The gate of the year

Figure above:

Stone relief from the temple of Artemis at Corfu (VI century B.C.), now in the Archaeological Museum, Corfu, Greece. The image shows one of the rare representations of the goddess of the Earth, Gaia. According to Hesiod’s narrative (Theogony, 116-120), “broad-breasted” Gaia was part of the primordial beings emerged from Chaos, together with Tartarus (the subterranean abyss) and Eros (the generative principle). The Earth on her turn engendered Uranus (the Sky) and Pontus (the Sea). In intercourse with Uranus, she gave birth to a long series of offspring, like the Cyclopes, the Hekatonkheires (Giants with one-hundred arms), the Titans and the Mountains. But Uranus hated his own children and kept them imprisoned into the interior of the Earth. Gaia, to liberate them, took from her own entrails the iron ore, with which she made a sickle giving it to her son, Cronus. The latter, with this weapon, emasculated his father Uranus in the moment in which he was approaching the Earth: from the drops of blood which fell on the Earth were generated the Erinyes (the deities of vengeance) and the Giants, while from the blood fallen into the sea and mixed with foam was born the goddess Aphrodite.

[Source: http://library.artstor.org/library/]

Figure below:

Detail of a sarcophagus of Roman Imperial age (260-270 A.D.), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The image shows the Earth goddess, at the foot of a tree, holding a cornucopia full of fruits. The decoration of the sarcophagus represents the triumph of Dionysus, surrounded by the four seasons. In the Roman world, particular veneration was devoted to the Earth goddess, called Tellus, who was regarded as bestower of life and founder of the Roman ritual usage to lay the newly born children on the earth. In the Hellenistic and Roman ages the goddess was frequently represented laying on the ground, as a symbol of fertility, and as dispenser of the gifts of the earth, and often children were put beside her.

[Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarcophagus_Dionysos_Met_55.11.5_n08.jpg]




Female Symbols

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Figure above: Stone relief from the temple of Artemis at Corfu (VI century B.C.), now in the Archaeological Museum, Corfu, Greece. The image shows one of the rare representations of the goddess of the Earth, Gaia. According to Hesiod’s narrative (Theogony, 116-120), “broad-breasted” Gaia was part of the primordial beings emerged from Chaos, together with Tartarus (the subterranean abyss) and Eros (the generative principle). The Earth on her turn engendered Uranus (the Sky) and Pontus (the Sea). In intercourse with Uranus, she gave birth to a long series of offspring, like the Cyclopes, the Hekatonkheires (Giants with one-hundred arms), the Titans and the Mountains. But Uranus hated his own children and kept them imprisoned into the interior of the Earth. Gaia, to liberate them, took from her own entrails the iron ore, with which she made a sickle giving it to her son, Cronus. The latter, with this weapon, emasculated his father Uranus in the moment in which he was approaching the Earth: from the drops of blood which fell on the Earth were generated the Erinyes (the deities of vengeance) and the Giants, while from the blood fallen into the sea and mixed with foam was born the goddess Aphrodite. [Source: http://library.artstor.org/library/] Figure below: Detail of a sarcophagus of Roman Imperial age (260-270 A.D.), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The image shows the Earth goddess, at the foot of a tree, holding a cornucopia full of fruits. The decoration of the sarcophagus represents the triumph of Dionysus, surrounded by the four seasons. In the Roman world, particular veneration was devoted to the Earth goddess, called Tellus, who was regarded as bestower of life and founder of the Roman ritual usage to lay the newly born children on the earth. In the Hellenistic and Roman ages the goddess was frequently represented laying on the ground, as a symbol of fertility, and as dispenser of the gifts of the earth, and often children were put beside her. [Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarcophagus_Dionysos_Met_55.11.5_n08.jpg]