Gaia
Gaia is known by many names including Earth, Mother Earth, land, and ground. She was an early earth goddess and it is written that Gaia was born from Chaos, the great void of emptiness within the universe, and with her came Eros. She gave birth to Pontus (the Sea) and Uranus (the Sky). This was achieved asexually. Other versions say that Gaia had as siblings Tartarus (the lowest part of the earth, below Hades itself) and Eros, and without a mate, gave birth to Uranus, Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus. Gaia took her son Uranus as her husband, and their offspring included the Titans, six sons and six daughters. She gave birth to the first generation of Cyclopes and to three monsters that are known as the "Hecatonchires". To protect her children from her husband, who hid them away in Tartarus out of fear of being overthown as king, she asked her youngest son Cronus to help her. She asked him to castrate Uranus, thus severing the union between the Earth and Sky, and also to prevent more monstrous offspring. To help Cronus achieve his goal Gaia produced an adamantine sickle to serve as the weapon. Cronus hid until Uranus came to lay with Gaia and as Uranus drew near, Cronus struck with the sickle, cutting the genitalia from Uranus. Blood fell from the severed genitals and came in contact with the earth and from that union was born the the Giants and the Meliae (Nymphs of the manna ash trees). After the separation of the Earth from the Sky, Gaia gave birth to other offspring, all being fathered by Pontus. Their names were Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto and Eurybia. In other versions Gaia had offspring to her brother Tartarus; they were Echidna and Typhon . It was Gaia who saved Zeus from being swallowed by Cronus duringhis dictating rule, after Zeus had been born, Gaia helped Rhea to wrap a stone in swaddling clothes, this was to trick Cronus in to thinking it was Zeus, because Cronus had been informed that one of his children would depose him, and so to get rid of his children he had swallowed them, Gaia's trick worked and Zeus was then taken to Crete.
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LAST MODIFIED MAY 10,2006
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