page_title: Mother Nature
section_title: Greek myth
hierarchical_section_title: Mother Nature / European tradition history / Greek myth
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Bildfeld eines großes Bodenmosaiks aus einer römischen Villa bei Sentinum (dem heutigen Sassoferrato im Marken), um 200-250 n. Chr. Jugendlicher Ewigkeitsgott Aion im Himmelkreis der Tierzeichen zwischen einem grünen und einem kahlen (winterlichen) Baum. Zu seinen Füßen die Erdmutter Tellus (römische Gaia) mit vier Kindern, welche die vier Jahrezeiten verkörpern. Der Himmelskreis ist kein Tierkreis, sondern ein Band mit Tierkreiszeichen (beispielsweise fehlt zwischen Widder und Zwillingen der Stier, etc.). English: Central part of a large floor mosaic, from a Roman villa in Sentinum (now known as Sassoferrato, in Marche, Italy), ca. 200–250 C.E. Aion, the god of eternity, is standing inside a celestial sphere decorated with zodiac signs, in between a green tree and a bare tree (summer and winter, respectively). Sitting in front of him is the mother-earth goddess, Tellus (the Roman counterpart of Gaia) with her four children, who possibly represent the four seasons. Français&#160;: Partie centrale d'une grande mosaïque de sol provenant d'une villa romaine de Sentinum (actuelle Sassoferrato en Marche), v. 200-250 ap. J.-C. Éon (Aiôn), dieu de l'éternité, est représenté dans une orbe céleste constellée des signes zodiacaux, entre un arbre vert et un arbre dégarni (été et hiver). À ses pieds la terre-mère Tellus (Gaia romaine) avec quatre enfants, les quatre saisons personnifiées (?).
context_page_description: Mother Nature is a Greco-Roman personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of the mother.
context_section_description: In Greek mythology, Persephone, daughter of Demeter (goddess of the harvest), was abducted by Hades (god of the dead), and taken to the underworld as his  queen. Demeter was so distraught that no crops would grow and the "entire human race [would] have perished of cruel, biting hunger if Zeus had not been concerned" (Larousse 152). Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone to her mother, but while in the underworld, Persephone had eaten pomegranate seeds, the food of the dead and thus, she must spend part of each year with Hades in the underworld. Demeter's grief for her daughter in the realm of the dead, is reflected in the barren winter months and her joy when Persephone returns is reflected in the bountiful summer months.
  Demeter would take the place of her grandmother, Gaia, and her mother, Rhea, as goddess of the earth in a time when humans and gods thought the activities of the heavens more sacred than those of earth.
  — Leeming, Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia
caption: Aion, Gaia and four children
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