Gaia

[Isabella Lecour]

Gaea: also spelt Gaia

Primal mother figure in Greek mythology. She is the mother of the earth and gave birth to the sky, mountains and sea. She bore gods, including the Titans, the Cyclopes and Cronus. Her most famous role would be when she saved Zeus from being eat by his father Cronus.

Gaea's most prized temple was later converted/displaced/became a temple to Apollo which held a prized shrine dedicated to prophesy.

Thanks to Pantheon.org, used for most of the source material here.

I'm hoping to get a discussion started about Gaea, who she is, and her place in Greek history.

I don't have many links or books to offer as a reference. Would anyone like to contribute references and any myths about Gaea?

I'm interested in Her role in the Greek understanding of their world and in her myths. Any directions offered are appreciated.

Isabella

 

[Segestan]

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aid%3Dgaea1


Start here.


regards,

 

[Iereas tou Apollona]

Gaea: also spelt Gaia

Primal mother figure in Greek mythology. She is the mother of the earth and gave birth to the sky, mountains and sea. She bore gods, including the Titans, the Cyclopes and Cronus. Her most famous role would be when she saved Zeus from being eat by his father Cronus.

Gaea's most prized temple was later converted/displaced/became a temple to Apollo which held a prized shrine dedicated to prophesy.

Thanks to Pantheon.org, used for most of the source material here.

I'm hoping to get a discussion started about Gaea, who she is, and her place in Greek history.

I don't have many links or books to offer as a reference. Would anyone like to contribute references and any myths about Gaea?

I'm interested in Her role in the Greek understanding of their world and in her myths. Any directions offered are appreciated.

Isabella

Gaia (written as Γαῖα in ancient greek) was the deity of the Earth, one of the Original Primordial Deities that emerged from the first being χάος (Chaos) along with her siblings:
Ἔρεβος (Erebus) male deity of darkness.
Νύξ (Nyx) female deity of night (so powerful that Zeus fears her).
Αἰθήρ (Aether) male deity of heavenly air.
Ἡμέρα (Hemera) female deity of day.
Τάρταρος (Tartarus) male deity of the Underworld.
Ἀνάγκη (Ananke) female deity of fate.
Χρόνος (Chronos) male deity of time.
Θάλασσα (Thalassa) female deity of the sea's shallows.
Φάνης (Phanes) androgynous deity of procreation.
Ὀφίων (Ophion) male deity of serpents and tyranny. (now destroyed)
Uδροηλεκτρικά (Hydros) male deity of the Primordial Waters
Ὠκεανός (Oceanus) male deity of the Eternal River.
Ἔρως (Eros) male deity of love.

Γαῖα (Gaia) conceived Οὐρανός (Uranus), a Lesser Primordial Deity and the deity of the sky, with Αἰθήρ (Aether). Γαῖα (Gaia) then conceived the Titans with Οὐρανός (Uranus).
Γαῖα (Gaia) also conceived the Oὔρεα (Ourea), the many mountain deities, with Τάρταρος (Tartarus).
Lastly Γαῖα (Gaia) conceived Πόντος (Pontus), a Lesser Primordial Deity and the deity of the seas's depths, with Uδροηλεκτρικά (Hydros) and with him conceived the Sea Gods which reign from the depths.

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

I don't know if the Greeks ever had a cult dedicated to Gaia or if they held festivals in her honour. If they did and these were replaced by Olympian cults then that might support the notion that the war between the Titans and Olympians in mythology was actually a real cultural struggle between the worshippers of two competing pantheons; much like the war between the Aesir and Vanir in Norse mythology was probably an analogy of the clash between the respective deity groups (and possibly one or more tribes associated with each pantheon).

 

[Callisto]

There are Homeric and Orphic hymns to Earth.

One I've used comes from Aeschylus, the first part gleaned from Eumenides and the second from Choephori:

First in our prayers, before all other gods
We call on Ge*, primeval prophetess

[insert additional per the ritual]

Yea, summon Earth,
who brings all things to birth,
Who rears and takes again
into her womb

* = The older form of the name Gaea and common in terms of cultus.

As for festivals, the one that immediately comes to mind is the Genesia, a festival honoring the dead during which libations are made first to Ge.

In addition to the Perseus Project , a wealth of information can be found at theoi.com.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

Gaia or Ge was certainly worshiped in classical Greece. We know there were state priests for her in both Athens and Sparta, and an oracle of Ge at Aigai. She was always invoked in public oath-taking and in treaties. The Athenians made offerings to her before gathering medicinal herbs.

Here's another web site
http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Gaia.html
and an old source on her cult is Book 3 of Farnells' "Cults of the Greek States", available from www.archive.org.

I worship her at the equinoxes and sing the Orphic Hymn:

O Mother Earth, of Gods and men the source,
Endued with fertile, all-creating force;
All-parent, bounding, whose prolific powers
Produce a store of beauteous fruits and flowers.

All-various maid, th'immortal world's strong base,
Eternal, blessed, crowned with every grace;
From whose wide womb, as from an endless root,
Fruits many-formed, mature, and grateful shoot.

Come, blessed Goddess, listen to my prayer,
And make increase of fruits thy constant care;
With fertile seasons in thy train draw near,
And with propitious mind thy suppliant hear.

 

[Lucida Sidera]

itoi men protista khaos genet' autar epeita gaia euristernos.

Certainly, well, firstly Chaos appeared, then Gaia of large breast.

After those, Tartarus (a kind of somber region below Earth) and then Love.

Chaos, Earth, Tartarus, Love.

Those have always been for me an astonishing mysterious cosmology...

 

[Satansdaughter@egg]

Gaea: also spelt Gaia

Primal mother figure in Greek mythology. She is the mother of the earth and gave birth to the sky, mountains and sea. She bore gods, including the Titans, the Cyclopes and Cronus. Her most famous role would be when she saved Zeus from being eat by his father Cronus.

Gaea's most prized temple was later converted/displaced/became a temple to Apollo which held a prized shrine dedicated to prophesy.

Thanks to Pantheon.org, used for most of the source material here.

I'm hoping to get a discussion started about Gaea, who she is, and her place in Greek history.

I don't have many links or books to offer as a reference. Would anyone like to contribute references and any myths about Gaea?

I'm interested in Her role in the Greek understanding of their world and in her myths. Any directions offered are appreciated.

Isabella

 

[Satansdaughter@egg]

Aubreyceili