Gaia ("land" or "earth", from the Ancient Greek)is the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth.
Gaia is a primordial and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess.
Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.
Family Tree
Gaia is the titan of Earth and these are her offspring as related in various myths.
- Through parthenogenesis
Uranus Is the Latinized form of Ouranos, the Greek word for sky. In Greek mythology Ouranos or Father Sky, is personified as the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth (Hesiod, Theogony).
the Titans were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. Their role as Elder Gods was overthrown by a race of younger gods, the Olympians, effected a mythological paradigm shift that the Greeks borrowed from the Ancient Near East.[1]
There are twelve Titans[2] from their first literary appearance, in Hesiod, Theogony; Pseudo-Apollodorus. The six male Titans are known as the Titanes, and the females as the Titanides ("Titanesses"). The Titans were associated with various primal concepts, some of which are simply extrapolated from their names: ocean and fruitful earth, sun and moon, memory and natural law. The twelve first-generation Titans were ruled by the youngest, Cronus (Saturn), who overthrew their father, Uranos ('Sky'), at the urgings of their mother, Gaia ('Earth').
Pontus, (English translation: "sea") was an ancient, pre-Olympian (Titan) sea-god, one of the protogenoi, the "first-born". Pontos was the son of Gaia, the Earth: Hesiod [1] says that Gaia brought forth Pontos out of herself, without coupling. For Hesiod, Pontos seems little more than a personification of the sea, ho pontos, "the Road", by which Hellenes signified the Mediterranean Sea.[2] With Gaia, he was the father of Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea), of Thaumas (the awe-striking "wonder" of the Sea, embodiment of the sea's dangerous aspects), of Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto, and of the "Strong Goddess" Eurybia.Cetus was a hideous sea monster, a daughter of Gaia and Pontus. She was the personification of the dangers of the sea, unknown terrors and bizarre creatures. Her name came from the neuter noun kētos, "sea monster", which gives us the term cetacean today. Her husband was Phorcys and they had many children, collectively known as the Phorcydes or Phorcydides. In Greek art, Cetus was drawn as a serpentine fish. Cetus also gave name to the constellation Cetus.
Phorcys, or Phorkys was one of the names of the "Old Man [or One] of the Sea", the primeval sea god, who, according to Hesiod, was the son of Pontus and Gaia.
the Phorcydes were the children of Phorcys and Ceto and include the Hesperides, the Graeae, the Gorgons, Scylla and other nymphs and monsters, mostly associated with the sea.
In classic mythology, below Heaven, Earth, and Pontus is Tartarus, or Tartaros (Greek Τάρταρος, deep place). It is a deep, gloomy place, a pit, or an abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering that resides beneath the underworld. In the Gorgias, Plato (c. 400 BC) wrote that souls were judged after death and those who received punishment were sent to Tartarus. As a place of punishment, it can be considered a hell. The classic Hades, on the other hand, is more similar to Old Testament Sheol.
Like other primal entities (such as the earth and time), Tartarus is also a primordial force or deity.
Consorts and children of Ceto:
Echidna (Greek: Ἔχιδνα, ekhis, ἔχις, meaning "she viper") was called the "Mother of All Monsters". Echidna was described by Hesiod as a female monster spawned in a cave, who mothered with her mate Typhoeus (or Typhon) every major horrible monster in the Greek myths
. . .her face and torso of a beautiful woman was depicted as winged in archaic vase-paintings, but always with the body of a serpent (see also Lamia). She is also sometimes described as having two serpent's tails.
Zeus allowed Echidna and her children to live as a challenge to future heroes.
Typhon is the final son of Gaia, fathered by Tartarus, and is the most deadly monster of Greek mythology. Typhon attempts to destroy Zeus at the will of Gaia, because Zeus had imprisoned the Titans. Typhon was described in pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke, as the largest and most fearsome of all creatures. His human upper half reached as high as the stars. His hands reached east and west and had a hundred dragon heads on each. His bottom half was gigantic viper coils that could reach the top of his head when stretched out and made a hissing noise. His whole body was covered in wings, and fire flashed from his eyes. He was defeated by Zeus, who trapped Typhon underneath Mount Etna.
Typhon and Echidna's offspring
The offspring of Typhon and Echidna were:
