Suspecting that his own children would usurp him and take his place as ruler of the heavens, Uranus banished them to the grim Underworld realm of Tartarus as soon as they were born. With Uranus, Gaia sired many children, including the first generation of Titans. It was Gaia who gave birth to the sea (Pontus), the mountains (the Ourea), and the first beings to inhabit the world she created and embodied. Shortly after coming into existence, Gaia created her male counterpart, Uranus, who covered her and assisted her in making the world full. In truth at first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. In the most common tradition, recounted in Hesiod’s Theogony, Gaia did not have parents but was among the mysterious deities born at the moment of creation: One of the first beings of creation, Gaia did not have any parents herself. In other representations, she is shown reclining on the earth, sometimes surrounded by other figures symbolizing the earth and its bounty. She is sometimes shown as a motherly woman from the torso up, while the rest of her body is the earth itself. Gaia was not often depicted in ancient art, but when she did appear, her connection with the earth was strongly emphasized. Figurines like these celebrated fertility and are predecessors to Roman Catholic depictions of the Madonna and child. The Greeks generally thought of her as a chthonic deity-that is, one of the gods associated with the earth and the underground world.Ī 5th century BCE 'kourotrophos' ('nursing mother') from Cyprus. She oversaw the fertility of crops and safeguarded children and fledgling life of all kinds. AttributesĪs one of the first deities of creation, as well as its first mother, Gaia was the source of all life. The Roman name for Gaia was Tellus (the Latin word for “earth”). Gaia’s epithets included anēsidōra (“gift-giving”), kalligeneia (“fair-born”), kourotrophos (“nurturer of the young”), eurysternos (“broad-bosomed”), and pandōros (“all-gifted”). Today, it is usually thought that gaia and gē (a related word, also meaning “earth”) are non-Indo-European and pre-Greek in origin. The name “Gaia” is also the ancient Greek word meaning “earth,” “land,” or “soil,” though the etymology of this word is uncertain. Even today, neopagan religious groups, such as Wicca, observe Gaia as the ultimate mother goddess and giver of life. In ancient Greece, Gaia was worshipped alongside Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, as part of a fertility cult.

In many of her myths, Gaia also became an opponent of Zeus and attempted to overthrow him on several occasions. She helped her son Cronus overthrow his father, Uranus, but later ushered in another new era in the history of the gods by nurturing the young Zeus and helping him dethrone Cronus. Gaia’s role in Greek mythology is sometimes contradictory or surprising.

Through the prolific Titans, who each had many children, Gaia became the grandmother of countless mythical figures (including the Olympians). The progenitor of most of the Greek deities, Gaia gave birth to the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the monstrous beings known as the Hecatoncheires. With her offspring Uranus, who symbolized the heavens, Gaia molded the universe to her liking. The first deity in all of Greek mythology, Gaia was the personification of the earth and the universal mother.

Erebus greek god relationship to zeus