Some Approaches on the Great Godess Figure in Mythology and Visual Arts

Abstract

Greek mythology made the Earth a mother goddess, Geea or Gaia, the primordial deity who gave birth to all the other gods, and the concept is one of the most durable and consistent in the history of mankind, manifested in hundreds of variants, from Terra Mater of the Romans, to the mother goddesses - who personify the Earth, nature, fertility - present in the most varied cultures, spread in time and space. To think of the Earth as a superior entity, endowed with a life of its own, it is not specific only to ancient civilizations or the so-called neo-pagan cults, which are inspired by the ancient religions of nature. One of the most disturbing scientific theories on the biosphere is the one that conceives the Earth as a super-organism, capable of selfregulation, in order to ensure the right conditions life. The theory was developed by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulies in the 1970s and presented in the book Gaia: A New One perspective on life on Earth. But this is not the main subject of this paper, who has the purpose to give the readersan approach on some aspects of the Mother Godess in mythology with visual art representations.