Gaia-Terra
Gaia is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (the sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans , the Cyclopes, and the Giants; of Pontus (the sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.
Gaia was the chief antagonist of the heavenly gods. First she rebelled against her husband Ouranos (Sky) who had imprisoned several of her giant-sons within her womb. Later when her son Kronos (Cronus) defied her by imprisoning these same sons, she sided with Zeus in his rebellion. Finally she came into conflict with Zeus for she was angered by his binding of her Titan-sons in Tartaros. She birthed a tribe of Gigantes (Giants) and later the monster Typhoeus to overthrow him, but both failed in their attempts.
Gaia-Terra Stamp Collection
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Greece 1968 Relief of Athena being crowned from behind by a winged Nike slaying the Gigante Alkyoneus from the Gigantomachy Frieze on the Pergamon Altar (early second century BC) .
Athena, the city goddess of Pergamon, breaks the Giant Alkyoneus’ contact to the earth, from which the mother of the Giants, Gaia, emerges. According to legend, Alkyoneus was immortal only as long as he touched the ground, where the power of his mother could flow through him.
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Greece 1972 Athena receives the baby Erichthonius from the hands of the earth mother Gaia in the presence of Cecrops, the mythical King of Athens - Terracotta, Berlin museum
According to the legend, Athena visited the smith-god Hephaestus to request some weapons, but Hephaestus tried to seduce her in his workshop. Athena fled, but Hephaestus caught her and tried to rape her, but she fought him off. During the struggle, his semen fell on her thigh, and Athena, in disgust, wiped it away with a scrap of wool and flung it to the earth. As she fled, Erichthonius was born from the semen. Athena, wishing to raise the child in secret, placed him in a small box.
Athena gave the box to the three daughters of Cecrops, the king of Athens, and warned them never to open it. Overcome with curiosity, they opened the box, which contained the infant and future-King, Erichthonius. The sisters were terrified by what they saw in the box: either a snake coiled around an infant, or an infant that was half-man and half-serpent. They went insane and threw themselves off the Acropolis.
Liechtenstein 1976 Erichthonius and the daughters of Cecrops by Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640)
Greece 1973 On a Hydria 540 BC - Typhon also Typhoeus was a monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology. According to Hesiod, Typhon was the son of Gaia and Tartarus. Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters. Typhon attempted to overthrow Zeus for the supremacy of the cosmos. The two fought a cataclysmic battle, which Zeus finally won with the aid of his thunderbolts. Defeated, Typhon was cast into Tartarus, or buried underneath Mount Etna, or the island of Ischia. Typhon mythology is part of the Greek succession myth, which explained how Zeus came to rule the gods.
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Tellus Mater or Terra Mater ("Mother Earth") is a goddess of the earth. Although Tellus and Terra are hardly distinguishable during the Imperial era, Tellus was the name of the original earth goddess in the religious practices of the Republic or earlier. The scholar Varro (1st century BC) lists Tellus as one of the di selecti, the twenty principal gods of Rome, and one of the twelve agricultural deities. She is regularly associated with Ceres in rituals pertaining to the earth and agricultural fertility.
Italy 1930 Relief of Tellus Panel, Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace) 9 B.C.E. Rome)
The panel depicts a scene of human fertility and natural abundance. Two babies sit on the lap of the seated female, tugging at her drapery. Surrounding the central female is the natural abundance of the lands and flanking her are the personifications of the land and sea breezes.
**In some catalogues and websites is written Ceres.
See remark on the left
Italy 1955 Sculpture of Tellus Panel, Ara Pacis Augustae and The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) building near the terme of Caracala
Austria 2009 The earth - Gaia in the Saliera - Salt Cellar
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The Saliera - Salt Cellar (created 1540 - 1543) is the unique existing goldwork of the Italian sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini (1500 – 1571); ordered by the French king Franz I.
The Salt Cellar was created in the Mannerist style of the late Renaissance and allegorically portrays Terra e Mare (Land and Sea). In Cellini's description, the sea was represented by a male figure (Neptune) reclining beside a ship for holding the salt; the earth (Gaia)he "fashioned like a woman" and placed a temple near her to serve as a receptacle for pepper. The salt cellar is made of ivory, rolled gold, and vitreous enamel. The gold is not cast in a mould but hammered by hand into its delicate shape. It stands about 26 cm tall. The base is about 33.5 cm wide and features bearings to roll it around.
Austria 1971 the Saliera - Salt Cellar of Cellini
Italy 2013 the Saliera - Salt Cellar of Cellini
Burundi 1973 Mercury and Terre for The 500th Anniversary of the Birth of Copernicus