Greek: gaia (<*gm-ya), chamai (χαμαί) on the earth, Hittite: tekan, Tocharian: tkam, Phrygian zemelo, Proto-Slavonic:*zem-yã, Avestan: za (locative: zemi), Vedic: ksam, Latin: hum-us, Albanian: dhé.
[9] In Mycenean Greek Ma-ka (probably transliterated as Ma-ga, "Mother Gaia") also contains the root ga-.
In the Iliad, Alpheia beats with her hands the bountiful ("polyphorbos") earth, but she calls Hades and Persephone to avenge her against her son.
[21][12] In the hymn to Apollo she is called "pheresvios" (life giving) [22] The "mother of the gods" is a form of Gaia.
According to Pausanias an epithet of Ge in Athens is "the Great goddess", which is an appellation of the "Mother of the gods".
In the Ashmolean Museum, a vase shows Pandora (all-giving) rising from the earth and according to some scholars she may be identified with Gaia .
[29] Sophocles in Philoctetes calls Gaia "pamvōtis" (all nourishing) [20][30] A famous fragment of Danaides describes the sacred marriage between heaven and earth.
According to Plutarch: " The name of Ge is beloved to every Greek and she is traditionally honoured like any other god":[29] Hesiod's Theogony tells how, after Chaos, "wide-bosomed" Gaia (Earth) arose to be the everlasting seat of the immortals who possess Olympus above.
[35] Gaia also bore the Ourea (Mountains), and Pontus (Sea), "without sweet union of love" (i.e., with no father).
Afterward, with Uranus, her son, she gave birth to the Titans, as Hesiod tells it:She lay with Heaven and bore deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis, and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys.
[37]According to Hesiod, Gaia conceived further offspring with her son, Uranus, first the giant one-eyed Cyclopes: Brontes ("Thunder"), Steropes ("Lightning"), and Arges ("Bright");[38] then the Hecatonchires: Cottus, Briareos, and Gyges, each with a hundred arms and fifty heads.
[39] As each of the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires were born, Uranus hid them in a secret place within Gaia, causing her great pain.
From Uranus' spilled blood, Gaia produced the Erinyes, the Giants, and the Meliae (ash-tree nymphs).
But afterwards, Gaia, in union with Tartarus, bore the youngest of her sons Typhon, who would be the last challenge to the authority of Zeus.
[45] With Aether, Terra produces Dolor (Pain), Dolus (Deception), Ira (Anger), Luctus (Mourning), Mendacium (Lying), Iusiurandum (Oath), Vltio (Vengeance), Intemperantia (Self-indulgence), Altercatio (Quarreling), Oblivio (Forgetfulness), Socordia (Sloth), Timor (Fear), Superbia (Arrogance), Incestum (Incest), Pugna (Fighting), Oceanus (Ocean), Themis, Tartarus, Pontus, the Titans, Briareus, Gyges, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, Polus, Saturn, Ops, Moneta, Dione, and the Furies (Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone).
[46] By Tartarus, Terra then becomes the mother of the Giants, which are listed as Enceladus, Coeus, Ophion, Astraeus, Pelorus, Pallas, Emphytus, Rhoecus, Ienios, Agrius, Palaemon, Ephialtes, Eurytus, Theomises, Theodamas, Otos, Typhon, Polybotes, Menephiarus, Abseus, Colophomus, and Iapetus.
Before Gaia or anyone else could get it, Zeus forbade Eos (Dawn), Selene (Moon) and Helios (Sun) to shine, harvested all of the plant himself, and had Athena summon the mortal Heracles, who assisted the Olympians in defeating the Gigantes.
[51] According to Hesiod, in his lost poem Astronomia,[52] Orion, while hunting with Artemis and her mother Leto, claimed that he would kill every animal on earth.
Traditionally the oracle belonged originally to Poseidon and Ge and the serpent Python represents the earth spirit.
According to Pliny the priestess drank a small quantity of the blood of a bull before entering the secret cave.
In the cult of Phlya, Pausanias reports that there were altars to Dionysos, certain nymphs and to Ge, whom they called the "great goddess".
[66] An inscription on the Acropolis of Athens refers to the practice of service in honour of "Ge-Karpophoros" (bringer of fruits) in accordance with the oracle.
In the month Poseideon a pregnant cow was sacrificed to "Ge in the acres" and in Gamelion a sheep to" Ge-near the oracle".
For they say that in the earliest times the oracular seat belonged to Earth, who appointed as prophetess at it Daphnis, one of the nymphs of the mountain.
The verses are these: "Forthwith the voice of the Earth-goddess uttered a wise word, And with her Pyrcon, servant of the renowned Earth-shaker."
There was a temple of Ge Eurusternos on the Crathis near Aegae in Achaia with "a very ancient statue":[100]It is a journey of about thirty stades [from the stream of Krathis (Crathis) near the ruins of Aigai (Aegae) in Akhaia] to what is called the Gaion (Gaeum), a sanctuary of Ge (Earth) surnamed Eurysternos (Broad-bossomed), whose wooden image is one of the very oldest.
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 ...
The mother goddess Cybele from Anatolia (modern Turkey) was partly identified by the Greeks with Gaia, but more so with Rhea.
The Cyclopes (Arges, Brontes, and Steropes) The Hecatonchires (Briareus, Cottus, and Gyes) The Meliae[i] The Erinyes[i] The Gigantes[i] The Elder Muses: Mneme, Melete, and Aoide The Telchines: Actaeus, Megalesius, Ormenus, and Lycus Aetna[120] Aristaeus[121] Giants: Enceladus, Coeus, Astraeus, Pelorus, Pallas, Emphytus, Rhoecus, Agrius, Ephialtes, Eurytus, Themoises, Theodamas, Otus, Polybotes, and Iapetus.
Dolor (Pain), Dolus (Deception), Ira (Anger), Luctus (Mourning), Mendacium (Lying), Iusiurandum (Oath), Vltio (Vengeance), Intemperantia (Self-indulgence), Altercatio (Quarreling), Oblivio (Forgetfulness), Socordia (Sloth), Timor (Fear), Superbia (Arrogance), Incestum (Incest), Pugna (Fighting), Oceanus (Ocean), Themis, Tartarus, Pontus, the Titans, Briareus, Gyges, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, Polus, Saturn, Ops, Moneta, Dione, the Furies (Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone) List notes: