Gaia

Gaia
	;
Other Names	Gaia, Gaea, Terra
First Appearance	Greek Myth
Created by	Unknown

Origin[]

In Greek mythology, Gaia, also spelled Gaea, is the personification of Earth. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.

Gaia is the mother of Uranus (Sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods). She conceived further offspring with her son, Uranus, first the giant one-eyed Cyclopes: Brontes ("Thunder"), Steropes ("Lightning"), and Arges ("Bright"); then the Hecatonchires: Cottus, Briareos, and Gyges, each with a hundred arms and fifty heads. As each of the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires were born, Uranus hid them in a secret place within Gaia, causing her great pain. So Gaia devised a plan. She created a grey flint (or adamantine) sickle. And Cronus used the sickle to castrate his father Uranus as he approached his mother, Gaia, to have sex with her. From Uranus' spilled blood, Gaia produced the Erinyes, the Giants, and the Meliae (ash-tree nymphs). From the testicles of Uranus in the sea came forth Aphrodite.

By her son, Pontus, Gaia bore the sea-deities Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia.

Because Cronus had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overthrown by one of his children, he swallowed each of the children born to him by his Titan older sister, Rhea. But when Rhea was pregnant with her youngest child, Zeus, she sought help from Gaia and Uranus. When Zeus was born, Rhea gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling-clothes in his place, which Cronus swallowed, and Gaia took the child into her care.

With the help of Gaia's advice, Zeus defeated the Titans. 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.

Gaia resented the way Zeus had treated her children, the Titans, so she brought forth the Gigantes to fight Zeus. It was prophesied that the Gigantes, who were born from Uranus's blood, could not be killed by the gods alone, but they could be killed with the help of a mortal. Hearing this, Gaia sought for a certain plant that would protect the Gigantes even from mortals. 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.

The god Hephaestus once attempted to rape Athena, but she pushed him away, causing him to ejaculate on her thigh. Athena wiped off the semen and threw it on the ground, which impregnated Gaia. Gaia then gave birth to Erichthonius of Athens, whom Athena adopted as her own child.

A similar myth, in which Aphrodite fled from her lustful father Zeus, who was infatuated with her. As Zeus was unable to catch Aphrodite, he gave up and dropped his semen on the ground, which impregnated Gaia. This resulted in the birth of the Cyprian Centaurs.

Children[]

The Protogenoi by Parthenogenesis[]

Ouranós - Protogenoi of the sky and father of the Titans, Cyclopes, Hecatonchires and through his blood from the castration of him, the Erinyes, the Gigantes and the Meliai.
the Ourea - the Protogenoi or rustic Daimones of the mountains. Each mountain had their own one.
Pontus - the Protogenoi of the sea. By his mother, he fathered many of the sea gods.

The Titans, Elder Cyclops, and Hecatonchires - Fathered by Ouranos[]

Oceanus - Titan god of the river Okeanus which circled the Earth. Father of the Okeanides-Nymphs and the River gods.
Koios - God of the Axis of Heaven and of Heavenly Oracles. Father of Leto.
Krios - Titan of the South. Father of Astraios, God of the Stars and Planets.
Hyperion - Titan of Light. Father of Eos (Goddess of Dawn), Selene (Goddess of the Moon) and Helios (God of the Sun).
Iapetos - Titan of the Mortal Life-span. Father of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus.
Kronos - Titan of Agriculture. Ruler of the Titans and father of Zeus, Hades, Poseidon and their siblings.
Theia - Titan of the Light. Wife to Hyperion.
Rhea - Goddess of Female Fertility, Motherhood and Generation. Wife to Kronos.
Themis - Goddess of Divine Law.
Mnemosyne - Goddess of Memory.
Tethys - Titanide of the Fresh Water.
Phoebe - Goddess of Intellect, wife of Koios.
Elder Cyclopes - the three one-eyed giants. The were the makers of Zeus' thunderbolt, Poseidon's trident and Hades' helm of invisibility. Their names were Brontes, Steropes, and Arges .
Hecatonchires - the three giant gods of violent storms and hurricanes. Each had 100 hands and 50 heads. They were called Briareos, Kottos and Gyges.

The Giants by Ouranos' Blood[]

Enecladus
Otos
Ephialtes
Alcyoneus
Gaion
Phoito
Mimon
Clytius
Porphyrion
Otis

Public Domain Appearances[]

All published appearances of Gaia from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.

Some notable appearances are listed below:

Public Domain Literary Appearances[]

The Iliad
The Odyssey
Theogony
Works and Days
Catalogues of Women Fragments
Astronomy Fragments
The Homeric Hymns
Homer's Epigrams
Aesop Fables
Pindar, Odes
Greek Lyric III Simonides, Fragments
Greek Lyric IV Bacchylides, Fragments
Greek Lyric V Anonymous, Fragments
Greek Elegaic Solon, Fragments
Eumenides
Libation Bearers
Prometheus Bound
Seven Against Thebes
Suppliant Women
Fragments
Iphigenia at Aulis
Aristophanes, Birds
Thesmophoriazusae
Cratylus
Critias
Apollodorus, The Library
The Argonautica
Callimachus, Hymns
Callimachus, Fragments
The Library of History
Strabo, Geography
Description of Greece
The Orphic Hymns
Orphica, Fragments
Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses
Deipnosophistae
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines
Dionysiaca
Greek Papyri III Anonymous, Fragments
Fabulae
Astronomica
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Fasti
Aeneid
Thebaid