Myths of the Planets Page 3

Earth

Earth (Gaia in Greek) is one of the three primaeval entities which appeared from Chaos, the great void, at the beginning of time, along with Tartaros, the underworld, and Eros, sexual love. In addition Chaos produced Darkness and Night and Night went on to produce directly or indirectly all the abstractions such as Day, Light, Doom, Death, Sleep, Dreams, Misery, Retribution, and Tenderness. Gaia gave birth to Ouranos who then mated with Gaia to produce the race of immortal beings, the Titans. They in turn mated with one another and with Gaia to produce all the later beings, mortal and immortal. She also produced two sets of monsters, the Hundred-handers, grotesque giants with fifty heads and a hundred arms, and the one-eyed Cyclops, who forged the thunderbolts. After the castration of Ouranos (see Venus) his sperm spread over Gaia and she produced the Furies (Goddesses of Retribution), the Giants (monsters of incredible strength), and the Meliads. Unlike so many creations to that point, the Meliads and other nymphs were delightful female beings who were long-lived but not immortal and each was associated with a tree and when the nymph died so did her tree.

Thus was Gaia the Mother of all future life.

Mars

Mars (Ares to the Greeks) is the son of Jupiter (Zeus) and his sister and wife, Juno (Hera). Although Mars and Ares are considered to be the same entity and God of War, they are treated quite differently in the two traditions. To the Greeks, Ares was a minor god, but to the Romans Mars was second only to Jupiter in importance. In both traditions, he was the god of violent warfare─bloodlust, cruelty, and slaughter, enjoyed for their own sake. This contrasts with Athene (Minerva to the Romans) who sponsored the rational use of war to protect a community. Ares was generally disliked by everyone, gods and mortals alike, except for Aphrodite who was his long-term lover and who gave him children including the twins Phobos (Terror) and Deimos (Fear) who used to accompany their father into battle. Mars was not a faithful lover and mated with a mortal Vestal Virgin named Rhea Silvia who bore him twin sons, Romulus and Remus. Rhea Silvia’s uncle, who had deposed her father as King of Alba Longa, was furious and caste Rhea Silvia into prison and ordered the babies thrown into the river Tiber. They were rescued and suckled by a she-wolf and fed scraps by a woodpecker (both animals sacred to Mars) until rescued and adopted by the Royal Shepherd. They grew up to become leaders of men and went on the found the city of Rome at the place on the Tiber where they had been thrown to drown.

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