Gaia

**Gaia** (also spelled as **Gaea** or **Ge**) is the Greek primordial goddess of the Earth. She is the first being to have sprung forth from the void of Chaos. Gaea is the main antagonist of *The Heroes of Olympus* series, being directly responsible for some of the major events in the series, such as the Second Giant War. Her current husband is the protogenos Tartarus, whom she conceived the Gigantes, and her former husband is Ouranos, whom she had the Titans. Her Roman counterpart is **Terra** or **Tellus**, meaning "earth" in Latin.

## History

### Birth and Marriage to Ouranos

Gaea was the first of the Protogeni to emerge from Chaos, born when some of its matter collected to form the Earth. She was initially alone in the universe, as described by Hesiod in his *Theogony*: "*In the beginning there was only Chaos, the Abyss. But then Gaia, the Earth, came into being, her broad bosom the ever-firm foundation of all*". Soon after, Tartarus was born, Eros, Erebos, Nyx and Ouranos. Later Gaea married her brother Ouranos. By this time, Gaea gave birth to the rustic domains and the mountains (Ourae).

Eventually, Gaea and Ouranos had three sets of children together, namely the Titans, the Elder Cyclopes, and the Hekatonkheires. Although Gaea loved all her children, Ouranos became distant from their family and resented their children, particularly the two younger races, as they were hideously ugly. Despite Gaea's protests, Ouranos seized the Elder Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires, chained them and cast them to the depths of Tartarus.

### Murder of Ouranos

Wroth at her husband's actions, Gaea called forth her remaining (and then favorite) children, the Titans, and presented to them her newly forged sickle. She requested one of them to step forward and take the sickle so as to kill Ouranos and free their brothers from Tartarus. All of the Titans were ambivalent at the prospect of killing their father even though they all hated him, but the youngest and most power-hungry - Kronos - agreed to the deed. He accepted the sickle from Gaea and convinced his mother to lure Ouranos down to Earth into attending a romantic dinner, so that he and his brothers - with the exception of Oceanus - could ambush him.

When Ouranos showed up to meet with Gaea, Krios, Koios, Hyperion, and Iapetus all sprang from their hiding places and ambushed their father. While the four brothers held Ouranos down, Kronos used the scythe to castrate Ouranos, casting Ouranos' severed genitals into the ocean. The blood from his genitals bore forth Venus, or Aphrodite from the sea. However, Ouranos cursed Kronos and said that he would one day be overthrown by his own children, just as Kronos had done to him. His children laughed but this was later revealed to be true. Gaea then proclaimed Kronos as lord of the universe and after the Elder Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires were released, she sank into a deep slumber for a millennia.

At some point, Gaea had an affair with Pontos. Their children include Nereus, Thaumas (the embodiment of the sea's dangerous aspects), Phorcys, Keto, and the "Strong Goddess" Eurybia.

### Saving Zeus

Shortly after Kronos became king, he got disgusted by the appearance of his younger siblings, the Elder Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires, and imprisoned them in Tartarus again, without the sleeping Gaea noticing. When Kronos married his sister Rhea - Gaea's favorite daughter - and had five godly children with her, he promptly swallowed each of them whole upon birth, fearing that Ouranos' prophecy of being usurped by his own children would come to pass. While pregnant with her sixth child, Rhea was advised by the sleeping Gaea to go to Crete and deliver the child there. She named her child Zeus, and after Gaea hid him away in a cave, she returned to Mount Othrys and gave her husband a stone wrapped in swaddling-clothes to swallow instead. A group of warrior nymphs called the Kouretes appeared near the entrance to Zeus' cave and clashed their spears against their shields - the noise that they made drowned out the sound of Zeus' crying.

Later, when Zeus grew up, he disguised himself as a Titan and journeyed to Mount Othrys, where he was appointed Kronos' cupbearer. He eventually invited all of the Titans to a drinking contest and put a powerful knockout potion into all of the Titans' jars, except for Kronos' in which he put a potion that would make him vomit up all that he had consumed. Being immortal beings, Gaea's godly grandchildren had all grown up completely undigested in their father's stomach and after being freed they declared war on the Titans. This Titanomachy, as it is known, lasted for eleven years and although the Titans initially had the upper hand against the gods, the gods eventually became experienced and powerful fighters as well and managed to defeat the Titans, banishing them to Tartarus.

### First Giant War and Typhon

Upon reawakening and discovering that the Olympians banished her Titan children to the Pit, Gaea consorted with Tartarus and gave birth to a new set of children: the Gigantes, each one born to oppose a specific god. When it came to the First Giant War, the Olympians received help from Heracles and Dionysus - demigod sons of Zeus - and the Gigantes were all defeated.

Gaea's final act of defiance against the gods was in the form of Typhon, or Typhoeus, her monstrous son whom she goaded into attacking Olympus. He rose to the upper world and unleashed a path of destruction on his way to Mount Olympus. The gods rode into battle to face the storm giant, but his ferocious appearance scared them into fleeing all the way to Egypt. Only Zeus remained behind, and after a long battle, he managed to defeat Typhon by imprisoning him under Mount Etna. Following the defeat of yet another child of hers, Gaea admitted defeat and went back to sleep.

### Interactions in her Slumber

During the wedding of Zeus and Hera, Gaea gave them a magnificent apple tree with golden apples as a present. Hera had the tree taken far off to the west and planted in a beautiful orchard. The Queen of Olympus employed the Hesperides, daughters of Atlas, to guard the tree, but as the nymphs would occasionally pluck an apple from the tree themselves, she put the fierce one hundred headed dragon Ladon - one of Gaea's grandchildren - there as well. This orchard was later named the Garden of the Hesperides.

At some point, the sleeping Gaea gave birth to a type of Centaurs called the Cyprian Centaurs. They were the result of Zeus accidentally impregnating her during his failed attempt to seduce Aphrodite.

When the nymph Daphne reached a dead end from the lovestruck Apollo, she cried to Gaea for help. The primordial took pity on her and transformed her into a laurel tree just as Apollo threw his arms around her. Heartbroken by the transformation that meant he had irrevocably lost her, Apollo declared that he still would honor her, wearing a crown of her leaves, which would become a symbol of victory for all time.

After Apollo drove her son Orion insane with the urge to hunt every beast on earth due to being in love with his virgin sister Artemis in fear she would break her vows, the giant's claims drew the attention of the sleeping Gaea. The earth protogenos summoned a Giant Scorpion to sting her son, its poison finally putting an end to his life.

## Appearance

Because she is literally the Earth itself, Gaea might not have a physical form to speak of. She will sometimes appear to people in the form of a giant sleeping face, such as when she shifted the snow, asphalt, and chemical sludge from some toilets to make a face in *The Lost Hero*. Percy thought he saw her face in his dreams when she manipulated some clouds to cast a shadow of her face on a mountain overlooking Camp Jupiter in *The Son of Neptune*.

Gaea tends to appear to people in the form of a woman wearing a cloak made of black dirt that churns and shift, as well as a veil made of dust. Behind the veil is a pale face that appears to be asleep, signifying that she isn't yet awake. When he was younger, Leo confused her with Hera, but Gaea simply said it was a family resemblance.

In *The Mark of Athena*, when Percy saw her in a dream, Gaea had a beautiful face even with closed eyes, hair as black as tilled soil, and eyes which swirled in green and black as deep as the crust of the earth and gave the impression of her being all-seeing. There was a dreamy smile on her lips that made her seem *"cold and distant",* which made Percy to feel that it wouldn't waver at seeing demigods die or cities burn. Gaea was dressed in forest-green robes that were dappled with gold and white, as if sunlight were shifting through branches.

In *Percy Jackson's Greek Gods*, Gaea was described to be a matronly woman with curly black hair and a serene smile (both features of which her son, Kronos, inherited), and she wore a flowing green dress. She could also be beautiful and seductive when she wished to be: when tricking Ouranos to lower his guard down, he was utterly taken aback by her beauty - she wore her best green sleeveless dress, her hair was braided with jewels, and she smelled of roses and jasmine.

In *The Blood of Olympus*, an awakened Gaea is described as a 20-foot-tall figure of a woman – her skin as white as quartz, her hair brown and tangled like tree roots, and her dress woven from blades of grass. Her eyes are described as "solid green" like all nature had been condensed into a few spoonfuls of organic matter".

## Personality

In many ways, Gaea is the ideal mother, loving her children first and foremost despite many of them were known for their hideous appearance. She has certain preferences among them, such as her personal favorite daughter Rhea and apparently her favorite son Clytius. It was originally her decision to let the Olympians beat the Titans in order to help her daughter, but she eventually got enraged due to the way that the gods ruled. She will do anything to protect them, even if it means taking the most extreme measures. It is because of this protectiveness that Gaea is known to be very cruel to anyone who threatens them. This oddly includes the gods - her own grandchildren- and even her children who don't follow her plans or goals, such as Damasen (who she cursed and imprisoned in Tartarus for not fighting against the gods) and Orion (who claimed that he would kill every beast on earth, probably including some of her children).

Gaea had a serene smile which hides a nasty disposition. Her voice reminds Piper of corn growing, a crackling, hissing, hot and persistent noise. Trying to avoid their interference of her plans, Gaea is very manipulative towards the Seven demigods, causing tragedies in their lives and forcing them to help her in Hazel's case. She also tried to convince Percy and Annabeth to join her, while she wanted to kill Frank, Jason, Piper, and Leo,  Furthermore, Gaea has been dishonest multiple times in the past, including to her allies.

Nemesis described Gaea as "proud and that there is none who deserve tearing down like her". It is presumable that Gaea might have succeeded in her dreams of conquest had she not become rash and take on a defeatable physical form.

Gaea seems to try to manipulate Percy more than any other demigod. She seems to hate him and Jason more than the other members of the Seven, as described in *The Son of Neptune*. Perhaps this is because they each sent one of her Titan sons to Tartarus, Hyperion and Krios respectively, along with the fact that both of them assisted greatly in defeating Kronos. This shows a great resentment which mirrors the character of many of her descendants. However, she also showed a grudging admiration for Percy when he forced her to help him against Phineas.

## Abilities

As the Protogenos of the Earth and the second being to exist, Gaea is one of the most powerful beings in existence, with power rivaling that of Ouranos, Tartarus and Pontus.

* **Supreme Power**: As the Protogenos of the Earth, Gaea possess immense levels of power that vastly exceeds that of the gods, Titans and Gigantes. Her only known superiors are Chaos and Ouranos. So immense was Gaea's power, she could overwhelm and restrict the powers of other beings with her mere presence. In *The Blood of Olympus*, when Percy Jackson attempts to free himself from Enceladus' grasp at the Acropolis, he only manages to summon a gesyer of water a hundred yards away. Porphyrion explains that this is because Gaea's essence was so concentrated there, that Poseidon himself would only be able to summon a "salty spring". She later overwhelmed the magical barrier of the *Athena Parthenos* (which were channeled from Athena herself, and from the hundreds of campers she was protecting) in seconds.
* **Creation of Sentient Life-Forms**: Gaea can create monsters powerful enough to cause troubles and even challenge the gods, such as Geminus soldiers and Python. As shown in *Percy Jackson's Greek Gods*, she recreated humanity through her "bones" (rocks).
* **Geokinesis**: As the physical embodiment of the Earth, Gaea has divine authority and absolute control of the Earth. As mentioned in *The House of Hades*, she opened the earth to trap Damasen in Tartarus. Her jurisdiction over this province grants her the abilities of:
	+ **Earth Rejuvenation**: She is able to keep her children alive as long as he or she is touching the ground, as she did with Antaeus and Orion.
	+ **Earth Awareness**: She knows whatever happens on the Earth.
	+ **Earth Manifestation**: Even when sleeping, she could manifest from dirt to anywhere she wished to be. However, she can't interfere with the events at first, as she didn't oppose Kronos and Zeus directly.
	+ **Ferrokinesis**: As the embodiment of the Earth, she can bend the metals of her "body" in any shape she wants. Most notably, she was able to create a scythe powerful enough to destroy the bodies and souls of fellow primordial deities.
	+ **Quicksand Generation**: Immediately upon her awakening, she could sink all the forces at Camp Half-Blood into the earth all at once, including Hazel, Nico, or Percy despite their own powers over earth. Only Jason, Piper, and Leo escapes by ascending into the air.
	+ **Magmakinesis**: As the embodiment of earth, Gaea has control over molten rocks and lava.
* **Chlorokinesis**: As the primordial goddess of the Earth, Gaea has infinite control regarding plants and all kinds of flora.
	+ **Plants Growth**: She is able to create plants spontaneously at a whim. As revealed in *Percy Jackson's Greek Gods*, she created Hera's tree of golden apples whilst still asleep. In *The Blood of Olympus*, a mere gesture from her caused dozens of trees to bend.
	+ **Plant Transformation**: As revealed in *Percy Jackson's Greek Gods* and *The Hidden Oracle*, she has the power to transform any object or being into something else - she changed Daphne into a laurel tree so that she could permanently evade Apollo's advances.
* **Atmokinesis**: As the primordial goddess of the earth, Gaea can presumably control and manipulate the weather.
	+ **Aerokinesis**: She can create and manipulate the air, though to a lesser extent than Ouranos, but to a greater greater than Zeus.
		- **Nephelokinesis**: In *The Son of Neptune,* she manipulated some clouds to cast a shadow on her face on a mountain near Camp Jupiter.
	+ **Cryokinesis**: She can create and manipulate ice. This was shown she shifted the snow to make a face in *The Lost Hero*.
* **Premonition**: Gaea can show memories or visions to others. She often visited the dreams of the Seven to tell them future events.
* **Immortality Granting**: Gaea can give eternal life to others. In *Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes*, she gave Aristaeus immortality during her sleep
* **Control of Animals**: As the primordial goddess of Earth, Gaea appears to have a high level of control over animals. As seen in *Percy Jackson's Greek Gods*, she summoned a Giant Scorpion to sting Orion with poison.
* **Transformation**: Even while asleep, she was able to transform Daphne into a laurel tree in order to save her from Apollo.
* **Possession**: Gaea can possess people for short periods of time when they are asleep. According to Leo, being possessed by her feels like a cold feeling inside the host.
* **Tongue of the Old Times fluency**: According to Tyson in *The Battle of the Labyrinth*, this is the ancient language that Gaea spoke to the Titans, Elder Cyclops, and Hekatonkheires before the birth of the Olympians.

## Trivia

* Her sacred animals are the serpent, the lunar bull, the pig, and bees.
* Her name, Gaia, means "Earth", in Greek.
* In *The Battle of the Labyrinth,* her name is spelled throughout the book as "Gaia". Rick Riordan stated that the reason he spelled it as Gaia is because "he felt like it."
	+ In the British edition of *The Heroes of Olympus* books published by Puffin books, Gaea is still spelled as Gaia.
	+ Her name is also spelled Gaia in *The Burning Maze* and *The Tyrant's Tomb*
* Her Roman name, Terra, is where the word "terrain" comes from.
	+ In the series, she is known as Gaea to both Greeks and Romans. Though, much like Thanatos, Romans could prefer for her to stay Greek. However, just like Aphrodite, Gaea's Greek and Roman forms can be completely identical.
* The large landmass that made up all the continents before they separated is known as *Pangaea*, with *Pan* meaning "all" and *Gaea* meaning "Earth".
* Gaea, a crater on Amalthea (a moon of Jupiter) is named after her.
* Though she is far more powerful, Gaea was defeated much easier than Kronos. She managed to gain full power, but took a defeatable form and was only to be swooped up until being destroyed.
* According to Percy Jackson, it is unknown how and why she and Poseidon had children. This is also *"something that he doesn't want to know."*
* Ironically, several of Gaea's children supported the gods, so even if she had won, the Gigantes would have had to fight the Elder Cyclops and the Hekatonkheires, as they are also her sons.
* Her Egyptian equivalent is Geb.
* Her Norse equivalent would be Jord.
* Her Mexica equivalent is Tlaltecuhtli.
* Gaea is the only major villain from the second series to be mentioned (multiple times) in the first one.
* Despite being the primary antagonist of *The Heroes of Olympus*, Gaea's actual physical role in the series is very short as the time from her awakening in *The Blood of Olympus* to her defeat is only a matter of minutes. Other main antagonists such Kronos, Apophis, Loki and Triumvirate Holdings have a much larger physical role in the books that they appear in, usually physically appearing in multiple books that take place over the course of months to years.