Wide-Bosomed Earth and All-Seeing Sun
Hesiod’sTheogony(117) describes Earth as ‘‘the ever-sure foundation of all,’’ a divine
progenitor who also plays an instrumental role in bringing about the lasting rule of
Zeus. At first portrayed as the enemy of the status quo, she eventually comes
to support the hegemony of the Olympians. In the mythic imagination, Earth’s
primordial status and uncontrolled powers were necessarily superseded by a male-
dominated regime representing order and stability. The same idea is expressed in the
myth of Ge’s prominence at Delphi as the ‘‘previous owner’’ of the oracle (Aeschylus,
Eumenides1–4) inherited by Apollo. Scholars disagree on whether there is any
historical basis for Ge’s oracle, and the credulous acceptance of the myth as historical
fact has been strongly criticized (Sourvinou-Inwood 1991). While she had a temple at
Delphi, archaeological evidence is lacking for Ge’s cult there before the fifth century.
Yet oracles of Earth are not unknown. At Olympia, there was a similar tradition that
Gaea once possessed an oracle at the spot called Gaeus (Pausanias 5.14.10). Her
offerings there were made on an ash altar like that of Zeus which was doubtless very
old. Pausanias (7.25.8) visited another sanctuary called Gaeus in Aegae, where he saw
what he considered a very ancient wooden image of Ge, and noted that the priestess
was sworn to chastity. Pliny the Elder (Natural History28.147) adds that she drank
bull’s blood as an aid to prophecy, a practice also attested at Apollo’s Argive oracle.
While the Earth is often named Gaea in poetry, in cult she is usually given the more
prosaic name of Ge. Her cults were widespread yet never prominent at the civic level.
She is frequently worshiped with Zeus, a combination that reflects the age-old
partnership of sky-god and earth-goddess. Ge and Zeus Agoraeus were paired in
the agora of Sparta, and a special area was devoted to Ge within the sanctuary of Zeus
Olympius at Athens (Pausanias 3.11.9, 1.18.7). Here a small chasm was identified as
the place where water drained away after Deucalion’s flood, and honey cakes were
tossed into the chasm annually, perhaps during the Anthesteria. At Athens Ge was
sometimes identified with Curotrophus (nourisher of youths), a goddess who cus-
tomarily received preliminary offerings before sacrifice, yet the sacrificial calendars of
the deme Erchia and the Marathonian Tetrapolis, inscribed in the fourth century, list
Curotrophus and Ge separately. These village calendars provide us a glimpse of the
rural contexts in which Ge was typically worshiped. The Erchian calendar specifies
that on a certain day the nymphs, Achelous, Alochus (a birth goddess), and Hermes
will each receive a sheep, while Ge will receive a pregnant sheep. In the Tetrapolis
calendar, Ge is given a pregnant cow ‘‘in the fields’’ and a black ram ‘‘at the oracle
[manteion].’’ The offering of a pregnant animal has obvious symbolism, while a black
animal is standard for deities who are associated with the underworld.
Ge was depicted anthropomorphically, but never fit comfortably into the cadre of
Olympians or exhibited as distinct a personality as they did. Her dual ontological
status as ‘‘Earth’’ and ‘‘Earth goddess’’ hindered such development. Reflecting this
uncertainty, vase painters show her as a woman whose head and torso are rising from
the ground. In her cosmic aspect as one of the three great domains (heaven, earth,
and underworld), she appears in oaths. In theIliad(3.103, 276–80) she is invoked
with Zeus, Helius, the rivers, and the underworld deities to witness the oath attend-
ing the single combat of Paris and Menelaus. Two lambs, a white male and a black
Nature Deities 67