Gaia
In Greek mythology, Gaia, also spelled Gaea, is the personification of Earth. She is the mother of Uranus, with whom she conceived the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Giants, as well as of Pontus, from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.
Etymology
The Greek name Γαῖα is a mostly epic, collateral form of Attic , and Doric , perhaps identical to , both meaning "Earth". Some scholars believe that the word is of uncertain origin. Beekes suggested a probable Pre-Greek origin. M.L. West derives the name from the Indo-European form *dʰéǵʰōm. Greek: gaia, chamai on the earth, Hittite: tekan, Tocharian: tkam, Phrygian zemelo, Proto-Slavonic:*zem-yã, Avestan: za, Vedic: ksam,,.In Mycenean Greek Ma-ka also contains the root ga-.
Description
The Greeks invoked Gaia in their oaths, and she should be aware if one broke his oath. In the Homeric poems she appears usually in forms of oath. In the Iliad, the sacrifice of a black lamb is offered to Gaia and she is invoked in the formula of an oath. Homer considers her a physical distinct existence not clearly conceived in anthropomorphic form. Gaia does not seem to have any personal activity. In the Iliad, Alpheia beats with her hands the bountiful earth, but she calls Hades and Persephone to avenge her against her son. In the poems of Hesiod, she is personified. Gaia has a significant role in the evolution of the world. She is the nurse of Zeus, and she has the epithet "Kourotrophos". Kourotrophos was the name of an old goddess who was subordinate to Ge. Dieterich believed that Kourotrophos and Potnia theron construct precisely the mother goddess. Ge is also personified in the myths of Erichthonius and Pluto. Erichthonius is early mentioned in the Catalogue of ships. He is born by the Homeric earth which produces fruits and cereals. The name of Erichthonius includes chthon which is not the underground kingdom of the dead, but the Homeric earth.In ancient times, the earth was considered a plane or a flat disk with a wide extent. The earth-goddess can be identified with the nymph "Plataia" in Plataea of Boeotia as the spouse of Zeus. Homer uses the form "eureia chthon". Hesiod speaks of the broad-breasted earth, the sure seat of all immortals. The same epithet appears in her cults at Delphi and Aegae in Achaea. In the Homeric hymn her conception is more clear and detailed. She is the Mother of the Gods, the goddess that brings forth life and blesses men with children. She is called "pammе̄tōr", the all-mother who nourishes everything. This conception is closer to the popular belief. In the hymn to Apollo she is called "pheresvios" The "mother of the gods" is a form of Gaia. According to Pausanias an epithet of Ge in Athens is "the Great goddess", which is an appellation of the "Mother of the gods". She is related to the mystery cult of Phlya which seems to be original. At Athens Gaia had the cult-title Themis. In the Ashmolean Museum, a vase shows Pandora rising from the earth and according to some scholars she may be identified with Gaia. "Anesidora" on a vase in the British Museum is an epithet of Gaia.
Traditionally "gaia" means "earth" and chthon, "under or "beneath the earth" however chthon has occasionally the same meaning with the earth. Pherecydes uses the name Chthonie for the primeval goddess who later became Ge and Musaeus the same name for the oracular goddess of Delphi. Homer uses for chthon the epithets "euryodeia" and "polyvoteira" which can also be used for the earth. In some plays of Aeschylus "chthon" is the earth-goddess Gaia.
The tragic poets usually describe Gaia as mother of all, all-nourishing and all-productive who must be honoured. In Aeschylus' Prometheus Unbound, Gaia is the mother of all and in a fragment of Euripides chthon has the same epithet. In Persai of Aeschylus, offerings are recommended to Ge and the spirit of the departed. She is called "pamphoros",. In Choephori, Electra in her prayer describes Gaia as an avenger of wrong. Sophocles in Philoctetes calls Gaia "pamvōtis". A famous fragment of Danaides describes the sacred marriage between heaven and earth. Ouranos and Gaia are cosmic powers and natural processes. In Chrysippus of Euripides, Gaia is the mother of all in a philosophical poetic thought. "Gaia receives the drops of rain bearing the mortals and bearing food and beasts, therefore she is rightly called 'mother of all'. Aether of Zeus bears men and gods. Everything which is born by the earth returns to the earth, and everything born from aether returns to the sky. Nothing is destroyed, but it is transformed to another form." An inscription on a gravestone in Potidaia mentions: "Aether receives the souls and 'chthon' receives the bodies". According to Plutarch: "The name of Ge is beloved to every Greek and she is traditionally honoured like any other god".
Mythology
Hesiod
Birth of Gaia, Uranus, and the Titans
's Theogony tells how, after Chaos, "wide-bosomed" Gaia arose to be the everlasting seat of the immortals who possess Olympus above. And after Gaia came "dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth", and next Eros the god of love. Hesiod goes on to say that Gaia brought forth her equal Uranus to "cover her on every side". Gaia also bore the Ourea, and Pontus, "without sweet union of love".Afterward, 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 the wily, youngest, and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.
Other offspring and the castration of Uranus
According to Hesiod, Gaia conceived further offspring with her son, Uranus, first the giant one-eyed Cyclopes: Brontes, Steropes, and Arges ; then the Hecatonchires: Cottus, Briareos, and Gyges, each with a hundred arms and fifty heads. 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 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. From the testicles of Uranus in the sea came forth Aphrodite.By her son, Pontus, Gaia bore the sea-deities Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia.
Titanomachy
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 she received from Gaia wrapped in swaddling-clothes in his place, which Cronus swallowed, and Gaia took Zeus into her care.With the help of Gaia's advice, 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.
Cult
It seems that the worship of the "earth" was indigenous in Greece. However it is doubtful if the mother-religion is rooted to the Pre-Greek population. In classical times Ge was not an important deity and she didn't have any festivals. She was usually honoured together with other gods or goddesses. Local cults of Gaia are rare and only some of them can be mentioned from the existing evidence.Elements of a primitive cult of Gaia appear at Dodona in Epirus. It seems that in an old religion the earth goddess was worshipped together with the sky-god. At Thebes there was cult of "Gaia Makaira Telesforos". Telesforos means "bringing fruits to perfection". The earth goddess had powers over the ghosts and the dreams which come from the underworld, therefore she acquired oracular powers. These conceptions are evident in her cults at Delphi, Athens and Aigai of Achaea. An inscription "ieron eurysternou", is mentioned at Delphi by Mnaseas. A temple of Ge was built to the south of the temple of Apollo. "Eutysternos" is a surname of Ge and it had an earlier use by Hesiod. It was also given to her in her worship at the Achaean Aegai.
In Eumenides, the priestess announced her first prayers to "Gaia the first prophetess". At Aegai there was a very old image of the earth-goddess, and the service was in the hands of a virgin woman. The serpent represented the earth deity and was related to the chthonic oracular cult. This is evident at Delphi. Traditionally the oracle belonged originally to Poseidon and Ge and the serpent Python represents the earth spirit. Ge was probably present at the oracle of Trophonius at Livadeia. The prophecies were usually given by the priestesses and not by the goddess. At Olympia her altar was called "Gaios". The altars were given the name of a deity in primitive stages of religion. At Olympia like in Dodona it seems that she was honoured together with the sky-god Zeus. At Aigai she had an oracular power. According to Pliny the priestess drank a small quantity of the blood of a bull before entering the secret cave. At Patras in the oracle of "Ge", a sacred well was used for predicting the cause of diseases. At Athens Ge acquired the cult-title Themis. Themis was an oracular goddess related to Ge and she was not originally interpreted as goddess of righteousness.
The cult of Gaia was probably indigenous in Attica. In the cult of Phlya, Pausanias reports that there were altars to Dionysos, certain nymphs and to Ge, whom they called the "great goddess". The Great goddess is interpreted as "Mother of the gods" who is a form of Gaia. It seems that a mystery-cult was related to the Great-goddess. An inscription on the Acropolis of Athens refers to the practice of service in honour of "Ge-Karpophoros" in accordance with the oracle. The oracle was probably Delphic. A sanctuary on the Acropolis was the "Kourotrophion", and the earlier inscriptions mentions simply "The Kourotrophos". Pausanias mentions a double shrine of "Ge-Kourotrophos" and "Demeter-Chloe" on the Acropolis. Near the Olympieion of Athens there was the temenos of Ge-Olympia. Thucydides mentions that it was among the oldest sanctuaries built in Athens, where the Deucalion flood took place. A chthonic ritual was performed in Athens in honour of Ge. The Genesia was a mourning festival in the month Broedromion. A sacrifice was performed to Ge, and the citizents brought offerings to the graves of the dead.
An ancient Gaia cult existed at the "Marathonian Tetrapolis" near Athens. In the month Poseideon a pregnant cow was sacrificed to "Ge in the acres" and in Gamelion a sheep to" Ge-near the oracle". Both sacrifices were followed by rituals and the second was related to Daeira a divinity connected with the Eleusinian mysteries. At Eleusis Ge received a premilinary offering among other gods. Ge was associated with the dead at Mykonos. Seven black lambs were offered to "Zeus Chthonios" and "Ge-Chthonia" in the month Lenaion. The worshippers were offered to feast at the place of worship. At Sparta Gaia was worshipped together with Zeus. There was a double shrine of "Ge" and "Zeus Agoraios".