Earth

Family: Primordial gods · Role: goddess · First appears: Apollodorus, Library 1.1

🌐 Also appears in: Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Earth)

At the beginning, Hesiod places Earth beside Chaos, then has her bring forth Heaven and Pontus without union. “And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side”; afterwards she lay with Heaven and became parent to the Titans Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys, with Cronus born youngest. In Apollodorus, Sky wedded Earth and fathered with her the Hundred-handed Briareos, Gyes, and Cottus, the Cyclopes Arges, Steropes, and Brontes, and the same Titan children, including Dione.

When Sky hid their children away, Earth grieved and persuaded the Titans to attack him, giving Cronus an adamantine sickle. Later, she carried Zeus to Crete while Rhea deceived Cronus with a stone, and on Earth’s advice Zeus and the other gods brought Briareos, Cottus, and Gyes back into the light. Earth also prophesied victory to Zeus, whose rule was established after she prompted the gods to accept him and he divided their dignities. Her warning about Metis’ unborn son led Zeus to swallow her before Athena emerged from his head.

Earth later brought forth the giants Porphyrion and Alcyoneus among others by Sky, and, still enraged, had Typhon with Tartarus in Cilicia; Hesiod likewise names Typhoeus as her youngest child by Tartarus, with Aphrodite’s aid. With Pontus she was parent to Phorcys, Thaumas, Nereus, Eurybia, and Ceto, while other traditions name her as parent to Triptolemus by Oceanus and to Echidna with Tartarus.