![Gaea, terra-cotta statuette from Tanagra, Greece; in the Musée Borély, Marseille.[Credits : Giraudon/Art Resource, New York]](http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/43/11643-003-4C817535.gif)
Greek personification of the Earth as a goddess. Mother and wife of Uranus (Heaven), from whom the Titan Cronus, her last-born child by him, separated her, she was also mother of the other Titans, the Gigantes, the Erinyes, and the Cyclopes (see giant; Furies; Cyclops). Gaea may have been originally a mother goddess worshipped in Greece before the Hellenes introduced the cult of Zeus. Less widely worshipped in historic times, Gaea was described as the giver of dreams and the nourisher of plants and young children. Gaea is often shown as being present at the birth of Zeus, but in some legends she is his enemy because she is the mother of the giants and of the 100-headed monster Typhon.
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