Who was this Gaia ? Ed
Gaia , the origin story
According to ancient Greek poet Hesiod , Gaia
was the very first god . Before her , there was only chaos , a swirling mass of nothing that existed before creation . There was no life before her . She was the origin of everything and all the gods were born from her .
Early on , she gave birth to Uranus , the sky god .
She then had more children ( lots of early gods ) with Uranus ( Eeerm , this bit sounds super weird , but I ’ ll go with it . Ed ). In addition to Uranus ’ children she continued to have many more on her own : Pontus ( the sea god ) and all the lesser sea gods were born from her alone , as were the giants and one-eyed Cyclopes .
It wasn ’ t a happy family though .
Go figure .
A giant rift
Uranus hated the giants who were their children , so he pushed them back inside Gaia . This hurt her and so she gave her youngest son , Kronos ( or Cronos ), a curved blade , a sickle made from flint from her own Earth body , to attack Uranus with . Kronos used the flint to separate Gaia and Uranus .
Sound familiar ?
This separation of the Earth and the sky is a common element of creation stories in many myths and religious scriptures :
• The ancient Sumerians , who wrote their stories thousands of years before the Greeks did , told of Ki ( Earth ) and An , the god of the sky , who were separated by their son , the god of the air , Enlil .
• In India , Gau ( or Gauri ) was the early Hindu Earth goddess . She too was joined to the sky god ( whom they called Dyaus ), but Gau was also the ‘ Cosmic Cow ’ ( That ’ s a bit rude , ed ). Actually this was a compliment describing her as the source of all life .
• That cow happens to sound very similar to an early Egyptian goddess , Hathor , who also gave life to all gods and creatures .
• The Polynesians also had a similar myth : a female Mother Earth who was once united with a Father Heaven …
FUN FACT TRUMPET The Polynesian Mother Earth is called Papatūānuku , which translates to mean : world separated .
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