and controversial in the academic community. Some modern mythographers, including Karl Kerenyi, Carl A. P. Ruck, and Danny Staples, interpret the goddesses Demeter the "mother," Persephone the "daughter", and Hecate the "crone," as aspects of a former great goddess identified by some as Rhea or as Gaia herself. In Crete, a goddess was worshiped as Potnia Theron (the "Mistress of the Animals") or simply Potnia ("Mistress"), speculated as Rhea or Gaia; the title was later applied in Greek texts to Artemis. The mother goddess Cybele from Anatolia (modern Turkey) was partly identified by the Greeks with Gaia, but more so with Rhea.

Aion and Tellus Mater with Carpi, infant deities of the fruit of the seasons, in a mosaic from a Roman villa in Sentinum, first half of the third century BC, (Munich Glyptothek, Inv. W504)

Neopaganism

Many neopagans worship Gaia. Beliefs regarding Gaia vary, ranging from the belief that Gaia is the Earth to the belief that she is the spiritual embodiment of the earth or the goddess of the Earth.[47]

Modern ecological theory
Main article: Gaia hypothesis

The mythological name was revived in 1979 by James Lovelock, in Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth; his Gaia hypothesis was supported by Lynn Margulis. The hypothesis proposes that living organisms and inorganic material are part of a dynamical system that shapes the Earth's biosphere, and maintains the Earth as a fit environment for life. In some Gaia theory approaches, the Earth itself is viewed as an organism with self-regulatory functions. Further books by Lovelock and others popularized the Gaia Hypothesis, which was embraced to some extent by New Age environmentalists as part of the heightened awareness of environmental concerns of the 1990s.

Family

Olympian descendants
Olympians' family tree [48]
UranusGaia
Uranus' genitalsCronusRhea
ZeusHeraPoseidonHadesDemeterHestia
    a[49]
     b[50]
AresHephaestus
Metis
Athena[51]
Leto
ApolloArtemis
Maia
Hermes
Semele
Dionysus
Dione
    a[52]     b[53]
Aphrodite

Children

Gaia is the personification of the Earth and these are her offspring as related in various myths. Some are related consistently, some are mentioned only in minor variants of myths, and others are related in variants that are considered to reflect a confusion of the subject or association.

Notes:

1 Some said they were born from Uranus' blood when Cronus castrated him.

2 Kouretes were born from rainwater (Uranus fertilizing Gaia)

See also

Notes
    1. Wells, John (3 April 2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Pearson Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
    2. Henry George Liddell; Robert Scott. "γαῖα", A Greek-English Lexicon
    3. Smith, "Gaea".
    4. Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.
    5. Entry "γαῖα", in: Liddell–Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, in the Perseus Digital Library.
    6. Entry "γῆ", in: Liddell–Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, in the Perseus Digital Library.
    7. Entry "δᾶ", in: Liddell–Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, in the Perseus Digital Library.
    8. Entry "Gaia", in the Online Etymology Dictionary.
    9. Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, pp. 269–270 (s.v. "γῆ").
    10. "Paleolexicon". Retrieved 21 April 2012.
    11. Hesiod, Theogony 116–118.
    12. Hesiod, Theogony 119–120.
    13. Hesiod, Theogony 126–128.
    14. Gantz, p. 10; Hesiod, Theogony 129–132.
    15. Hesiod, Theogony 132–138; cf. Apollodorus, 1.1.3.
    16. Hesiod, Theogony 139–146; cf. Apollodorus, 1.1.2.
    17. Hesiod, Theogony 147–153; cf. Apollodorus, 1.1.1.
    18. Hesiod. Theogony, 154–200
    19. Hesiod. Theogony, 233–239
    20. Hesiod. Theogony, 453–491
    21. Hesiod. Theogony, 626.
    22. Hesiod. Theogony, 820–880
    23. Hyginus. Fabulae, Preface
    24. Apollodorus, 2.1.2.
    25. Floyd, Edwin (1968). "Transactions and Proceedings of the American …". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association (1st ed.). The Johns Hopkins University press. 99: 181–202. doi:10.2307/2935839. JSTOR 2935839.
    26. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 1.31.4
    27. Hesychius of Alexandria s.v.
    28. Scholiast, On Theocritus ii. 12.
    29. (Aristoph. Thesm. 300, with the Schol.; Hesych. s. v.; Phot. Lex. s. v.)
    30. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 7.25.13
    31. Homeros. Epigr. 7. 1; Stob. Eclog. i. p. 165, ed. Heeren.
    32. Homer. Iliad, 3.104 ff
    33. Joseph Fontenrose 1959
    34. Pindar. Pythian Odes, 4. line 76
    35. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 10.5.5 ff
    36. Hansen, William F.; Hansen, Randall (2004). Handbook of Classical Mythology (1 ed.). ABC-CLIO, LLC. pp. 109–112. ISBN 9781851096343.
    37. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 7.25.13 ff
    38. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 3.12.8 ff
    39. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 1.22.3 ff
    40. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 8.48.8 ff
    41. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 1.31.4
    42. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 5.14.10
    43. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 7.21.11
    44. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 1.18.7 ff.
    45. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 1.24.3 ff.
    46. Pausanias. Description of Greece, 1.28.6 ff.
    47. Compare: Pike, Sarah M. (13 August 2013). New Age and Neopagan Religions in America. Columbia University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-231-50838-4. For some New Agers and Neopagans divine power is personified by a great goddess or the planet Gaia [...].
    48. This chart is based upon Hesiod's Theogony, unless otherwise noted.
    49. According to Homer, Iliad 1.570–579, 14.338, Odyssey 8.312, Hephaestus was apparently the son of Hera and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74.
    50. According to Hesiod, Theogony 927–929, Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone, with no father, see Gantz, p. 74.
    51. According to Hesiod, Theogony 886–890, of Zeus' children by his seven wives, Athena was the first to be conceived, but the last to be born; Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her, later Zeus himself gave birth to Athena "from his head", see Gantz, pp. 51–52, 83–84.
    52. According to Hesiod, Theogony 183–200, Aphrodite was born from Uranus' severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
    53. According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus (Iliad 3.374, 20.105; Odyssey 8.308, 320) and Dione (Iliad 5.370–71), see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
    54. Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis 259
    55. Alcimus, ap. Schol. Theocrit. i. 65; Ellis, p. l.
    56. Probably a Giant
    57. More commonly held to be child of Phorcys and Ceto
    58. More commonly held to be child of Gaia alone
    59. This is a Roman name of a deity with no Greek counterpart.
    60. Apollodorus, 2.5.11.
    61. Scholiast on Homer's Odyssey
    62. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.35.6
    63. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 25.453 & 486
    64. Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.35.8
    65. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 78a

    References
    • Media related to Gaia at Wikimedia Commons
    • Facing Gaia Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion
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