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Gaea rising from the earth, Athenian red-figure
kylix C5th B.C., Antikenmuseen, Berlin
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GAIA (or Gaea) was the Protogenos (primeval divinity) of earth, one of the primal elements who
first emerged at the dawn of creation, along with air, sea and sky. She
was the great mother of all : the heavenly gods were descended from her
union with Ouranos (the sky), the sea-gods from her union with Pontos (the sea), the Gigantes from her mating with Tartaros (the hell-pit) and mortal creatures were sprung or born from her
earthy flesh.
In myth Gaia appears as the prime opponent of
the heavenly gods. First she rebelled against her husband Ouranos (Sky)
who had imprisoned her sons in her womb. Then later, when her son Kronos defied her by imprisoning these same sons, she assisted Zeus in his overthrow of the Titan. Finally she came into conflict
with Zeus, angered with him for the binding of her Titan-sons in the pit
of Tartaros. In her opposition she first produced the tribe of Gigantes
and later the monster Typhoeus to dethrone him, but both failed in both attempts.
In the ancient Greek cosmology earth was
conceived as a flat disk encirced by the river Okeanos, and topped above
by the solid dome of heaven and below by the great pit of Tartaros. She
herself supported the sea and moutains upon her breast.
Gaia was depicted as a buxom, matronly woman,
half risen from the earth (as in the image right) in Greek vase painting.
She was portrayed as inseperable from her native element. In mosaic art,
Gaia appears as a full-figured, reclining woman, often clothed in green,
and sometimes accompanied by grain spirits--the Karpoi.
INDEX OF GAIA PAGES
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PART 1: INTRO. & MYTHS
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ENCYCLOPEDIA
GAEA or GE (Gaia or Gê), the
personification of the earth. She appears in the character of a
divine being as early as the Homeric poems, for we read in the Iliad
(iii. 104) that black sheep were sacrificed to her, and that she was
invoked by persons taking oaths. (iii. 278, xv. 36, xix. 259, Od.
v. 124.) She is further called, in the Homeric poems, the mother of
Erechtheus and Tithyus. (Il. ii. 548, Od. vii. 324, xi. 576;
comp. Apollon. Rhod. i. 762, iii. 716. According to the Theogony of
Hesiod (117, 12,5, &c.), she was the first being that sprang
front Chaos, sand gave birth to Uranus and Pontus. By Uranus she then
became the mother of a series of beings, -- Oceanus, Coeus, Creius,
Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Thetys, Cronos,
the Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes, Arges, Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges.
These children of Ge and Uranus were hated by their father, and Ge
therefore concealed. them in the bosom of the earth; but she made a
large iron sickle, gave it to her sons, and requested them to take
vengeance upon their father. Cronos undertook the task, and mutilated
Uranus. The drops of blood which fell from him upon the earth (Ge),
became the seeds of the Erinnyes, the Gigantes, and the Melian
nymphs. Subsequently Ge became, by Pontus, the mother of Nereus,
Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia. (Hes. Theog. 232,
&c.; Apollod. i. 1. § 1, &c.) Besides these, however, various
other divinities and monsters sprang from her. As Ge was the source
from which arose the vapours producing divine inspiration, she
herself also was regarded as an oracular divinity, and it is well
known that the oracle of Delphi was believed to have at first been in
her possession (Aeschyl. Eum. 2; Paus. x. 5. § 3), and at
Olympia, too, she had an oracle in early times. (Paus. v. 14. § 8.)
That Ge belonged to the theoi chthinioi, requires no explanation, and
hence she is frequently mentioned where they are invoked. (Philostr. Vit.
Apoll. vi. 39; Ov. Met. vii. 196.) The surnames and
epithets given to Ge have more or less reference to her character as
the all-producing and all-nourishing mother (mater omniparens et
alma), and hence Servius (ad Aen. iv. 166) classes her
together with the divinities presiding over marriage. Her worship
appears to have been universal among the Greeks, and she had temples
or altars at Athens, Sparta, Delphi, Olympia, Bura, Tegea, Phlyus,
and other places. (Thuc. ii. 15; Paus. i. 22. § 3, 24. § 3, 31. § 2,
iii. 11. § 8, 12. § 7, v. 14. §8, vii. 25. § 8, viii. 48. § 6.) We
have express statements attesting the existence of statues of Ge in
Greece, but none have come down to us. At Patrae she was represented
in a sitting attitude, in the temple of Demeter (Paus. vii. 21. § 4),
and at Athens, too, there was a statue of her. (i. 24. § 3.) Servius
(ad Aen. x. 252) remarks that she was represented with a key.
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Biography and Mythology.
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PARENTS
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[1.1] NONE (the second being to emerge at
creation) (Hesiod Theogony 116)
[2.1] Emerged from HYDROS (Orphic Rhapsodies 66, Orphic
Frag 54 & 57, Epicuras Frag)
[3.1] AITHER & HEMERA (Hyginus Preface)
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OFFSPRING PROTOGENOI
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OFFSPRING TITANES-GIGANTES
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[1.1] THE
TITANES (OKEANOS, KOIOS, KRIOS, HYPERION, IAPETOS, KRONOS), THE
TITANIDES (THEIA, RHEIA, THEMIS, MNEMOSYNE, TETHYS, PHOIBE), THE
KYKLOPES, THE
HEKATONKHEIRES (by Ouranos) (Hesiod Theogony 135,
Apollodorus 1.2, Diodorus Siculus 5.66.1)
[1.2] THE
TITANES (as above), THE
TITANIDES (as above plus DIONE), THE
KYKLOPES, THE
HEKATONKHEIRES (by Ouranos) (Apollodorus 1.2)
[1.3] THEMIS, PHOIBE (Aeschylus Eumenides 1)
[1.4] THE
TITANES (OKEANOS, KRONOS, TETHYS) (by Ouranos) (Aeschylus Prometheus Bound
207)
[1.5] PROMETHEUS (Aeschylus Prometheus Bound
211)
[1.6] THE
KYKLOPES, THE
HEKATONKHEIRES (by Ouranos) (Eumelus Titanomachia Frag 1)
[1.7] OKEANOS, THEMIS, TARTAROS, PONTOS, THE
TITANES, BRIAREUS, GYES, STEROPES, ATLAS, HYPERION, KOIOS, KRONOS, RHEIA, MNEMOSYNE, DIONE, THE
ERINYES (by Aither or Ouranos ?) (Hyginus Pref NB text is
corrupt)
[2.1] THE
ERINYES, THE
GIGANTES (incl KOURETES
?), THE
MELIAI (by the blood of the
castrated Ouranos) (Hesiod Theogony 184)
[2.2] THE
ERINYES, THE
GIGANTES (by the blood of the
castrated Ouranos) (Apollodorus 1.3, 1.34)
[3.1] TYPHOEUS (by Tartaros) (Hesiod Theogony 819,
Apollodorus 1.39, Hyginus Preface)
[3.2] GIGANTES (by Tartaros) (Hyginus Preface)
[3.3] ENKELADOS, KOIOS, PHEME (Virgil Aeneid 4.174)
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OFFSPRING SEA GODS
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OFFSPRING RUSTIC GODS
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[1.1] KOURETES (by the blood of Ouranos) ? (Hesiod Theogony 176)
[1.2] KOURETES (by a shower of rain) (Ovid Metamorphoses 4.282)
[1.3] KOURETES (Greek Lyric V Anon. Frag
985, Strabo 10.3.9, Diodorus Siculus 5.65.1, Nonnus Dionysiaca 13.135
& 14.23)
[1.4] DAKTYLOI (Nonnus Dionysiaca 14.23)
[2.1] KABEIROS (Greek Lyric V Anonymous Frag
985)
[3.1] ARISTAIOS (by Ouranos) (Greek Lyric IV Bacchylides
Frag 45)
[4.1] SEILENOS (Nonnus Dionysiaca 29.243)
[5.1] AITNA (by Ouranos) (Simonides Frag 52, Scholiast
on Theocritus 1.65)
[6.1] TRIPTOLEMOS (by Okeanos) (Apollodorus 1.32)
[7.1] DYSAULES (Greek Lyric V Anonymous Frag
985)
[8.1] KENTAUROI
KYPRIOI (by Zeus) (Nonnus Dionysiaca 14.193
& 32.65)
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OFFSPRING DAIMONES
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[1.1] ALGOS
(DOLOR), DOLOS
(DOLUS), LYSSA
(IRA), PENTHOS
(LUCTUS), PSEUDOLOGOS
(MENDACIUM), HORKOS
(JUSIURANDUM), POINE
(ULTIO), ? (INTEMPERANTIA), AMPHILOGIA
(ALTERCATIO), LETHE
(OBLIVIO), AERGIA
(SOCORDIA), DEIMOS
(TIMOR), ? (SUPERBIA), ? (INCESTUM),
HYSMINE
(PUGNA) (by Aither) (Hyginus Preface)
[1.2] PHEME (Virgil Aeneid 4.174)
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OFFSPRING YOUNGER GIANTS
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[1.1] TITYOS (Homer Odyssey 11.580, Virgil
Aeneid 6.595, Nonnus Dionysiaca 4.33)
[2.1] ORION (Apollodorus 1.25)
[2.2] ORION (fertilised by an oxhide soaked with the
urine of Zeus, Poseidon, & Hermes) (Hyginus Fabulae 195 &
Astronomica 2.34, Ovid Fasti 5.493, Nonnus Dionysiaca 13.96)
[3.1] ARGOS
PANOPTES (Aeschylus Suppliants 306
& Prometheus 566, Apollodorus 2.4, Nonnus Dionysiaca 20.35)
[4.1] ANTAIOS (by Poseidon) (Apollodoros 2.115,
Philostratus Elder 2.21, Hyginus Fabulae 31)
[5.1] LAISTRYGON (by Poseidon) (Hesiod Catalogues Frag 40A)
[6.1] THE
GEGENEES (Apollonius Rhodius 1.901)
[7.1] ALPOS (Nonnus Dionysiaca 45.174)
[8.1] SYKEUS (Athenaeus 78a)
[9.1] DAMASEN (Nonnus Dionysiaca 25.452)
[9.2] ANAX, HYLLOS (Pausanais 1.35.6-7)
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OFFSPRING MONSTERS
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OFFSPRING ANIMALS
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[1.1] AREION (Pausanias 8.25.5)
[2.1] SKORPIOS (Hesiod Astronomy Frag 4,
Hyginus Astronomica 2.26)
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OFFSPRING FIRST KINGS
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[1.1] ERIKHTHONIOS (by Hephaistos) (Homer Iliad, Apollodorus
3.188, Callimachus Hecale Frag 260, et al)
[2.1] KEKROPS (Antoninus Liberalis 6, Hyginus Fabulae 48, et al)
[3.1] PALAIKHTHON (Aeschylus Suppliants 250)
[4.1] PELASGOS (Greek Lyric V Anonymous Frag 985, et al)
[5.1] ALALKOMENEUS (Greek Lyric V Anonymous Frag 985)
[6.1] IARBAS (Greek Lyric V Anonymous Frag 985)
[7.1] Various other Autokhthones (earth-born men)
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OFFSPRING HUMAN TRIBES
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[1.1] PHAIAKAI (by the blood
of the castrated Ouranos) (Alcaeus Frag 441)
[2.1] HEMIKUNOI, LIBYES, AITHIOPES, KATOUDAIOI, PYGMAIOI, MELANOKHROTOI, SKYTHES, LAISTRYGONES, HYPERBOREOI (races of men born to her by
Epaphos) (Hesiod Catalogues Frag 40A)
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GAIA & THE BIRTH OF THE COSMOS
I) THE HESIODIC COSMOGONY
Hesiod,
Theogony 116 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"Verily at first Khaos (Air) came to be, but next wide-bosomed Gaia
(Earth), the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the
peaks of snowy Olympos, and dim Tartaros (Hell) in the depth of the
wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who
unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods
and all men within them. From Khaos (Air) came forth Erebos (Darkness)
and black Nyx (Night); but of Nyx (Night) were born Aither (Light) and
Hemera (Day), whom she conceived and bore from union in love with Erebos.
And Gaia (Earth) first bore starry Ouranos (Heaven), equal to herself, to
cover her on every side. And she brought forth long Ourea (Mountains),
graceful haunts of the goddess Nymphai who dwell amongst the glens of the
mountains. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus
(Sea), without sweet union of love.
But afterwards she lay with Ouranos and bare deep-swirling Okeanos
[Earth-encircling River], Koios and Krios and Hyperion and Iapetos, Theia
and Rheia, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoibe and lovely
Tethys."
Homeric
Hymn IV to Hermes 427 (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th - 4th B.C.)
:
"He [Apollon] sang the story of the deathless gods and of dark Gaia
(Earth), how at the first they came to be."
Homeric
Hymn XXX to Gaea (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th - 4th B.C.) :
"Well-founded Gaia (Earth), mother of all, eldest of all
beings."
Pseudo-Hyginus,
Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"From Caligine (Mist) [was born] Chaos (Air);
From Chaos [was born]: Nox (Night), Dies (Day), Erebus, Aether . . .
From Aether (Light) and Dies (Day) [Hemera] [were born]: Terra (Earth)
[Gaia], Caelum (Heaven) [Ouranos], Mare (Sea)."
Ovid,
Metamorphoses 1. 1 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st
A.D.) :
"Ere land and sea and the all-covering sky were made, in the whole
world the countenance of nature was the same, all one, well named Chaos,
a raw and undivided mass, naught but a lifeless bulk, with warring seeds
of ill-joined elements compressed together. No Titan [Helios the Sun] as
yet poured light upon the world, no waxing Phoebe [Selene the Moon] her
crescent filled anew, nor in the ambient air yet hung the earth,
self-balanced, equipoised, nor Amphitrite’s [the Sea’s] arms embraced the
long far margin of the land. Though there were land and sea and air, the
land no foot could tread, no creature swim the sea, the air was
lightless; nothing kept its form, all objects were at odds, since in one
mass cold essence fought with hot, and moist with dry, and hard with soft
and light with things of weight. This strife a Deus (God) [the elder Eros
or Khronos?], with nature’s blessing, solved; who severed land from sky
and sea from land, and from the denser vapours set apart the ethereal
sky; and, each from the blind heap resolved and freed, he fastened in its
place appropriate in peace and harmony. The fiery weightless force of
heaven’s vault [Ouranos] flashed up and claimed the topmost citadel; next
came the air in lightness and in place; the thicker earth with grosser
elements sank burdened by its weight; lowest and last the girdling waters
pent the solid globe. So into shape whatever god it was reduced the
primal matter and prescribed its several parts. Then first, to make the
earth even on every side, he rounded it into a mighty disc, then bade the
sea extend and rise under the rushing winds, and gird the shores of the
encircled earth . . . Scarce had he thus all things in finite bounds
divided when the Sidera (Stars), in darkness blind long buried, over all
the spangled sky began to gleam; and, that no part or place should lack
fit forms of life, the firmament he made the home of gods and goddesses
and the bright constellations; in the sea he set the shining fish to
swim; the land received the beasts, the gusty air the birds."
Ovid,
Fasti5. 9 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"After Chaos, when the world acquired three elements and the whole
structure shifted to new forms, earth subsided with its weight and
dragged the seas [Pontos] down, but lightness lifted the heavens
[Ouranos] up high. The sun, too, jumped out, not chained by gravity, and
the stars, and you horses of the moon. Terra [Ge the Earth] for a long
time did not yield to Caelus [Ouranos the Heaven]. Nor Stars to Phoebus
[Helios the Sun]. All rank was equal."
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 27. 50 (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Gaia (Earth) produced Aither [or Ouranos the Sky] dotted with its
troop of stars." -
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 27.50
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 41. 82 ff :
"Before all Khthon (Earth) [Gaia], milling out from Helios (the Sun)
the shine of his newmade brightness upon her all-mothering breast . . .
Beroe [the first city] first shook away the cone of darkling mist, and
threw off the gloomy veil of Khaos (Air)."
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 29. 243 :
"Mother Gaia (Earth) unbegotten and self-delivered."
II) THE ORPHIC COSMOGONY
Aristophanes,
The Birds 685 (trans. O'Neill) (Greek comedy C5th to 4th B.C.) :
"At the beginning there was only Khaos (Air), Nyx (Night), dark
Erebos (Darkness), and deep Tartaros (Hell's Pit). Ge (Earth), Aer (Air)
[or Aither] and Ouranos (Heaven) had no existence . . . That of the
Immortals did not exist until Eros (Sexual Desire) had brought together
all the ingredients of the world, and from their marriage Ouranos
(Heaven), Okeanos (Ocean), Ge (Earth) and the imperishable race of
blessed gods (Theoi) sprang into being."
Orphica,
Rhapsodies Fragment 66 (trans. West) (Greek hymns C3rd A.D. - C2nd B.C.)
:
"Great Khronos fashioned from (or in) divine Aither a bright white
egg [the world egg from which Ouranos, Gaia and Phanes was born]."
Orphica,
Theogonies Fragment 54 (from Damascius) :
"Originally there was Hydros (Water), he [Orpheus] says, and Mud,
from which Ge (the Earth) solidified: he posits these two as first
principles, water and earth . . . The one before the two [Thesis],
however, he leaves unexpressed, his very silence being an intimation of
its ineffable nature. The third principle after the two was engendered by
these--Ge (Earth) and Hydros (Water), that is--and was a Serpent (Drakon)
with extra heads growing upon it of a bull and a lion, and a god’s
countenance in the middle; it had wings upon its shoulders, and its name
was Khronos (Unaging Time) and also Herakles. United with it was Ananke
(Inevitability, Compulsion) , being of the same nature, or Adrastea,
incorporeal, her arms extended throughout the universe and touching its
extremities. I think this stands for the third principle, occuping the place
of essence, only he [Orpheus] made it bisexual [as Phanes] to symbolize
the universal generative cause. And I assume that the theology of the
[Orphic] Rhapsodies discarded the two first principles (together with the
one before the two, that was left unspoken) [that is, the Orphics
discarded the concepts of Thesis, Khronos and Ananke], and began from
this third principle [Phanes] after the two, because this was the first
that was expressible and acceptable to human ears. For this is the great
Khronos (Unaging Time) that we found in it [the Rhapsodies], the father
of Aither and Khaos. Indeed, in this theology too [the Hieronyman], this
Khronos (Time), the serpent has offspring, three in number: moist Aither
(Light) (I quote), unbounded Khaos (Air), and as a third, misty Erebos
(Darkness) . . . Among these, he says, Khronos (Time) generated an
egg--this tradition too making it generated by Khronos, and born ‘among’
these because it is from these that the third Intelligible triad is
produced [Protogonos-Phanes]. What is this triad, then? The egg; the dyad
of the two natures inside it (male and female) [Ouranos, heaven, and
Gaia, earth], and the plurality of the various seeds between; and thirdly
an incorporeal god with golden wings on his shoulders, bulls’ heads
growing upon his flanks, and on his head a monstrous serpent, presenting
the appearance of all kinds of animal forms . . . And the third god of
the third triad this theology too celebrates as Protogonos (First-Born)
[Phanes], and it calls him Zeus the order of all and of the whole world,
wherefore he is also called Pan (All). So much this second genealogy
supplies concerning the Intelligible principles."
Orphica,
Theogonies Fragment 57 (from Athenogoras) :
"The gods, as they [the Greeks] say, did not exist from the
beginning, but each of them was born just as we are born. And this is
agreed by them all, Homer saying `Okeanos the genesis of the gods, and
mother Tethys [Thesis]’, and Orpheus - who was the original inventor of
the gods’ names and recounted their births and said what they have all
done, and who enjoys some credit among them as a true theologian, and is
generally followed by Homer, above all about the gods - also making their
first genesis from water : `Okeanos, who is the genesis of the all’. For
Hydros (Water) was according to him the origin of everything, and from
Hydros (the Water) Mud formed [primeval Gaia], and from the pair of them
a living creature was generated with an extra head growing upon it of a
lion, and another of a bull, and in the middle of them a god’s
countenance; its name was Herakles and Khronos (Time). This Herakles
generated a huge egg [which formed the earth, sea and sky]."
Orphica,
Theogonies Fragment 57 (from Athenogoras) :
"Khronos (Time) , , , [also called] Herakles generated a huge egg,
which, being filled full, by the force of its engenderer was broken in
two from friction. Its crown became Ouranos (Heaven), and what had sunk
downwards, Gaia (Earth). There also came forth an incorporeal god [Phanes
or primeval Eros]."
Orphica,
Epicuras Fragment (from Epiphanius) :
"And he [Epicurus] says that the world began in the likeness of an
egg, and the Wind [the entwined forms of Khronos (Time) and Ananke
(Inevitability)?] encircling the egg serpent-fashion like a wreath or a belt
then began to constrict nature. As it tried to squeeze all the matter
with greater force, it divided the world into the two hemispheres
[Ouranos heaven and Gaia earth]."
GAIA, THE TITANES & THE CASTRATION OF
OURANOS
Hesiod,
Theogony 126 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"And Gaia first bare starry Ouranos (Heaven), equal to herself, to
cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the
blessed gods . . . But afterwards she [Gaia] lay with Ouranos and bare
deep-swirling Okeanos, Koios and Krios and Hyperion and Iapetos, Theia
and Rheia, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoibe and lovely
Tethys. After them was born Kronos the wily, youngest and most terrible
of her children, and he hated his lusty sire. And again, she bare the
Kyklopes, overbearing in spirit, Brontes, and Steropes and
stubborn-hearted Arges.
And again, three other sons were born of Gaia and Ouranos, great and
doughty beyond telling, Kottos and Briareos and Gyes [the
Hekatonkheires]. From their shoulders sprang a hundred arms, not to be
approached, and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their strong
limbs, and irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in their great
forms. For of all the children that were born of Gaia and Ouranos, these
were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the
first. And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Gaia so
soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the
light: and Ouranos rejoiced in his evil doing.
But vast Gaia (Earth) groaned within, being straitened, and she made the
element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her
dear sons. And she spoke, cheering them, while she was vexed in her dear
heart : `My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you will obey me, we
should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first thought of
doing shameful things.'
So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of them uttered a word.
But great Kronos the wily took courage and answered his dear mother :
`Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I reverence not our father
of evil name, for he first thought of doing shameful things.'
So he said : and vast Gaia rejoiced greatly in spirit, and set and hid
him in an ambush, and put in his hands a jagged sickle, and revealed to
him the whole plot. And Ouranos came, bringing on night and longing for
love, and he lay about Gaia spreading himself full upon her. Then the son
from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his right took the
great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped off his own
father's members and cast them away to fall behind him.
And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that
gushed forth Gaia received, and as the seasons moved round she bare the
strong Erinyes and the great Gigantes with gleaming armour, holding long
spears in their hands and the Nymphai whom they call Meliai [Of Honey, or
Of Ash-Trees] all over the boundless earth."
Hesiod,
Theogony 43 ff :
"And they [Mousai] uttering their immortal voice, celebrate in song
first of all the reverend race of the gods from the beginning, those whom
Gaia (Earth) and wide Ouranos (Heaven) begot [the Titanes], and the gods
sprung of these, givers of good things."
Hesiod,
Theogony 617 ff :
"But when first their father [Ouranos] was vexed in his heart with
[the Hekatonkheires] Obriareus and Kottos and Gyes, he bound them in
cruel bonds . . . and he made them live beneath the wide-pathed earth,
where they were afflicted, being set to dwell under the ground, at the
end of the earth, at its great borders, in bitter anguish for a long time
and with great grief at heart."
Eumelus
of Corinth, Titanomachia Frag 1 (from Plotius) (trans. Evelyn-White)
(Greek Epic C8th B.C.) :
"The Epic Cycle begins with the fabled union of Ouranos (Sky) and Ge
(Earth), by which they make three Hekatontacheiroi (Hundred-handed) sons
and three Kyklopes to be born to him."
Aeschylus,
Prometheus Bound 207(trans. Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) :
"The Titanes, children of Ouranos (Heaven) and Khthon (Earth)."
Pseudo-Apollodorus,
Bibliotheca 1. 1 - 5 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Ouranos (Sky) was the first to rule over the entire world. He
married Ge (Earth) and sired first the Hekatonkheires, who were names
Briareos, Gyes and Kottos. They were unsurpassed in both size and power,
and each had a hundred hands and fifty heads. After these he sired the
Kyklopes, by name Arges, Steropes, and Brontes, each of whom had one eye
in his forehead. But Ouranos (Sky) bound these and threw them into
Tartaros (a place in Haides’ realm as dark as Erebos, and as far away
from the earth as the earth is from the sky), and fathered other sons on
Ge (Earth), namely the Titanes: Okeanos, Koios, Hyperion, Kreios,
Iapetos, and Kronos the youngest; also daughters called Titanides:
Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe, Dione, Theia.
Now Ge (Earth), distressed by the loss of her children into Tartaros,
persuaded the Titanes to attack their father, and she gave Kronos (Time)
a sickle made of adamant. So all of them except Okeanos set upon Ouranos
(Sky), and Kronos cut off his genitals, tossing them into the sea. (From
the drops of the flowing blood Erinyes were born, named Alekto,
Tisiphone, Megaira.) Thus having overthrown Ouranos’ (Sky's) rule the Titanes
retrieved their brothers from Tartaros and gave the power to
Kronos."
Diodorus
Siculus, Library of History 5. 66. 1 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian
C1st B.C.) :
"The Titanes numbered six men and five women, being born, as certain
writers of myths relate, of Ouranos (Sky) and Ge (Earth), but according
to others, of one of the Kouretes and Titaia, from whom as their mother
they derive the name they have. The males were Kronos, Hyperion, Koios,
Iapetos, Krios and Okeanos, and their sisters were Rhea, Themis,
Mnemosyne, Phoibe and Tethys [Diodorus omits Theia]."
Pseudo-Hyginus,
Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"From Aether [or Ouranos] and Terra [Gaia] [were born various
Daimones] . . .
[From Caelum-Ouranos and Terra-Gaia were born? :] Oceanus, Themis,
Tartarus, Pontus; and Titanes: Briareus, Gyes, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion
and Polus [Koios], Saturnus [Kronos], Ops [Rhea], Moneta [Mnemosyne],
Dione; and three Furiae, namely Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone."
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 27. 50 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Gaia (Earth) shall cover you up. Kronos (Time) himself . . . was
covered up in Gaia’s bosom [that is, trapped in Tartaros], son of Ouranos
though he was."
For MORE information on the castration of
Ouranos see KRONOS and OURANOS
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GAIA & THE WAR OF THE TITANES
Hesiod,
Theogony 462 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"[Kronos] learned from Gaia (Earth) and starry Ouranos (Heaven) that
he was destined to be overcome by his own son, strong though he was,
through the contriving of great Zeus.Therefore he kept no blind outlook,
but watched and swallowed down his children : and unceasing grief seized
Rhea. But when she was about to bear Zeus, the father of gods and men,
then she besought her own dear parents, Gaia and starry Ouranos, to
devise some plan with her that the birth of her dear child might be
concealed, and that retribution might overtake great, crafty Kronos for
his own father and also for the children whom he had swallowed down. And
they readily heard and obeyed their dear daughter, and told her all that
was destined to happen touching Kronos the king and his stout-hearted
son. So they sent her to Lyetus, to the rich land of Krete, when she was
ready to bear great Zeus, the youngest of her children. Him did vast Gaia
(Earth) receive from Rhea in wide Krete to nourish and to bring
up.Thither came Gaia carrying him swiftly through the black night to
Lyktos first, and took him in her arms and hid him in a remote cave
beneath the secret places of the holy earth on thick-wooded Mount
Aigaion; but to the mightily ruling son of Ouranos, the earlier king of
the gods, she gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then he
took it in his hands and thrust it down into his belly. . . . After that,
the strength and glorious limbs of the prince increased quickly, and as
the years rolled on, great Kronos the wily was beguiled by the deep
suggestions of Gaia, and brought up again his offspring . . . And he set
free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father [Kyklopes], sons
of Ouranos whom his father in his foolishness had bound. And they
remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder
and the glowing thunderbolt and lightening : for before that, huge Gaia
had hidden these."
Hesiod,
Theogony 617 ff :
"But when first their father [Ouranos] was vexed in his heart with
[the Hekatonkheires] Obriareus and Kottos and Gyes, he bound them in
cruel bonds . . . and he made them live beneath the wide-pathed earth,
where they were afflicted, being set to dwell under the ground, at the
end of the earth, at its great borders, in bitter anguish for a long time
and with great grief at heart. But [Zeus and his brothers] brought them
up again to the light at Gaia's advising. For she herself recounted all
things to the gods fully, how that with these they would gain
victory."
Hesiod,
Theogony 687 ff :
"[War of the Titanes] [Zeus] came forthwith, hurling his lightning:
the bold flew thick and fast from his strong hand together with thunder
and lightning, whirling an awesome flame. The life-giving earth crashed
around in burning, and the vast wood crackled loud with fire all about.
All the land (khthon) seethed . . . Astounding heat seized Khaos (the
Air): and to see with eyes and to hear the sound with ears it seemed even
as if Gaia (Earth) and wide Ouranos (Sky) above came together; for such a
mighty crash would have arisen if Gaia (Earth) were being hurled to ruin,
and Ouranos (Sky) from on high were hurling her down; so great a crash
was there while the gods were meeting together in strife."
Hesiod,
Theogony 881 ff :
"But when the blessed gods had finished their toil, and settled by
force their struggle for honours with the Titanes, they pressed
far-seeing Olympian Zeus to reign and to rule over them, by Gaia's
(Earth's) prompting. So he divided their dignities amongst them."
Aeschylus,
Prometheus Bound 206 ff (trans. Smyth) (Greek tragedy C5th B.C.) :
"I [the Titan Prometheus], although advising them for the best, was
unable to persuade the Titanes, children of Ouranos (Heaven) and Khthon
(Earth); but they, disdaining counsels of craft, in the pride of their
strength thought to gain the mastery without a struggle and by force.
Often my mother Themis, or Gaia (Earth) (though one form, she had many
names), had foretold to me the way in which the future was fated to come
to pass. That it was not by brute strength nor through violence, but by
guile that those who should gain the upper hand were destined to prevail.
And though I argued all this to them, they did not pay any attention to
my words."
Pseudo-Apollodorus,
Bibliotheca 1. 6 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"But Kronos [after deposing Ouranos] once again bound the Kyklopes
and confined them in Tartaros. He then married his sister Rhea. Because
both Ge (Earth) and Ouranos (Heaven) had given him prophetic warning that
his rule would be overthrown by a son of his own, he took to swallowing
his children at birth . . . Zeus fought a war against Kronos and the
Titanes. After ten years of fighting Ge prophesied a victory for Zeus if
he were to secure the prisoners down in Tartaros as his allies. He thereupon
slew their jail-keeper Kampe, and freed them from their bonds."
Ovid,
Fasti 3. 793 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Saturnus [Kronos] was thrust from his realm by Jove [Zeus]. In
anger he stirs the mighty Titanes to arms and seeks the assistance owed
by fate. There was a shocking monster born of Mother Terra (Earth)
[Gaia], a bull, whose back half was a serpent. Roaring Styx [as an ally
of Zeus] imprisoned it, warned by the three Parcae [Moirai the Fates], in
a black grove with a triple wall. Whoever fed the bull’s guts to
consuming flames was destined to defeat the eternal gods."
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 6. 155 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"After the first Dionysos [Zagreus] had been slaughtered [by the
Titanes], Father Zeus . . . attacked the mother of the Titanes [Gaia the
Earth] with avenging brand, and shut up the murderers of horned Dionysos
within the gate of Tartaros [after a long war]: the trees blazed, the
hair of suffering Gaia (Earth) was scorched with heat. He kindled the
East: the dawnlands of Baktria blazed under blazing bolts, the Assyrian
waves est afirethe neighbouring Kaspion Sea and the Indian mountains, the
Red Sea rolled billows of flame and warmed Arabian Nereus. The opposite
West also fiery Zeus blasted with the thunderbolt in love for his child;
and under the foot of Zephyros the western brine half-burn spat out a
shining stream; the Northern ridges - even the surface of the frozen
Northern Sea bubbled and burned: under the clime of snowy Aigokeros the
Southern corner boiled with hotter sparks.
Now Okeanos poured rivers of tears from his watery eyes, a libation of
suppliant prayer. Then Zeus clamed his wrath at the sight of the scorched
earth; he pitied her, and wished to wash with water the ashes of ruin and
the fiery wounds of the land. Then Rainy Zeus covered the whole sky with
clouds and flooded all the earth [in the flood of Deukalion]."
For MORE information on the War of the
Titanes see KRONOS and the TITANES
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GAIA & THE WAR OF THE GIGANTES
The ancients barely distinguished between the
War of the Titanes and the War of the Gigantes. The immortal Titanes
sometimes appear as leaders of the Gigante-troops.
Hesiod,
Theogony 819 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"But when Zeus had driven the Titanes from heaven, huge Gaia (Earth)
bare her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartaros (the Pit), by
the aid of golden Aphrodite [sexual desire]."
Pseudo-Apollodorus,
Bibliotheca 1. 34 - 39 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Now because of her anger over the Titanes, Ge (Earth) gave birth to
the Gigantes, Ouranos (Heaven) was the father . . . Now there was an
oracle among the gods that they themselves would not be able to destroy
any of the Gigantes, but would finish them off only with the help of some
mortal ally. When Ge learned of this, she sought a drug that would
prevent their destruction even by mortal hands. But Zeus barred the
appearance of Eos (the Dawn), Selene (the Moon), and Helios (the Sun),
and chopped up the drug himself before Ge could find it . . . The defeat
of the Gigantes by the gods angered Ge all the more, so she had
intercourse with Tartaros and bore Typhoeus in Kilikia."
Apollonius
Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 38 ff (trans. Rieu) (Greek epic C3rd B.C.) :
"Like some monstrous offspring of the ogre Typhoeus or of Gaia
(Earth) herself, the kind he used to bear in the old days of her quarrel
with Zeus."
Apollonius
Rhodius, Argonautica 2. 1206 ff :
"[Argos addresses his fellow Argonauts :] `It would be no easy thing
to take the fleece without permission of Aeetes, guarded as it is from
every side by such a serpent, a deathless and unsleeping beast, offspring
of Gaia herself. She brought him forth on the slopes of Kaukasos by the
rock of Typhaon. It was there, they say, that Typhaon, when he had
offered violence to Zeus and been struck by his thunder-bolt, dropped
warm blood from his head.'"
Athenaeus,
Deipnosophistae 78a (trans. Gullick) (Greek rhetorician C2nd to C3rd
A.D.) :
"Sykeus, one of the Titanes [or Gigantes], was pursued by Zeus and
taken under the protection of his mother, Ge (Earth), and that she caused
the plant [the fig-tree] to grow for her son’s pleasure."
Strabo,
Geography 7. 1. 5 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st
A.D.) :
"Leuka [in Italia] is a small town, and in it is to be seen a
fountain of malodorous water; the mythical story is told that those of
the Gigantes who survived at the Kampanian Phlegra and are called the
Leuternian Gigantes were driven out by Herakles, and on fleeing hither
for refuge were shrouded by Mother Ge (Earth), and the fountain gets its
malodorous stream from the ichor of their bodies."
Pseudo-Hyginus,
Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"From Terra (Earth) and Tartarus [were born], Gigantes: Enceladus,
Coeus, elentes, mophius, Astreaus, Pelorus, Pallas, Emphytus, Rhoecus,
ienios, Agrius, alemone, Ephialtes, Eurytus, effracorydon, Theomises,
Theodamas, Otus, Typhon, Polybotes, menephriarus, abesus, colophonus,
Iapetus."
Hyginus,
Fabulae 152 :
"Tartarus begat by Tartara [Gaia], Typhon, a creature of immense
size and fearful shape, who had a hundred Draco heads springing from his
shoulders. He challenged Jove [Zeus] to see if Jove would content with
him for the rule. Jove struck his breast with a flaming thunderbolt. When
it was burning him he put Mount Etna, which is in Sicily, over him. From
this it is said to burn still."
Ovid,
Metamorphoses 1. 156 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st
A.D.) :
"Gigantes, it’s said, to win the gods’ domain, mountain on mountain
reared and reached the stars. Then the Pater Omnipotens (Almighty Father)
hurled his bolt and shattered great Olympus and struck down high Pelion
piled on Ossa. There they lay, grim broken bodies crushed in huge
collapse, and Terra (Earth) [Gaia], drenched in her children’s weltering
blood, gave life to that warm gore; and to preserve memorial of her sons
refashioned it in human form [another Race of Man]. But that new stock no
less despised the gods and relished cruelty, bloodshed and outrage--born
beyond doubt of blood."
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 1. 154 & 1. 415 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"He [Zeus] laid his celestial weapons well hidden with his lightning
in a deep cavern [while he lay with his lover Plouto]. From underground
the thunderbolts belched out smoke, the white cliff was blackened; hidden
sparks from a fire-barbed arrow heated the water-springs; torrents
boiling with foam and steam poured down the Mygdonian gorge, until it
boomed again. Then at a nod from his mother, the Earth [Gaia], Kilikian
Typhoeus stretched out his hands, and stole the snowy tools of Zeus, the
tools of fire . . . he [Typhon] leapt up [on hearing the music of Kadmos’
pipes] and dragged along his viperish feet; he left in a cave the flaming
weapons of Zeus with Mother Gaia (Earth) to keep them."
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 2. 540 ff :
"Now as the son [Typhoeus in his battle against Zeus] was scourged
with frozen volleys of jagged hailstones, his mother dry Gaia (Earth) was
beaten too; and seeing the stone bullets and icy points embedded in the
Gigante’s flesh, the witness of his fate, she prayed to Titan Helios
(Sun) with submissive voice: she begged of him one red hot ray, that with
its heating fire she might melt the petrified water of Zeus, by pouring
his kindred radiance over frozen Typhon. She herself melted along with
his bruised body; and when she saw his legion of high-clambering hands
burnt all round, she besought one of the tempestuous winter’s blasts to
come for one morning, that he might quench Typhon’s overpowering thirst
by his cool breezes. Then Kronion inclined the equally balanced beam of
the fight. But Gaia his mother had thrown off her veil of forests with
her hand, and just then was grieving to behold Typhaon’s smoking heads.
While his faces were shrivelling, the Gigante’s knees gave way beneath
him; the trumpet of Zeus brayed, foretelling victory with a roll of
thunder; down fell Typhoeus’s high-uplifted frame, drunk with the fiery
bolt from heaven, stricken with a war-wound of something more than steel,
and lay with his back upon Gaia (Earth) his mother, stretching his snaky
limbs in the dust and belching flame."
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 2. 636 ff :
"[Typhoeus lay defeated at the feet of Zeus :] Gaia tore her rocky
tunic and lay there grieving; instead of the shears of mourning, she let
the winds beat her breast and shear off a coppice for a curl; so she cut
the tresses from her forest-covered head as in the month of
leaf-shedding, she tore gullies in her cheeks; Gaia wailed, as her
river-tears rolled echoing through the swollen torrents of the
hills."
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 48. 6 :
"[Hera] addressed her deceitful prayers to Allmother Gaia (Earth),
drying out upon the doings of Zeus and the valour of Dionysos, who had
destroyed that cloud of numberless earthborn Indians; and when the
lifebringing mother heard that the son of Semele had wiped out the Indian
nation with speedy fate, she groaned still more thinking of her children.
Then she armed all around Bakkhos the mountainranging tribes of Gigantes,
Earth’s own brood, and goaded her own sons to battle : `My sons, make
your attack with hightowering rocks against clustergarlanded
Dionysos--catch this Indianslayer, this destroyer of my family, this son
of Zeus, and let me not see him ruling with Zeus a bastard monarch of
Olympos! Bind him, bind Bakkhos fast, that he may attend in the chamber
when I bestow Hebe on Porphyrion as a wife, and give Kythereia
[Aphrodite] to Khthonios, when I sing Brighteyes [Athene] the bedfellow
of Enkelados, and Artemis of Alkyoneus. Bring Dionysos to me, that I may
enrage Kronion [Zeus] when he sees Lyaios a slave and the captive of my
spear. Or wound him with cutting steel and kill him for me like Zagreus,
that one may say, god or mortal, that Gaia in her anger has twice armed
her slayers against the breed of Kronides--the older Titanes against the
former Dionysos [Zagreus], the younger Gigantes against Dionysos later
born.’
With these words she excited all the host of the Gigantes, and the
battalions of the Gegenees (Earthborn) set forth to war."
For MORE information on the War of the
Giants see the HEKA-GIGANTES
For MORE information on the monster Typhoeus see TYPHOEUS
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R43.2 GAIA,
ENKELADOS, ATHENA
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Hesiod,
Theogony 233 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"And Pontos (Sea) begat Nereus . . . And yet again he got great
Thaumas and proud Phorkys, being mated with Gaia (Earth), and
fair-cheeked Keto and Eurybia."
Pseudo-Apollodorus,
Bibliotheca 1. 10 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"The children of Pontos and Ge were Phorkos, Thaumas, Nereus,
Eurybia, and Keto."
Pseudo-Hyginus,
Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"From Pontus (Sea) and Terra (Earth) [were born] : Thaumas,
tusciuersus, cepheus."
GAIA MOTHER OF RUSTIC-GODS
I) KORYBANTES, DAKTYLOI & KABEIROI Rustic Gods
Hesiod,
Theogony 176 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"Then the son [Kronos] from his ambush stretched forth his left hand
and in his right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and
swiftly lopped off his own father's [Ouranos'] members and cast them away
to fall behind him. And not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all
the bloody drops that gushed forth Gaia received, and as the seasons
moved round she bare the strong Erinyes and the great Gigantes with gleaming
armour [probably the Kouretes] and the Nymphai whom they call Meliai
[probably the honey-nymph nurses of Zeus] all over the boundless
earth."
Greek
Lyric V Anonymous, Fragments 985 (from Hippolytus, Refutation of all the
Heresies) (trans. Campbell) (Greek lyric B.C.) :
"Ge (Earth), say the Greeks, was the first to produce man . . But it
is hard to discover whether . . the first of men to appear . . were the
Idaian Kouretes, divine race, or the Phrygian Korybantes that the sun
first saw shooting up tree-like . . or Lemnos to Kabeiros, fair
offspring, in secret rites."
Strabo,
Geography 10. 3. 19 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st
A.D.) :
"And the author of Phoronis speaks of the Kouretes . . . as
'earth-born."
Diodorus
Siculus, Library of History 5. 65. 1 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian
C1st B.C.) :
"Nine Kouretes. Some writers of myths relate that these gods were
born of Gaia (the Earth)."
Ovid,
Metamorphoses 4. 282 (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st
A.D.) :
"The Curetes, sprung from a sharp shower [of rain]."
[N.B. The Kouretes are perhaps here described as being sprung from the
bloody shower of rain that fell upon the earth following the castration
of Ouranos.]
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 14. 23 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Daktyloi Idaioi, dwellers on a rocky crag, earthborn Korybantes, a
generation which grew up for Rheia selfmade out of the ground in the
olden time."
II) SEILENOS Rustic God
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 29. 243 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Seilenos, who himself sprang up out of mother Gaia (Earth) unbegotten
and self-delivered."
For MORE information on this god see SEILENOS
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III) ARISTAIOS
Rustic God
Bacchylides,
Fragment 45 (from Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes) (trans. Campbell,
Vol. Greek Lyric IV) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"Some authorities give the parentage of four gods called Aristaios,
as Bacchylides does: one the son of Karystos [son of Khiron], another the
son of Khiron, another the son of Ge and Ouranos, and one the son of
Kyrene."
For MORE information on this god see ARISTAIOS
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IV) KENTAUROI KYPRIOI
Fertility Spirits
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 14. 193 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"Another tribe of twiform Kentauroi . . . the Kyprian (of Cyprus).
One when Kypris [Aphrodite] fled like the wind from the pursuit of her
lascivious father [Zeus], that she might not see an unhallowed bedfellow
in her own begetter, Zeus the Father gave up the chase and left the union
unattempted, because unwilling Aphrodite was too fast and he could not
catch her: instead of the Kypris’ bed, he dropt on the ground the
love-shower of seed from the generative plow. Gaia (Earth) received
Kronion’s fruitful dew, and shot up a strange-looking horned
generation."
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 32. 65 :
"I [Zeus] desired the Paphian [Aphrodite], for whose sake I dropt
seed in the furrow of the plowland and begat the Kentauroi."
V) AITNA Mountain Goddess
Simonides,
Fragment 52 (from Scholiast on Theocritus 1. 65) (trans. Campbell, Vol.
Greek Lyric III) (Greek lyric C6th - 5th B.C.) :
"Aitna is a mountain in Sikelia (Sicily), named after Aitna,
daughter of Ouranos (Heaven) and Ge (Earth), according to Alkimos in his
work on Sikelia (Sicily)."
For MORE information on this goddess see AITNA
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GAIA MOTHER OF DAIMONES (SPIRITS)
Pseudo-Hyginus,
Preface (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"From Aether and Terra (Earth) [Gaia] [were born] : Dolor (Grief),
Dolus (Deceit), Ira (Wrath), Luctus (Lamentation), Mendacium (Falsehood),
Jusiurandum (Oath), Vltio (Vengeance), Intemperantia (Intemperance),
Altercatio (Altercation), Obliuio (Forgetfulness), Socordia (Sloth),
Timor (Fear), Superbia (Pride), Incestum (Incest), Pugna (Combat).
[From Caelum-Ouranos and Terra-Gaia? :] Oceanus, Themis, Tartarus,
Pontus; and Titanes : Briareus, Gyes, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion and Polus
[Koios], Saturnus [Kronos], Ops [Rhea], Moneta [Mnemosyne], Dione; and
three Furiae, namely Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone."
Virgil,
Aeneid 4. 174 (trans. Day-Lewis) (Roman epic C1st B.C.) :
"Fama (Rumour), the swiftest traveller of all the ills on earth,
thriving on movement, gathering strength as it goes; at the start a small
and cowardly thing, it soon puffs itself up, and walking upon the ground,
buries its head in the cloud base. The legend is that enraged with the
gods, Terra [Gaia] produced this creature her last child, as a sister to
Enceladus and Coeus--a swift-footed creature, a winged angel of ruin, a
terrible grotesque monster, each feather upon whose body--incredible
though it sounds--has a sleepless eye beneath it, and for every eye she
has also a tongue, a voice, and a pricked ear."
- Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th-7th B.C.
- The Homeric Hymns - Greek Epic C8th-4th B.C.
- Greek Lyric III Simonides, Fragments - Greek Lyric C6th-5th
B.C.
- Greek Lyric IV Bacchylides, Fragments - Greek Lyric C5th B.C.
- Greek Lyric V Anonymous, Fragments - Greek Lyric B.C.
- Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound - Greek Tragedy C5th B.C.
- Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd
A.D.
- Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd B.C.
- Aristophanes, Birds - Greek Comedy C5th-4th
B.C.
- Orphic Fragments - Greek Hymns B.C.
- Strabo, Geography - Greek Geography C1st B.C.
- C1st A.D.
- Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History
- Greek History C1st B.C.
- Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae - Greek Cullinary Guide
C3rd A.D.
- Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd
A.D.
- Virgil, Aeneid - Latin Epic C1st B.C.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st B.C. -
C1st A.D.
- Ovid, Fasti - Latin Epic C1st B.C. -
C1st A.D.
- Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th A.D.
Other
references not currently quoted here: Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman
Antiquities 1.27.1; Philostratus Life of Apollonius of Tyana 6.39;
Thucydides 2.15, et. al.
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