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Tearmunn |
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Gaia
Gaia the Mother "The lands of the Massagetai and of the proud Half-Dog men (Hemikunoi), of the
Underground-folk (Katoudaioi) and of the feeble Pygmies (Pygmaioi); and to the tribes of the boundless Black-skins (Melanokhrotoi)
and the Libyans. Huge Gaia bare these to Epaphos ... Aithiopes and Libys and mare-milking Skythes. For verily Epaphos was
the child of the almightly Son of Kronos, and from him sprang the dark Africans (Libys), and high-souled Ethiopians (Aithiopes),
and the Underground-folk (Katoudaioi) and feeble Pygmies (Pygmaioi). All these are the offspring of the lord, the Loud-thunderer
[Poseidon]. Round about all of these the Sons of Boreas sped in darting flight .. of the well-horsed Hyperboreans - whom Ge
the all-nourishing bare off by the tumbling streams of deep-flowing Eridanos .. of amber, feeding her wide-scattered offspring."
-Catalogues of Women Frag 40A "Ge (Earth), say the Greeks, was the first to produce man, having won that fine
privilege, wishing to be mother not of senseless plants nor of unreasoning beasts but of a civilised, god-loving creature.
But it is hard to discover, he says, whether Boiotian Alalkomeneus on the shore of the Kephissian lake was the first of men
to appear, or if it was the Idaian Kouretes, divine race, or the Phrygian Korybantes that the sun first saw shooting up tree-like;
or Arkadia gave birth to the pre-moon Pelasgian, or Eleusis to Dysaules, dweller in Raria, or Lemnos to Kabeiros, fair offspring,
in secret rites, or Pellene to Phlegraian Alkyoneus, eldest of the Gigantes. Libyans say that Iarbas was the first-born, rising
from the dry plains to offer first-fruits of the sweet nut of Zeus. The Nile, he says, enriching the Egyptian mud and to this
day generating living things, produces creatures made flesh by moist warmth. Assyrians say Oannes the fish-eater was born
in their land, Khaldaians Adam in theirs." - Greek Lyric V Anonymous Fragments 985 (from Hippolytus, Refutation of all
the Heresies) "As they [the Indians attacked by Dionysos’ troops] fell and fell, Gaia
darkened with pouring streams of blood lamented her sons [the Indian race], and cried with a torrent of words - "The Unconquerable Indians born of Ge the Earth." -Dionysiaca 36.160 "When Cura [Kore / Persephone?] was crossing a certain river, she saw some clayey
mud. She took it up thoughtfully and began to fashion a man. While she was pondering on what she had done, Jove came up; Cura
asked him to give the image life, and Jove readily grant this. When Cura wanted to give it her name, Jove [Zeus] forbade,
and said that his name should be given it. But while they were disputing about the name, Tellus [Gaia] arose and said that
it should have her name, since she had given her own body. They took Saturn [Kronos] for judge; he seems to have decided for
them: Jove, since you gave him life ….. let her receive his body; since Cura fashioned him, let her posses him as long
as he lives, but since there is controversy about his name, let him be called homo, since he seems to be made from humus."
-Hyginus Fabulae 220 Gaia - Mother Earth "At dawn a fruitful mist is spread over the earth from starry heaven upon the
fields of blessed men: it is drawn from the ever flowing rivers and is raised high above the earth by windstorm ... Earth
(Ge), the mother of all, bears again her various fruit." -Works & Days 547-563 "To Gaia, Fumigation from every kind of Seed, except beans and aromatics. O mother
Gaia, of Gods and men the source, endured with fertile, all-destroying force; all-parent, bounding, whose prolific powers
produce a store of beauteous fruits and flowers. All-various maid, the 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. Deep-bosomed,
blessed, pleased with grassy plains, sweet to the smell, and with prolific rains. All-flowery Daimon, centre of the world,
around thy orb the beauteous stars are hurled with rapid whirl, eternal and divine, whose frames with matchless skill and
wisdom shine. Come, blessed Goddess, listen to my prayer, and make increase of fruits thy constant care; with fertile seasons
(horai) in thy train draw near, and with propitious mind thy suppliants hear." -Orphic Hymn 26 to Ge "Over Okeanos' stream and the furthest bounds of Gaia" -The Cypria Frag 8 "The earth [Gaia] yawned and swallowed him [Amphiaraus] up with his horses and
the jointed chariot, far from deep-eddying Alpheius." -Catalogues of Women Frag 99 "Queen [potnia] Ge, all bounteous giver of honey-hearted wealth, how kindly, it
seems, you are to some, and how intractable and rough for those with whom you are angry." -Homer's Epigrams's VII "The narcissus, which Gaia made to grow at the will of Zeus and to please the
Host of Many [Hades] to be a snare for the bloom-like girl [Persephone] - a marvellous, radiant flower. It was a thing of
awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a hundred blooms and it smelled most sweetly, so that
wide Ouranos (Heaven) above and Gaia (Earth) and Thalassa's (Sea) salt swell laughed for joy. And the girl was amazed and
reached out with both hands to take the lovely toy: but the wide-pathed earth yawned there in the plain of Nysa, and the lord,
Host of Many, with his immortal horses sprang out upon her." -Homeric Hymn II To Demeter 5-18 "[Apollon to the corpse of Python] But here, shall Gaia and shining Hyperion make
you rot." -Homeric Hymn III To Pythian Apollo 300-374 "To Gaia the Mother of All. I will sing of well-founded Gaia, mother of all, eldest
of all beings. She feeds all the creatures that are in the worlds, all that go upon the goodly land, and all that are in the
paths of the seas, and all that fly: all these are fed of her store. Through you, O queen, men are blessed in their children
and blessed in their harvests, and to you it belongs to give means of life to mortal men and to take it away. Happy is the
man whom you delight to honour! He has all things abundantly: his fruitful land is laden with corn, his pastures are covered
with cattle, and his house is filled with good things. Such men rule orderly in their cities of fair women: great riches and
wealth follow them: their sons exult with everfresh delight, and their daughters in flower-laden bands play and skip merrily
over the soft flowers of the field. Thus is it with those whom you honour O holy goddess (semne thea), bountiful spirit (aphthone
daimon). Hail, Mother of the gods (theon mater), wife of starry Ouranos; freely bestow upon me for this my song substance
that cheers the heart!" -Homeric Hymn XXX To Gaia "I will have as my best witness the mighty mother of the Olympian gods, dark Ge
(Earth), whose boundary markers fixed in many places I once removed [in land reforms]." -Solon Frag 36 "That word spoken from tree-clad mother-Earth’s navel-stone [Delphoi]."
-Pindar Pythian 4 str4 "[The golden apples of the Hesperides] These apples were not, as some maintain,
in Libya, but rather were with Atlas among the Hyperboreans. Ge had given them to Zeus when he married Hera." -Apollodorus
2.114 "And holden in distress[having given birth to Zeus in a parched waterless Arkadia
and requiring cleansing] the lady Rheia said, ‘Dear Gaia (Earth), give birth thou also! Thy birthpangs are light.’
So spake the goddess, and lifting her great arm she smote the mountain with her staff; and it was greatly rent in twin for
her and poured forth a mighty flood." -Callimachus, Hymn I to Zeus 28 "A farmer struggling as he plunged his plough-share into the earth saw a treasure-trove
leap forth from the furrow. All in a rush, he immediately abandoned the shameful plow, leading his oxen to better seed. Straightaway
he obediently built an altar to the Goddess Ge/Tellus (Earth), who had gladly bestowed on him the wealth contained within
her. The Goddess Tykhe/Fortuna (Fortune), feeling slighted that he had not thought her likewise worthy of an offering of incense,
admonished the farmer, thinking of the future while he was rejoicing in his new-found affairs: 'Now you do not offer the gifts
that you have found to my shrine, but you prefer to make other gods the sharers of your good fortune. Yet when your gold is
stolen and you are stricken with sadness, you will make your complaints to me first of all, weeping over your loss." -Aesop
Fables 84 (Chambry) & Avianus, Fabulae 12 "[On the Akropolis, Athens] an image of Ge (Earth) beseeching Zeus to rain upon
her; perhaps the Athenians themselves needed showers, or may be all the Greeks had been plagued with drought." -Pausanias
1.24.3 "The Peleiades are said to have been … the first women to chant these verses:-
‘ … Ge sends up the harvest, therefore sing the praise of Ge as Mater (Mother)." -Pausanias 10.12.10 "What is called the Omphalos (Navel) by the Delphians is made of white marble,
and is said by the Delphians to be the centre of all the earth (Ge). Pindar in one of his odes supports their view." -Pausanias
10.16.3 "A number of creatures whose ill-assorted limbs declared them to be neither man
nor beast had gathered round her [Kirke the witch] like a great flock of sheep following their shepherd from the fold, Nondescript
monsters such as these, fitted with miscellaneous limbs, were once produced spontaneously by Ge out of the primeval mud, when
she had not yet solidified under a rainless sky and was deriving no moisture from the blazing sun. But Khronos (Time), combining
this with that, brought the animal creation into order." -Argonautica 4.673f "Pherecydes says that when Jupiter [Zeus] wed Juno [Hera], Terra [Gaia] came,
bearing branches with golden applies, and Juno, in admiration, asked Terra to plant them in her gardens near distant Mount
Atlas." -Hyginus Astronomica 2.3 "Some have called Aex the daughter of Sol [Helios], who surpassed many in beauty
of body, but in contrast to this beauty, had a most horrible face. Terrified by it, the Titanes begged Terra [Gaia] to hide
her body, and Terra is said to have hidden her in a cave in the island of Crete [ie she hid her within her own body, the earth].
Later she became nurse of Jove [Zeus], as we have said before." -Hyginus Astronomica 2.13 "All other forms of life Earth [Gaia] brought forth, in diverse species of her
own accord, when the sun’s radiance warmed the pristine moisture and slime and oozy marshlands swelled with heat [after
the great Deluge], and in that pregnant soil the seeds of things nourished as in a mother’s womb, gained life and grew
and gradually assumed a shape. So when the seven-mouthed Nile has left at last the sodden acres and withdrawn its flow back
to its ancient bed, and the fresh mud is warmed by the bright sunshine, farmers find, turning the clods, so many forms of
life, some just begun, still in the stage of birth, others unfinished, short of proper parts, and often, in one creature,
part alive, part still raw soil. Because when heat and moisture blend in due balance, they conceive; these two, these, are
the origin of everything. Though fire and water fight, humidity and warmth create all things; that harmony, so inharmonious,
suits the springs of life. Thus when the Earth, deep-coated with the slime of the late deluge, glowed again beneath the warm
caresses of the shining sun, she brought forth countless species, some restored in ancient forms, some fashioned weird and
new. "If the plants fixed and rooted in the earth owe their life and vigour to nature’s
art, surely Terra (Earth)[Gaia] herself must be sustained by the same power, inasmuch as when impregnated with seeds she brings
forth from her womb all things in profusion, nourishes their roots in her bosom and causes them to grow, and herself in turn
is nourished by the upper and outer elements. Her exhalations moreover give nourishment to the air, the either and all the
heavenly bodies." -De Natura Deorum 2.33 "If the name of Ceres [Demeter] is derived from her bearing fruit, as you said,
Terra (the Earth) itself is a goddess (and so she is believed to be, for she is the same as the deity Tellus). But if Terra
the Earth is divine, so also is the sea." -De Natura Deorum 3.20 "Gaia (Earth) unfolded her teeming fragrance, and brought forth a plot of plants
to do pleasure to Dionysos. Tangled poles of spreading vine lifted a wide covering laden with clusters of grapes, and shaded
the bed with its leaves; a selfgrown arbour of vinery embowered the couch with its rich growth, and many a bunch of purple
fruit swayed to and for above it, under the Kyprian’s breezes." -Dionysiaca 16.270 "Saffronrobe Ambrosia fled the bold man [Lykougros] and prayed to Mother Gaia
(Earth) to save her from Lykourgos. And Gaia, mother of all fruits, opened a gulf, and received Ambrosia the nurse of Bromios
[Dionysos] alive in a loving embrace. The Nymphe disappeared and changed her shape to a plant." -Dionysiaca 20.22 "Gaia (Earth) unfolded her teeming perfumes and crowned the marriage bed [of Zeus
and Hera] with lovely flowers: there sprouted Kikilian saffron, there grew bindweed, and wrapt his male leaves about the female
plant by his side, as though breathing desire, and himself a dainty mate in the world of flowers. So the double growth adorned
the bed of the pair, covering Zeus with saffron and Hera his wife with bindweed; lovely iris leaping upon anemone portrayed
by a meaning silence the sharp love of Zeus." -Dionysiaca 32.76 "Gaia (Earth) opened beside the wide mouth of a marsh and received the hunted
girl [Daphne who was being pursued by Apollon] into her compassionate bosom … the god never caught Daphne when she was
pursued, Apollon never ravished her … and [he] always blamed Gaia (Earth) for swallowing the girl before she knew marriage."
-Dionysiaca 33.210 "She [Pitys] disappeared into the soil herself [transformed into a pine when fleeing
from Pan cried out to Gaia for help]; put the blame of Ge (Earth)!" -Dionysiaca 42.257 Worship of Gaia "[Comedy-Play describing the Thesmophoria festival of Demeter and Persephone:] "Within the precincts [of the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus at Athens] … a
temple of Kronos and Rhea and an enclosure of Ge surnamed Olympia. Here the floor opens to the width of a cubit, and they
say that along this bed flowed off the water after the deluge that occurred in the time of Deukalion, and into it they cast
every year wheat mixed with honey." -Pausanias 1.18.7 "There is also a sanctuary of Ge, Kourotrophe (Nurse of the Young) [at Athens],
and of Demeter Khloe (Green). You can learn all about their names by conversing with the priests." -Pausanias 1.22.3 "There are [in the sanctuary of the Erinyes in Athens] images of Plouton [god
of agricultural wealth], Hermes and Ge, by which sacrifice those who have received an acquittal on the Areopagos." -Pausanias
1.28.6 "Phyla and Myrrhinos [in Attika] have altars of … the Ismenian Nymphai and
Ge, whom they name Megale Thea (Great Goddess)." -Pausanias 1.31.4 "[At Sparta, Lakedaimon] is a sanctuary of Ge." -Pausanias 3.11.9 "[At Sparta, Lakedaimon] is a sanctuary, surnamed Gasepton, of Ge." -Pausanias
3.12.8 "On what is called the Gaion (sanctuary of Ge) [at Olympia] is an altar of Ge;
it too is of ashes. In more ancient days they say that there was an oracle also of Ge in this place." -Pausanias 5.14.10 "Next to the grove [at Patrai, Akhaia] is a sanctuary of Demeter; she and her
daughter are standing, but the image of Ge is seated." -Pausanias 7.21.11 "It is a journey of about thirty stades [from Aigai, Akhaia] to what is called
the Gaios, a sanctuary of Ge surnamed Eurysternos (Broadbossomed), whose wooden image is one of the very oldest. The woman
who from time to time is priestess henceforth remains chaste, and before her election must not have had intercourse with more
than one man. The test applied is drinking bull’s blood. Any woman who may chance not to speak the truth is immediately
punished as a result of this test. If several women compete for the priesthood, lots are cast for the honour." -Pausanias
7.25.13 "[At Tegea, Arkadia] is an altar of Ge." -Pausanias 8.48.8 "[Indian Deriades calls on his comrades to pray to the gods:] ‘Pray to both
- stretch out your hands to the Water [of the River-God Hydsapes] and pray to Mother Gaia (Earth), and with truthful lips
vow to both sacrifice after victory; at the altar let bullshaped Hydaspes hold a hornstrong bull, and let black Gaia receive
a black ram [it was traditional to sacrifice black animals to the Khthonion gods]." -Dionysiaca 29.62 "Ge (Earth): Since the earth is a seat of every city, as, supporting the
cities, her image is that of a tower-bearer." -Suidas 'Ge' "Demeter:The earth, as if being Ge-meter (earth-mother). Since the earth is a
foundation of every city, as holding up the cities she is represented wearing towers [sc. as a crown]." -Suidas 'Demeter' "Ges agalma (A statue of the earth): They model Hestia as a woman, like the earth,
holding up a kettledrum, since the earth encloses the winds below herself." -Suidas 'Ges agalma' "Medea’s prayer]: "Nyx … Hekate … and thou, kindly Earth, who
dost for magic potent herbs provide." -Metamorphoses 7.196 "[The seer Thiodamas son of Melampos] prepares to appease Tellus [Gaia the Earth]
… He straightway bids altars twain to be wreathed with living trees and well-grown turf, and on them, in honour of the
goddess, he flings countless flowers, her own bounty, and heaps of fruit and the new produce of the tireless year, and pouring
untouched milk upon the altars he thus begins: ‘O eternal Createress of gods and men, who bringest into being rivers
and forests and seeds of life throughout the world, the handiwork of Prometheus and the stones of Pyrrha, thou who first didst
give nourishment and varied food to famished men, who dost encompass and bear up the sea; in thy power is the gentle race
of cattle and the anger of wild beasts and the repose of birds; round thee, firm, steadfast strength of the unfailing universe,
as thou hangest in the empty air the rapid frame of heaven and either chariot doth wheel, O middle of the world, unshared
by the mighty brethren [Zeus, Poseidon and Haides in the division of the universe left the earth common to all gods]. Therefore
art thou bountiful to so many races, so many lofty cities and peoples, while from above and from beneath thou art all-sufficient,
and with no effort carriest thyself star-bearing Atlas who staggers under the weight of the celestial realm; us alone, O goddess,
dost thou refuse to bear? [Amphiaraus one of the Seven Against Thebes had just been swallowed up by the earth] Doth our weight
vex thee? What crime, I pray, do we unwittingly atone? … Whelm not in burial so sudden our still-breathing bodies; haste
not, for we shall come by the path all tread, by the permitted way; hearken but to our prayer, and keep firm for the Pelasgians
the fickle plain, and forestall not the swift Parcae [Moirai, fates]. But thou [Amphiaraus], dear to the gods, whom no violence
nor Sidonian [Theban] sword did slay, but mighty Natura (Nature) opened her bosom to enfold in union with herself, as though
for thy merits she were entombing thee in Cirrha’s chasm, gladly vouchsafe, I pray, that I may learn thy supplications,
conciliate me to the gods and the prophetic altars, an detach me what thou didst design to tell the peoples; I will perform
thy rites of divination, and in Phoebus’ absence be the prophet of thy godhead and call upon thy name. That place whither
thou speedest is mightier, I ween , than any Delos or Cirrha, and more august than any shrine.’ Having thus spoken he
casts into the ground black sheep and dark-hued herds, and piles up heaps of billowy sand on their living bodies, duly paying
to the seer the emblems of death." -Thebaid 8.29 |
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