TERRA MADRE. – The concept of T. M., that is, of the earth as the origin and mother of all things, is found widespread both among various primitive peoples and in the pagan religions of antiquity.
T. M. has its more or less perfect counterpart in the concept of the “Father Sky,” that is, of the sky as the origin and father of everything, as is in fact found, for example, in the ancient religions belonging to the so-called Indo-European stock, of which Iupiter is the clearest evidence.
Generally speaking, one may say that whereas the concept of the Father Sky seeks to reflect civilizations of a patriarchal type, that of T. M. indicates, instead, a matriarchal civilization. It must nevertheless be added that, just as in each of these two types of civilization the other necessarily coexists as well, so in religions the worship of M. T. is associated, more or less evidently, with that of the Father Sky (sometimes replaced by the Sun), and vice versa.
In archaic Greek mythology, Gaia (= Earth), together with Uranus, appears as the progenitor of the primordial beings (Hesiod, Theogonia, 116–54), and in the Homeric hymn she is
called the mother of all gods and human beings (v. 31). Nevertheless, even in archaic Greek religion, she never possessed the clearly defined characteristics of a divinity and, apart from certain oracles (v. 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 (Kybele) and of Crete (Rhea), and as a result of the spread of the Mysteries, T. M. enjoyed considerable favor in popular cults, where she was venerated under the names of various female divinities. Among these, who were originally venerated together with Gaia but later separated from her, carrying with them her mythical and cultic elements, the foremost place belongs to Demeter (= T. M.), with her numerous epithets (such as καρποφάγος, κουροτράγος, γλόη, etc.) denoting her character as the progenitor of human beings and of nature; and to her daughter Kora (originally a single figure with her mother), whose abduction by Pluto was intended precisely to signify the death of vegetation until the return of the Mother Goddess of nature. This latter motif was ancient and already widespread in the Sumerian-Babylonian world, where, while the goddess Innini-Istar descended to the Underworld, life above risked remaining suspended. A very important aspect of Gaia is that of being the prophetess par excellence (Aeschylus calls her πριστόμαντες: Eumen., 2); indeed, archaic oracles sacred to her are found almost everywhere in the Greek world: at Dodona (together with Zeus), at Delphi, and at Olympia, where over time she was replaced by other divinities such as Themis, Phoibe, etc.
At Rome, T. M. in the earliest period was venerated chiefly under the name “Tellus Mater” and associated with Iupiter, the Father Sky. Tellus Mater soon became associated with various divinities possessing analogous attributes, such as Flora and Dea Dia, but above all with Ceres (Ceres), together with whom she was often venerated in particular ceremonies, for example: the Feriae sementivae (celebrated after the sowing), in which a pregnant sow was sacrificed to the two divinities (Ovid, Fasti, I, 673); the Fordicidia (v.) of 15 Apr., which, although sacred to Tellus, formed part of a cycle of festivals in which the Cerealia were also celebrated: during them 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 Cereri, etc.” Tellus, moreover, like Demeter in Greece, was connected with the subterranean world and the Manes, and was also invoked in wedding ceremonies. Only one temple was erected at Rome in honor of Tellus Mater (in 268 B.C., by the consul P. Sempronius). – Vedi tav. CXLIII.
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