As we are finishing up our deliberation topic on food waste and beginning our issue briefs on environmental issues, this week I’d like to introduce you to the Greek goddess Gaia.
Names: Greek – Gaia, Gaea. Roman – Terra, Tellus.
Region: Greece / Ancient Mediterranean
God of: Gaia is the goddess of the Earth and mother of all creation
Appearance: Gaia is the personification of Earth. In art, she is portrayed as a buxom or beautiful woman. Often, she is shown rising from the Earth or accompanied by troops of Karpoi (fruits) and Horai (seasons).
Origin Story: Gaia was born out of Chaos, the name given by the Greeks to describe the nothingness, or rather darkness before the Earth and Heavens were created. She was born out of Chaos alongside Tartarus*. According to Greek cosmology, Gaia was born in the form of a flat disk on top of Tartarus, the Underworld. (Please keep in mind Hades was not introduced to the Greek family tree yet. Tartarus was the OG underworld.) Some sources say Eros was another god born from Chaos where others say Pontus or Okeanos.
Associations and other important information: Being a primordial deity, Gaia did not have much of an origin story; however, her descendants did. Debating on which source you read from, Gaia gave birth to different gods or Earth phenomenons with different partners. All sources are consistent in stating that Gaia bore the god of the Heavens, Ouranos (yes, I avoided the other spelling of the name because of its silly, common mispronunciation). With Pontus, Gaia bore 5 sea gods, including Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia. Some of her other offspring include the Gigantes, the Cyclopes, Pontus/Okeanos, and the Titans (Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, Okeanos, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Kronos. Ouranos was usually the father of Gaia’s other children.
In fear of one of his sons overthrowing him, Ouranos demanded that Gaia stop boring children, and he imprisoned Gaia’s children in her. This angered Gaia and led to an arrangement between her and her youngest born Kronos. To defeat Ouranos, Gaia created a sickle for Kronos to castrate his father with, which ultimately led to Ouranos’ downfall.
Gaia is also associated with her grandson Zeus after Kronos imprisoned the same sons of Gaia as his father Ouranos did. Similar to Ouranos, Kronos was worried about one of his sons overthrowing him after Gaia prophesized that one of Kronos’s sons will in fact be more powerful than him. Kronos swallowed his children, and Zeus freed them while defeating Kronos. However, Gaia also was infuriated by Zeus when he imprisoned the Titans in Tartarus.
*For most of these gods, there are multiple spellings in either Greek or Roman.
References:
- https://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Gaea/gaea.html
- https://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Gaia.html
- https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/goddesses/gaea/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia#/media/File:Birth_Erikhthonios_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_2413.jpg (Picture)
- https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/gaia-0010891 (Picture)
So many of these words take me back to my childhood when I read the Percy Jackson novels… I remember reading the word Tartarus a lot… anywho, this was a really interesting blog to read, since it deals with creation. Also, rip Ouranos… Kronos really did him dirty :(… with mythology, I personally love how it relates to the names of various objects in our solar system and beyond. For instance, many of Saturn’s (Kronos) moons are related to Kronos himself, with many of them being the names of various Titans (the largest moon of Saturn is just named Titan as I am sure you may know). Among the other moons of Saturn are Enceladus, Mimas, Rhea, Tethys, Iapetus, Epimetheus, Pan, Polydeuces, etc. Many of these names are probably familiar to your knowledge of Greek mythology.
I knew the planets and some of their moons are named after Greek and Roman gods/goddesses, I just never knew which ones! Thanks for sharing and teaching me something new! Also, yeahhh there are a lot of times where a god did another dirty in mythology.
I was wondering where you were going with the environmental transition in the beginning and then as I read what Gaia was the goddess of it all made sense haha. She seems like the literal definition of #girlboss and I stan. I knew I was going to love her once you said she was “born out of Chaos”. Overall, love reading your passion blogs and learning about something not physics!
She’s essentially the Greek version of Mother Nature and played a part in destroying the big egos of her son and grandson, so I’d agree she’s the definition of #girlboss 🙂