Terra (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Tellus Mater or

Terra Mater ("Mother Earth") is a goddess of the earth.
Although Tellus and Terra are hardly distinguishable during
the Imperial era,[1] Tellus was the name of the original earth
goddess in the religious practices of the Republic or
earlier.[2] The scholar Varro (1st century BC) lists Tellus as
one of the di selecti, the twenty principal gods of Rome,
and one of the twelve agricultural deities.[3] She is
regularly associated with Ceres in rituals pertaining to the
earth and agricultural fertility.

The attributes of Tellus were the cornucopia, or bunches of

flowers or fruit. She was typically depicted reclining.[4] Her
male complement was a sky god such as Caelus (Uranus)
or a form of Jupiter. A male counterpart Tellumo or
Tellurus is mentioned, though rarely. Her Greek
A syncretic Tellus reclining with four children, probably
counterpart is Gaia,[5] and among the Etruscans she was the Seasons, accompanied by Aion-Uranus within a
Cel. Michael Lipka has argued that the Terra Mater who zodiac wheel (mosaic from Sentinum, AD 200-250,
appears during the reign of Augustus is a direct transferral Glyptothek).
of the Greek Ge Mater into Roman religious practice, while
Tellus, whose temple was within Rome's sacred boundary
(pomerium), represents the original earth goddess cultivated by the state priests.[6]

The word tellus, telluris is also a Latin common noun for "land, territory; earth," as is terra, "earth, ground". In literary uses,
particularly in poetry, it may be ambiguous as to whether the goddess, a personification, or the common noun is meant.

This article preserves the usage of the ancient sources regarding Tellus or Terra.

Contents
Name
Temple
Festivals
Prayers and rituals
Iconography
Tellumo
In science
See also
References

Name
The two words terra and tellus are thought to derive from the formulaic phrase tersa
tellus, meaning "dry land". The etymology of tellus is uncertain; it is perhaps related to
Sanskrit talam, "plain ground". [7]

The 4th-century AD Latin commentator Servius distinguishes between tellus and terra in
usage. Terra, he says, is properly used of the elementum, earth as one of the four classical
elements with air (Ventus), water (Aqua), and fire (Ignis). Tellus is the goddess, whose
name can be substituted (ponimus ... pro) for her functional sphere the earth, just as the
name Vulcanus is used for fire, Ceres for produce, and Liber for wine.[8] Tellus thus refers
to the guardian deity of Earth and by extension the globe itself.[9] Tellus may be an aspect
of the numen called Dea Dia by the Arval priests,[10] or at least a close collaborator with
her as "divinity of the clear sky."[11]

Varro identifies Terra Mater with Ceres:

A dedicatory inscription to
Not without cause was the Earth (Terra) called Mater and Ceres. It was
Terra Mater fulfilling a vow
believed that those who cultivated her led a pious and useful life (piam et (votum), 1st century AD.
utilem ... vitam), and that they were the sole survivors from the line of
King Saturn.[12]

Ovid distinguishes between Tellus as the locus ("site, location") of growth, and Ceres as its causa ("cause, agent").[13] Mater, the
Latin word for "mother," is often used as an honorific for goddesses, including Vesta, who was represented as a virgin. "Mother"
therefore expresses the respect that one would owe a mother, though Tellus and Terra are both regarded as mothers in the
genealogical sense as well.

Temple
The Temple of Tellus was the most prominent landmark of the Carinae,[14] a fashionable neighborhood on the Oppian Hill.[15] It
was near homes (domūs) belonging to Pompey[16] and to the Cicero family.[17]

The temple was the result of a votum made in 268 BC by Publius Sempronius Sophus when an earthquake struck during a battle
with the Picenes.[18] Others[19] say it was built by the Roman people. It occupied the former site of a house belonging to Spurius
Cassius, which had been torn down when he was executed in 485 BC for attempting to make himself king.[20] The temple
constructed by Sophus more than two centuries later was most likely a rebuilding of the people's.[21] The anniversary (dies
natalis) of its dedication was December 13.

A mysterious object called the magmentarium was stored in the temple,[22] which was also known for a representation of Italy on
the wall, either a map or an allegory.[23]

A statue of Quintus Cicero, set up by his brother Marcus, was among those that stood on the temple grounds.[24] Cicero claims
that the proximity of his property caused some Romans to assume he had a responsibility to help maintain the temple.[25]

Festivals
Festivals celebrated for Tellus were mainly concerned with agriculture and often connected with Ceres. In January, both
goddesses were honored as "mothers of produce"[26] at the moveable feast (feriae conceptivae) of Sementivae, a festival of
sowing.[27] On December 13, the anniversary of the Temple of Tellus was celebrated along with a lectisternium (banquet) for
Ceres, who embodied "growing power" and the productivity of the earth.[28]
Tellus received the sacrifice of a pregnant cow at the Fordicidia, a festival
pertaining to fertility and animal husbandry[29] held April 15, in the middle of
the Cerialia (April 12–19).[30] Festivals for deities of vegetation and the earth
cluster in April on the Roman calendar.[31] The institution of the Fordicidia was
attributed to Numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome. During a time
when Rome was struggling with harsh agricultural conditions, Numa was
instructed by the rustic god Faunus in a dream that a sacrifice to Tellus was
needed. As is often the case with oracles, the message required interpretation:

"By the death of cattle, King, Tellus must be placated: two cows,
that is. Let a single heifer yield two lives (animae) for the
rites."[32]

Numa solved the riddle by instituting the sacrifice of a pregnant cow.[33] The
purpose of the sacrifice, as suggested by the Augustan poet Ovid and by the 6th-
century antiquarian John Lydus, was to assure the fertility of the planted grain
already growing in the womb of Mother Earth in the guise of Tellus.[34] This Detail from a sarcophagus depicting
public sacrifice was conducted in the form of a holocaust on behalf of the state at a Mother Earth figure (3rd century
the Capitol, and also by each of the thirty curiae, the most ancient divisions of AD).

the city made by Romulus from the original three tribes.[35] The state sacrifice
was presided over by the Vestals, who used the ash from the holocaust to prepare
suffimen, a ritual substance used later in April for the Parilia.[36]

During the Secular Games held by Augustus in 17 BC, Terra Mater was among the deities honored in the Tarentum in the
Campus Martius. Her ceremonies were conducted by "Greek rite" (ritus graecus), distinguishing her from the Roman Tellus
whose temple was within the pomerium. She received the holocaust of a pregnant sow.[37] The Secular Games of 249 BC had
been dedicated to the underworld deities Dis pater and Proserpina, whose underground altar was in the Tarentum. Under
Augustus, the Games (ludi) were dedicated to seven other deities, invoked as the Moerae, Iuppiter, Ilithyia, Iuno, Terra Mater,
Apollo and Diana.[38]

Prayers and rituals

The sacrum ceriale ("cereal rite") was carried out for Tellus and Ceres by a flamen, probably the Flamen Cerialis, who also
invoked twelve male helper gods.[39] According to Varro,[40] the two goddesses jointly received the porca praecidanea, a pig
sacrificed in advance of the harvest.[41] Some rites originally pertaining to Tellus may have been transferred to Ceres, or shared
with her, as a result of her identification with Greek Demeter.[42]

Tellus was felt to be present during rites of passage, either implicitly, or invoked. She was perhaps involved in the ceremonies
attending the birth of a child, as the newborn was placed on the ground immediately after coming into the world. Tellus was also
invoked at Roman weddings.[43]

Dedicatory inscriptions to either Tellus or Terra are relatively few,[44] but epitaphs during the Imperial period sometimes contain
formulaic expressions such as "Terra Mater, receive me."[45] In the provincial mining area of Pannonia, at present-day Ljubija,
votive inscriptions record dedications to Terra Mater from vilici, imperial slave overseers who ran operations at ore smelting
factories (ferrariae).[46]
These are all dated April 21, when the founding day (dies natalis, "birthday") of Rome was celebrated, perhaps reflecting the
connection between the Parilia on April 21 and the Fordicidia as a feast of Tellus.[47] The emperor Septimius Severus restored a
temple of Terra Mater at Rudnik, a silver mining area of Moesia Superior.[48] Measuring 30 by 20 meters, the temple was located
at the entrance to the work zone.[49]

Iconography
Tellus is often identified as the central figure on the so-called
Italia relief panel of the Ara Pacis, which is framed by bucrania
(ornamental ox heads) and motifs of vegetative and animal
fertility and abundance.[50] Terra long remained common as a
personification, if not exactly treated as a goddess. She often
formed part of sets of the personified Four Elements, typically
identified by a cornucopia, farm animals, and vegetable products.

Tellumo
Tellumo is identified by St. Augustine as the male counterpart of The attributes of the central figure on this panel of
Tellus.[51] A Tellurus is named uniquely by Martianus Capella the Ara Pacis mark her as an earth and mother
(1.49).[52] goddess, often identified as Tellus.

In science
In several modern Romance languages, terra (or French terre) is the name of planet Earth. Following post-classical Latin
astronomical terminology, Earth is sometimes referred to as "Terra".

See also
Telluride (disambiguation)
Phra Mae Thorani

References
1. Antony Augoustakis, Motherhood and the Other: Fashioning Female Power in Flavian Epic (Oxford University
Press, 2010), p. 124.
2. Gary Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History (Routledge, 2012), p. 73;
Christopher M. McDonough, "Roman Religion," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome
(Oxford University Press, 2010), vol. 1, p. 97.
3. As recorded by Augustine of Hippo, De civitate Dei 7.2.
4. Marion Lawrence, "The Velletri Sarcophagus," American Journal of Archaeology 69.3 (1965), p. 212.
5. Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia, The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.
6. Michael Lipka, Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach (Brill, 2009), pp. 151–152 et passim.
7. Augoustakis, Motherhood and the Other, p. 124, citing the entry on tellus in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire
Etymologique De La Langue Latine.
8. Servius, note to Aeneid 1.171. (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Serv.+A.+1.171&fromdoc=Perseu
s%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053)
9. Entry on "Tellus," in The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 1480.
10. William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), p. 74, concurring with
Ludwig Preller.
11. Robert Schilling, "Rome," in Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the
French edition of 1981), p. 114.
12. Varro, De re rustica 3.1.5, as cited by Hendrik Wagenvoort, "Initia Cereris," in Studies in Roman Literature,
Culture and Religion (Brill, 1956), p. 153.
13. Ovid, Fasti 1 (671–674); Georges Dumézil, Camillus, edited and translated by Udo Strutynski (University of
California Press, 1980), p. 77.
14. Suetonius, Grammatici 15; Servius, note to Aeneid 8.361.
15. Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press,
1992), pp. 71, 378. According to Taylor, "The Mother of the Lares," p. 306, it was on the lower slopes of the
Esquiline Hill.
16. His domus rostrata, the house that was ornamented with the prows (rostra) from the so-called Cilician pirates:
Suetonius, Grammatici 15; Appian, Bellum Civile 2.126; Ann Kuttner, "Culture and History at Pompey's Museum,"
Transactions of the American Philological Association 129 (1999), p. 349; Richardson, Topographical Dictionary,
pp. 133 and 378.
17. Plutarch, Life of Cicero 8.3; Cicero, Letters to My Brother Quintus 2.3.7; Richardson, Topographical Dictionary, p.
378.
18. Florus 1.14.2; Richardson, Topographical Dictionary, p. 378.
19. Valerius Maximus 6.3.1b; Dionysius of Halicarnassus 8.79.3.
20. Cicero, De domo sua 101; Livy 2.41.11; Dionysius of Halicarnassus 8.79.3; Valerius Maximus 6.3.1b.
21. Richardson, Topographical Dictionary, p. 378.
22. Cicero, De haruspicum responsis 31; John E. Stambaugh, "The Functions of Roman Temples," Aufstieg und
Niedergang der römischen Welt II.16.1 (1978), p. 571; Richardson, Topographical Dictionary, p. 379.
23. Varro, De re rustica 1.2.1; Karl-J. Hölkeskamp, "Conquest, Competition and Consensus: Roman Expansion in
Italy and the Rise of the Nobilitas," Historia 42.1 (1993), p. 28; Richardson, Topographical Dictionary, p. 378–379.
24. Cicero, Letters to My Brother Quintus 3.1.6 and 14; T.P. Wiseman, "The Ambitions of Quintus Cicero," Journal of
Roman Studies 56 (1966), p. 110; William C. McDermott, "Q. Cicero," Historia 20 (1971), p. 107.
25. Cicero, De haruspicum responsis 31.
26. Frugum matres, Ovid, Fasti 1.671.
27. H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 68, regards
the regular date as January 24–26.
28. Wagenvoort, "Initia Cereris," p. 159ff. Wagenvoort argues that Ceres herself originated as the generative aspect
of Tellus.
29. Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol.
1, p. 45. (https://books.google.com/books?id=2rtaTFYuM3QC&pg=PA45&dq=Fordicidia&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_m
inm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=100&as_brr=3&cd=37#v=onepage&q=Fordicidia&f
=false)
30. Wagenvoort, "Initia Cereris," p. 163.
31. Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 67.
32. Ovid, Fasti 4.641–666: morte boum tibi, rex, Tellus placanda duarum: / det sacris animas una iuvenca duas.
33. Vyacheslav V. Ivanov, "Fundamentals of Diachronic Linguistics", Semiotics around the World: Synthesis in
Diversity (Mouton de Gruyter, 1994), vol. 1, pp. 64–66, with discussion of Vedic and Hittite parallels.
34. Ovid, Fasti 4.633f.; John Lydus, De Mensibus 4.49, drawing on Varro, as noted by Fowler, Roman Festivals, p.
71. See also Beard et al., Religions of Rome, p. 53.
35. Fowler, Roman Festivals, pp. 71 and 303; Christopher John Smith, The Roman Clan: The gens from Ancient
Ideology to Modern Anthropology (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 207.
36. Ovid, Fasti 4.731–734; Daniel P. Harmon, "Religion in the Latin Elegists", Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen
Welt 2.16.3 (1986), p. 1958; Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 71; Beard et al., Religions of Rome pp. 53 and 383.
37. Lipka, Roman Gods, pp. 151–152, 157.
38. Lipka, Roman Gods, p.150.
39. Varro, Antiquitates frg. 266 (edition of Cardauns), Servius Danielis, note to Georgics 1.21 (http://www.perseus.tuft
s.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=523229FBA11D272BC5DFB4D8E5EFD351?doc=Serv.+G.+1.21&fromdoc=Perseu
s%3Atext%3A2007.01.0092), citing Fabius Pictor; Jörg Rüpke, Religion in Republican Rome: Rationalization and
Ritual Change (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), p. 181; Lipka, Roman Gods, pp. 57 and 69.
40. As cited by Nonius, p. 240 in the edition of Linday, as cited by Schilling, "Rome," in Roman and European
Mythologies, p. 122.
41. Cato, On Agriculture 134, and Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 4.6.8, name Ceres as the sole recipient.
42. Schilling, "Cicero as Theologian," in Roman and European Mythologies, p. 124.
43. Servius, note to Aeneid 4.166; Spaeth, The Roman Goddess Ceres, p. 5.
44. Lily Ross Taylor, "The Mother of the Lares," American Journal of Archaeology 29.3 (1925), p. 304.
45. William Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1922), p. 122.
46. Alfred Michael Hirt, Imperial Mines and Quarries in the Roman World: Organizational Aspects 27 BC–AD 235
(Oxford University Press, 2010), sect. 6.2; Slobodan Dušanić, "Aspects of Roman Mining in Noricum, Pannonia,
Dalmatia and Moesia Superior," Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt 2.6 (1977), pp. 58–59.
47. Dušanić, "Aspects of Roman Mining," pp. 59–60.
48. CIL 3.8333; Dušanić, "Aspects of Roman Mining," pp. 59 (note 29), 78.
49. Dušanić, "Aspects of Roman Mining," p. 78.
50. Denis Feeney, "Interpreting Sacrificial Ritual in Roman Poetry: Disciplines and Their Models," in Rituals in Ink: A
Conference on Religion and Literary Production in Ancient Rome (Franz Steiner, 2004), p. 12. For more on the
iconography of Tellus, see Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae 7.1.879–89.
51. Augustine, De Civitate Dei 7.23.
52. Roger D. Woodard, Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult (University of Illinois Press, 2006), p.
115; William Harris Stahl with E.L. Bruge, Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts: The Marriage of
Philology and Mercury (Columbia University Press, 1977), p. 23.

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