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'''Gaia''' ("land" or "earth", from the Greek '''Γαία}}'''; variant spelling '''Gaea'''—see also '''Ge''' from '''Γη''') is a [[Greek mythology|Greek]] goddess personifying the Earth.

==In Greek mythology==
[[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'' (116ff) tells how, after [[Chaos (mythology)|Chaos]], arose broad-breasted Gaia the everlasting foundation of the [[Twelve Olympians|gods of Olympus]]. She brought forth [[Uranus]], the starry sky, her equal, to cover her, the hills, and the fruitless deep of the Sea, [[Pontus (mythology)|Pontus]], "without sweet union of love," out of her own self. But afterwards, Hesiod tells, she lay with Uranus and bore the World-Ocean [[Oceanus]], [[Coeus]] and [[Crius]] and the [[Titans]] [[Hyperion]] and [[Iapetus]], [[Theia]] and [[Rhea]], [[Themis]] and [[Mnemosyne]] and [[Phoebe]] of the golden crown and lovely [[Tethys]]. "After them was born [[Cronus]] the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire."

Hesiod mentions Gaia's further offspring conceived with Uranus, first the giant one-eyed [[Cyclopes]], builders of walls, later assigned individual names: [[Brontes]] ("thunderer"), [[Steropes]] ("lightning") and the "bright" [[Arges]]: "Strength and might and craft were in their works." Then he adds the three terrible hundred-handed sons of Earth and Heaven, the [[Hecatonchires]]: [[Cottus]] and [[Briareos]] and [[Gyges]], each with fifty heads.

Uranus hid the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes in [[Tartarus]] so that they would not see the light, rejoicing in this evil doing. This caused pain to Gaia (Tartarus was her bowels) so she created grey flint and shaped a great flint sickle, gathering together Cronos and his brothers to ask them to obey her. Only Cronos, the youngest, had the daring to take the flint sickle she made, and castrate his father as he approached Gaia to have intercourse with her. And from the drops of blood and semen, Gaia brought forth still more progeny, the strong [[Erinyes]] and the armoured [[Gigantes]] and the ash-tree Nymphs called the ''[[Meliae]]''. From the testicles of Uranus in the sea came forth [[Aphrodite]]. For this, a Greek etymologist urged, Uranus called his sons "Titans," meaning "strainers" for they strained and did presumptuously a fearful deed, for which vengeance would come afterwards; for, as Uranus had been deposed by his son Cronos, so was Cronos destined to be overthrown by [[Zeus]], the son born to him by his sister-wife [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]]. In the meantime, the Titans released the Cyclopes from Tartarus, and Cronos was awarded the kingship among them, beginning a Golden Age.

After Uranus' castration, Gaia gave birth to [[Echidna]] and [[Typhon]] by [[Tartarus]]. By Pontus, Gaia birthed the sea-deities [[Nereus]], [[Thaumas]], [[Phorcys]], [[Ceto]] and [[Eurybia]].

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

Gaia also made [[Aristaeus]] immortal.

Gaia is believed by some sources (Joseph Fontenrose 1959 and others) to be the original deity behind the [[Delphic Oracle]] at [[Delphi]]. She passed her powers on to, depending on the source, [[Poseidon]], [[Apollo]] or [[Themis]]. 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 chthonicpower. Hera punished Apollo for this by sending him to King [[Admetus]] as a shepherd for nine years.

==Family tree==
*Parthenogenesis
**[[Uranus]]
**[[Pontus (mythology)|Pontus]]
*With [[Elara]]
**[[Tityas]]
*With [[Oceanus]]
**[[Creusa]]
**[[Spercheus]]
*With [[Pontus (mythology)|Pontus]]
**[[Ceto]]
**[[Eurybia]]
**[[Phorcys]]
**[[Nereus]]
**[[Thaumas]]
*With [[Poseidon]]
**[[Antaeus]]
**[[Charybdis]]
*With [[Tartarus]]
**[[Echidna]]
**[[Typhon]]
*With [[Uranus]]
**[[Cyclopes]]
***[[Arges]]
***[[Brontes]]
***[[Steropes]]
**[[Hecatonchires]]
***[[Briareus]]
***[[Cottus]]
***[[Gyes]]
**[[Titans]]
***[[Coeus]]
***[[Crius]]
***[[Cronus]]
***[[Hyperion]]
***[[Iapetus]]
***[[Mnemosyne]]
***[[Oceanus]]
***[[Phoebe]]
***[[Rhea]]
***[[Tethys]]
***[[Theia]]
***[[Themis]]
*With [[Hephaestus]]
**[[Erichthonius of Athens]]
*Unknown father
**[[Mimas]]
**[[Pheme]]
**[[Python]]

==Interpretations==

Hesiod's separation of Rhea from Gaia was not rigorously followed, even by the Greek mythographers themselves. Modern mythographers like Karl Kerenyi or Carl A. P. Ruck and Danny Staples, as well as an earlier generation influenced by Frazer's ''The Golden Bough'', interpret the goddesses [[Demeter]] the "mother," [[Persephone]] the "daughter" and [[Hecate]] the "crone," as understood by the Greeks, to be three aspects of a former [[Great Goddess]], who could be identified as [[Rhea]] or as Gaia herself. In [[Anatolia]], Rhea was known as [[Cybele]]. The Greeks never forgot that the Mountain Mother's ancient home was [[Crete]], where a figure some identified with Gaia had been worshipped as ''[[Potnia Theron]]'' (the "Mistress of the Animals") or simply [[Potnia]] ("Mistress"), an appellation that could be applied in later Greek texts to [[Demeter]], [[Artemis]] or [[Athena]].

In Rome the imported goddess Cybele was venerated as Magna Mater, the "Great Mother" and identified with Roman Ceres, the grain goddess who was an approximate counterpart of Greek Demeter, but with differing aspects and venerated with a different cult.

==References==
*Joseph Fontenrose, ''Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and its Origins,'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959; reprint 1980
*Karl Kerenyi, ''The Gods of the Greeks'' 1951
*Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples, <em>The World of Classical Myth</em>, 1994.

==External links==
*[http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/gaeathor.htm Gaea], a profile of her version in the Marvel Universe

[[Category:Greek goddesses]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:48, February 21, 2006
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	*[http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/gaeathor.htm Gaea], a profile of her version in the Marvel Universe		*[http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/gaeathor.htm Gaea], a profile of her version in the Marvel Universe

		+	{{Credit wikipedia}}

	[[Category:Greek goddesses]]		[[Category:Greek goddesses]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:48, February 21, 2006
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−	'''Gaia''' ("land" or "earth", from the Greek '''Γαία}}'''; variant spelling '''Gaea'''—see also '''Ge''' from '''Γη''') is a [[Greek mythology\|Greek]] goddess personifying the Earth.	+	'''Gaia''' ("land" or "earth", from the Greek '''Γαία'''; variant spelling '''Gaea'''—see also '''Ge''' from '''Γη''') is a [[Greek mythology\|Greek]] goddess personifying the Earth.

	==In Greek mythology==		==In Greek mythology==

Gaia - Revision history

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