Gaia

"First in my prayer, before all other deities, I call

upon Gaia, Primeval Prophetess . . . The Greek great earth mother.”

~Aeschylus~

Where to now…

• Introduction to Gaia• Hesoid’s Poem• The Beginning of Gaia• IMAGES: Gaia and her son Uranus• Children of Gaia• Continued…• Symbols of Gaia• Gaia’s power• Example• Gaia and the Myth of Creation• Continued…• Continued…

•Images of Gaia•Bibliography

Gaia• Gaia, meaning land or earth, is the Greek Mother

Nature. She is the primal goddess personifying the earth. She is considered a ‘Great Goddess’ and is held highly in the Parthenon as a primordial deity. Although considered God of the Earth she was often referred to as more of a ‘power’ than a defined being. Gaia is, in presence, the earth. The earth is said to hold the soul of Gaia whilst her bodily presence is existing in all forms of her creations including humans, trees, animals etc.

Gaia, the beautiful, rose up,Broad blossomed, she that is the steadfast base

Of all things. And fair Gaia first bore

The starry Heaven, equal to herself,To cover her on all sides and to be

A home forever for the blessed Gods.

~Hesoid~

The Beginning

• Gaia was part of a pathenogenic birth, meaning she has/needs only one parent. It is believed that Gaia arose from Chaos, who was the beginning of all life and death. Continuing on the pathenogenic path, solo Gaia gave birth to Uranus, the sky god, who emerged just as powerful and big as his mother. Uranus whom later would be overcome with love for Gaia that they would produce the rest of the gods who in turn created man kind in our entirety . I.e. the humans, oceans, mountains, land etc.

Uranus

Gaia

God of the Heavens

Great goddess of Nature

Children of GaiaWith Uranus:

- 3 Cyclopes, Arges, Brontes, Steropes- 3 Hecatonchires, Briareus, Gyes, Cottus- 3 Elder Muses, Mneme, Melete, Aiode

- 12 Titans, Coeus, Crius, Cronos, Hyperion, Lapetus, Mnemosyne, Oceanus, Phoebe, Rhea, Tethys, Theia, Themis

Pathogenically:-Alpos, Mimus, Cranaus, Pheme, Kekrops, Amphictyon, Python

With Zeus:-Manes

With Hephaestus:-Erichthonius

-Tityas

CONTINUED…

Children of Gaia continued…With Elara:

-TityasWith Oceanus:

-CreusaWith Pontos:

-Ceto, Eurybia, Phorcys, Nereus, ThaumasWith Aether:

-AergiaWith Poseidon:

-Antaeus-Charybdis

With Tartarus:-Echidna-Typhon

Symbols of Gaia• Traditionally the symbols of Gaia include a heavily

pregnant woman with the world as her torso, and hair of vines with

an array of butterflies, and other such winged creatures, resting in the leaves.

• Gaia is also often pictured carrying the horn of plenty and surrounded by children and/or fruits.

The Power of Gaia

Due to Gaia being more of a spirit rather than an actual being, her power as Mother Nature is her undying role as protector of all that is natural. She holds the earth’s shape and provides the nutrients in the soil that grow the plants to feed the animals. She is the plants, animals, minerals, land and water.

Sacrifices of fruit, corn or parts of a hunted animal are offered to Gaia to maintain her satisfaction and guarantee that she will keep replenishing the earth. Gaia is said to regularly punish man kind for their cruelty towards nature by requesting her powerful children to cause natural disasters in an attempt to alert man kind of our barbarity.

Examples:

• Pontus the first born, the pre-Olympian Sea God- Abilities to cause tidal waves and severe tidal changes.

Gaia and the Myth of Creation

“First of all, the Void (Chaos) came into being, next broad-bosomed Earth, the solid and eternal home of all” – Hesoid’s Theogony (Myth of Creation)

Gaia’s most influential role in a Greek myth is most definitely the myth of creation. Gaia is renowned as a ‘Great Goddess’ for her role in the creation of man kind and our environment. Emerging from Chaos she was the second to come into being at the dawn of creation. She then pathogenically gave birth to Uranus who became the heavens and surrounded her. All mortal creatures sprung from her earthy flesh as mountains, valleys, oceans, lakes and rivers began to weave themselves through her skin to create the habitable earth.

Myth of Creation continued.. Uranus and his mother mated to produce many many

children of a variety of statures: Titans, Cyclopes, elder muses and Hecatonchires. Uranus felt a passionate hatred towards the Hecatonchires and decided to punish them by imprisoning them in the depths of the earth, Gaia’s womb.

Enraged Gaia avenged her trapped children by persuading her son, the youngest Titan, Cronos to attack his father with a stone sickle Gaia gave him. Whilst Uranus was laying with Gaia, Cronos snuck up on him and castrated him and threw his testicles into the sea. From the strewn testicles emerged Aphrodite, goddess of love, desire and beauty and from his spilt blood arose the Giants and the Ash Tree Nymphs.

Bibliography• Websiteshttp://www.mircea-eliade.com/from-primitives-to-zen/059.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(mythology)#Family_Treehttp://www.paleothea.com/SortaSingles/Gaia.htmlhttp://gogreece.about.com/od/greekmythology/a/mythgaiagaea.htm• BooksThe Complete World of Greek Mythology -

Richard Buxton. Published: June 28th 2004.