Gaia, the Great Mother Earth

Gaia

Gaia is the Earth. She is the offspring of Chaos or comes into being after it. It was Gaia, who, grieved at the destruction of her children (the CYCLOPES and the HECATONCHEIRES), who had been cast into Tartarus 1 by Uranus, persuaded the TITANS to attack their father and gave Cronos an adamantine sickle (see Castration of Uranus). This they did and Uranus said they had done a fearful deed, and that vengeance for it would come afterwards. Having dethroned their father, they brought up their brethren who had been hurled down to Tartarus 1 and committed the sovereignty to Cronos. But he again bound and shut them up in Tartarus 1, and since both Gaia and Uranus foretold to him that he would dethroned by his own son, he used to swallow his offspring at birth. Zeus avoided that fate and in time the gods waged war against the Zeus for ten years. Gaia prophesied victory to Zeus if he would have the CYCLOPES and the HECATONCHEIRES to help him and he, taking them as allies, dethroned Cronos and shut the TITANS up in Tartarus 1 appointing the HECATONCHEIRES as their guards. (More about Tartarus: Underworld.)

However Gaia was vexed because the OLYMPIANS had defeated the TITANS. So she gave birth to GIANTS who attacked heaven. (Gigantomachy-GIANTS and Zeus). And when the OLYMPIANS had overcome the GIANTS, Gaia, still more enraged, had intercourse with Tartarus 1 and gave birth to Typhon 1, a hybrid between man and beast, who, in size and strength, surpassed all the offspring of Gaia. (Attack of Typhon 1 against heaven: see Zeus.)

After Zeus had intercourse with Metis 1, Gaia said that, after giving birth to the maiden who was in her womb, Metis 1 would bear a son who would be the lord of heaven. From fear of that Zeus swallowed Metis 1.

Another time Orion boasted that he was able to kill anything the earth produced and Gaia (the Earth), angered at this, sent the Scorpion that killed him.

It is also said that once Cura fashioned a man out of mud and asked Zeus to give him life. This he did but forbade her to give him her name as she wished. Zeus wanted to call him after himself but Gaia said it should have hers, since it was made out of her own body. Cronos decided the dispute, letting Zeus take the soul and Gaia the body after death. Cura, since she first fashioned him, would possess him as long as he lived. His name would be Homo, since he was made from humus.

Parentage [Two opposite versions]

a) Chaos.- (by itself, but see Note below)

b) Aether and Hemera.

Note: Some authors, when reading Hesiod's Theogony, have understood that Gaia came after Chaos in the sense that Gaia is the offspring of Chaos, while others think she just appeared after Chaos.