Mother Earth

Ancient Greek Origins

The Ancient Greeks explained creation as Mother Earth emerging from an original chaos, with her name Gaia or Ge, providing words such as geography and geology. Gaia as the source of all creatures bore the sky, the mountains, and the sea parthenogenetically, and then bore monsters and the Titans, parents of the Olympian gods and goddesses. Gaia accepted her offspring, however outrageous they were, while Ouranos pushed monsters back into her body the Earth, so she had her son Kronos castrate Ouranos, his sexual organs falling back into the Earth to produce Aphrodite goddess of love.

A further conflict occurred between her progeny Rhea and Chronos, when Chronos swallowed his offspring in order not to be overwhelmed by the one predicted to overcome him, Zeus; Gaia helped Rhea outwit Chronos, thereby ensuring life's continuation. In this conflict the young Zeus was hidden in a cave in Crete until he grew to rebel against his father Ouranos; such caves were symbolic of birth from the womb of Mother Earth.

While Zeus's rule later became powerful, Gaia's force remained primary. Even though the monstrous protectors of her oracle sites were defeated by the gods Apollo, Zeus, and Herakles, such places continued to be a source of prophecy through her priestesses or Pythia, and Mother Earth was still awarded the primary place of honor. Daughters of Gaia like Rhea and Hera frequently retained her power to produce parthenogenetically, with the monstrous offspring of these goddesses representing the primordial savage life force that was later subsumed under patriarchal control. Hera called on her mother Gaia and smote the Earth in anger when Zeus produced Athena from his head, and subsequently Gaia enabled her to bear Hephaestus and the dragon child Typhaon parthenogenetically.

The source or matrix of life seen as the fertility of the Earth producing her offspring alone in virgin birth, and then coming together with her son in a “sacred marriage,” are repeated tropes in ancient cultures, with a marriage ritual occurring between heaven and Earth. The Sumerians described the goddess Nammu as primeval sea mother producing heaven or An, and Ki the Earth, separated by the air god Enlil, who carried off his mother, thus placing Mother Earth at one stage after a primordial sea source. The mountain was called Kur, the womb of the mother; seals from Crete show the goddess standing with her scepter and lions on the mountain. [Page 813]Later Sumerian names for Mother Earth are Ninmah and Ninhursag, the lady who gave birth and mother of all living things. Tellus Mater was the Roman name of Mother Earth, a goddess similar to Demeter of the harvest. The great goddess Cybele was also an Earth mother, like Demeter a symbol of resurrection seen analogously with the seasonal forces of nature. The Greeks placed the omphalos, or belly of the Earth, in locations such as Eleusis where Demeter was worshipped.

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