Emerging directly from Chaos, Gaia is the primordial goddess, Mother Earth. Without the intervention of any element, by itself, gave birth to Uranus (the Sky), Pontus (the Sea) and the Oreos (the Mountains).

Of those children, the most important was Uranus, with which Gaia united to have the six titans and the six titanids who make up the first generation of gods with a human figure, as well as other creatures of rather monstrous appearance: the Cyclopsone-eyed giants, and the Hecatonchireswhose fifty heads and one hundred arms gave them a terrifying appearance. With them, precisely, the problems began.

Goddess Gaea and the world’s first revolution

Uranusashamed for having fathered such unattractive beings, decided to bury them deep in the Earth. Or, what is the same, return them to the bosom of their mother Gaea.

The goddess did not forgive himand not only because of the pain that those children caused him in his gut, but also because, despite their appearance, he loved them tenderly and considered it unfair that they were deprived of the light of the world.

For this reason decided to take revenge. His instrument was the least of the titans, Cronus, whom he provided with a sharp sickle and sent against Uranus.

Cronus, who had an atrocious hatred for his father, carried out his mother’s order and dethroned Uranusbut not before cutting off his virile attributes.

Gaia was fertilized by blood that sprang from that wound. Thus were born Erinyes (the goddesses of revenge), the brutal Giants and the Melias (the nymphs of the forests).

The revenge of the goddess Gaia

Gaea was not satisfied, because as soon as she saw Uranus (who was still her son and husband) wounded, she felt sorry for him. Besides, Cronus showed no desire to free his brothers. Cyclopes and Hecatonchires. As if all that were not enough, Cronus began to devour one after another the offspring that his wife and sister Rhea gave him.. All for fear that one of his sons would do to him the same thing that he had done to his father… Gea then decided to take revenge on that denaturalized son and father.

It was she who showed Rhea the way to save her sixth and last offspring, Zeusof her husband’s voracious appetite and the one who offered her a place to raise him safely.

When Zeus grew up, He overthrew Cronus and made his brothers vomit: Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Hera and Hestia.

The last son of Gea

Then a all-out war for dominion of the universe among the sons of Cronus, those who would later be known as olympic godsand the titans and titanids.

The war ended with the Olympic victorywho had the decisive help of the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires.

But, again, Gaea was not satisfied. The defeat of the titans had hurt him, so he prepared to take revenge on his grandchildren the Olympians. For this he joined Tartarus, the personification of the abysses of the Earth, and gave birth to the most unimaginable monster: Typhon. He was so tall that his head reached the stars, although the most frightening thing was the snakes that sprang from his entire body, the dragon heads that topped his fingers or the fire that emitted from his mouth and eyes.

Not without work, Zeus managed to defeat him and bury him under the Etna volcano.

That defeat of her last son seemed to calm Gaea. Or, at least, he no longer interfered in the reign of his grandchildren, the Olympians.

Goddess Gaia and the theft of the oracle

Despite its importance, Gaea was not an object of worship by the Greeks. However, the most important of the oracles of ancient Greece, the Oracle of Delphiwas originally dedicated to her. That’s how it was until Apollo killed his guardianthe snake Python, who was also the daughter of Gaia, and took over the place.