TERRA MADRE
The concept of Terra Madre (Earth Mother), namely the earth as the origin and mother of all things, is found widespread among various primitive peoples as well as in the pagan religions of antiquity.
Terra Madre has its more or less perfect counterpart in the concept of the "Cielo Padre" (Sky Father), namely the sky as the origin and father of all things, which is found, for instance, in the ancient religions belonging to the so-called Indo-European stock, of which Jupiter is a very evident example.
In general terms, it can be said that while the concept of the Sky Father reflects patriarchal civilizations, that of Terra Madre indicates, instead, matriarchal civilizations. It must be added, however, that just as in each of these two types of civilization the other necessarily coexists, so in religions the cult of the Terra Madre is associated, more or less evidently, with that of the Sky Father (sometimes replaced by the Sun), and vice versa.
In archaic Greek mythology (Earth), alongside Uranus, there appears the mother of primordial beings (Hesiod, *Theogony*, 116-54), and in the Homeric hymn she is called the mother of all gods and men (v. 31). Nevertheless, even in archaic Greek religion, she never had well-defined characteristics as a divinity, and, apart from some oracles (see below) of some importance, her places of worship were rare (Olympia, Tegea, Sparta, and Athens). Instead, especially under the influence of the religions of the Near East (Cybele) and of the Cretan (Rhea) and through the spread of the Mysteries, Terra Madre enjoyed considerable favor in popular cults, where she was venerated under the names of various female deities. Among these, which were originally venerated alongside Gaia but later separated from her, taking with them mythical and cultural elements, Demeter (= Terra Madre) is especially remembered, with numerous epithets (such as χαρασφόρος, χωροπρόσος, χλόη, etc.) denoting her character as the mother of men and of nature; and her daughter Kore (originally a single figure with the mother), whose abduction by Pluto was meant to signify the death of vegetation until the return of the Gaia, Mother of nature; this latter motif being ancient and widespread even in the Sumerian-Babylonian world, where, while the goddess Innini-Ishtar descended into the Underworld, above in the world life risked remaining suspended. A very important aspect of Gaia is that of being the preeminent prophetess (Aeschylus defines her πρωτομάντις: *Eumen.*, 2); indeed, archaic oracles and sacred lays are found in various places in the Greek world: at Dodona (alongside Zeus), at Delphi, at Olympia, in which locations she was later replaced by other deities such as Themis, Phoebe, etc.
At Rome, in the earliest age, Terra Madre was venerated mainly under the name of "Tellus Mater" and was associated with Jupiter, the Sky Father. Soon Tellus Mater became associated with various deities of analogous attributes such as Flora, Dea Dia, but especially with Ceres (Ceres), with whom she was often venerated in certain ceremonies, such as, for example: the *Feriae sementivae* (celebrated after sowing) in which a pregnant sow was sacrificed to the two deities (Ovid, *Fasti*, I, 673); the *Fordicidia* (see entry for April 15, which, although sacred to Tellus, were part of a cycle of festivals in which the *Cerealia* were also celebrated: the *Vestalis Maxima* burned the fetus of a cow and the ashes mixed with the blood of the October horse (*October equus*) were used in the celebration of the *Parilia*; the *Flamen cerealis* sacrificed: "Telluri et Cerei, etc."). Tellus, moreover, like Demeter in Greece, was connected with the underworld and the Manes, and was invoked even in wedding ceremonies. A single temple in Rome was erected in honor of Tellus Mater (in 268 BC by the consul P. Sempronius). – See plate CXLIII.