User:Alcaios/Dhéǵhōm

Dhéǵhōm (Proto-Indo-European: *dʰéǵʰōm; also ‌‌*dhghem-; litt. "earth") is the reconstructed name of the Earth goddess in the Proto-Indo-European mythology. Dhéǵhōm, the Mother Earth, is portrayed as the vast and dark house of mortals, and is often paired with Dyēus, the daylight sky and seat of the gods, in a relationship of union and contrast. She is associated with fertility and growth, and also with death as the final dwelling of the deceased.

Name
The root for "earth", *dʰéǵʰōm, is one of the most attested in the Indo-European languages. Dhéǵhōm was the Earth itself conceived as a divine entity, rather than a goddess of the earth.

The broad Earth
The commonest epithet applied to the earth in Indo-European poetic traditions is "the broad Earth". Prithvi ("the Vast One") is the Vedic word for both the earth and the Earth-goddess, and a cognate kenning appears in Greek Platai(w)a, Old Norse fold, Old English folde, and perhaps in the Gaulish goddess Litavis. Another common epithet is the "all-bearing Earth", the one who bear all things or creatures.

Mother Earth
The Earth-goddess was widely celebrated with the title of "mother", and often paired with Dyeus, the Proto-Indo-European god of the daylight sky. She is called annas Daganzipas ("Mother Earth-spirit") in Hittite, and paired with the Storm-god of heaven. In the Rigveda, the goddess of the earth Prithvi often has the epithet Mata ("mother"), especially when she is mentioned together with Dyaus, the sky-father. The Earth-goddess is also recognizable under the name of Plataia, the eponymous nymph of Plataiai in Boeotia and a consort of Zeus.

The goddess of the harvest and agriculture Demeter could also be a cognate, from the Illyrian root Dā- (possibly from *dʰǵʰ(e)m-) attached to mater ("mother"). The Roman evidence for the idea of Earth as a mother is doubtful, as it is usually associated with the name Terra, not Tellus, and it may be due to Greek influence. The Anglo-Saxon goddess Erce (possibly "bright, pure") is titled the "mother of Earth" and likely identified with Mother Earth herself in a ritual to be performed on ploughland that is unfruitful.

The dark Earth
The Proto-Indo-European epithet *dʰéǵʰōm dʰṇgu-/dʰengwo- ("dark earth") is attested in several traditions. The formula dankui degan ("the dark earth") is frequent in Hittite literature, used especially of the underworld, but sometimes also of the earth’s surface. Other cognates are found in Greek γαîα μέλαινα / Gaia Melaina, or in Old Irish domun donn ("brown earth").

Role
The Earth goddess Dhéǵhōm is described in Indo-European traditions as the dwelling of mortals, in contrast with Dyēus, the diurnal sky and the seat of the gods. Both deities often appear as a pair, the Sky father uniting with mother Earth. In the Rigveda, Prithvi the mother is frequently paired with Dyaus the father: "O Heaven (our) father, Earth (our) guileless mother." "Heaven and Earth" regularly appear as a pair among deities invoked as witnesses to Hittite treaties. Zeus, the greek cognate of Dyēus, is paired with Semele, a cognate of Dhéǵhōm, but also with Demeter, another possible cognate of the Mother Earth. In the Theogony, Ouranos and Gaia, Heaven and Earth, are portrayed as the primeval parents; and Aeschylus describes in the Danaids how Ouranos and Chthon are seized by mutual desire for sexual intercourse; the rain falls, Earth conceives, and brings forth pasture, cereal crops, and foliage. Herodotus reported that the Scythians considered Earth to be the wife of Zeus. In the Germanic tradition, the poet Snorri calls Odin “father of all gods and men”, and states that Jörð, Earth, was his daughter and his wife; although Odin is a thematic echo of the sky-god Dyēus, and not his cognate. Tellus Mater is also paired with Jupiter in Macrobius's Saturnalia.

The word for "earth" also underlies the many formations for designating humans as mortals, either because they are "earthly" or they were fashioned from the earth itself. Dhéǵhōm had a connection with both the death and life, as the deceased returns to her and the crop grows from her moist soil. The Earth is thus portrayed as the giver of good things: she is exhorted to become fertile, or pregnant, in an Old English prayer, and Slavic peasants described Zemlja, Mother Earth, as a prophetess that shall or not offer favourable crops to the community. The unions of Zeus with Selene and Demeter is likewise associated with fertility and growth.

Evidence
Cognates of the goddess earth Dhéǵhōm are attested in the following mythologies:


 * Lithuanian: Žemyna, a goddess celebrated as the bringer of flowers, and a recipient of prayers and sacrifices,
 * Latvian: Zemes Māte ("Mother Earth"), one of the goddesses of death in Latvian mythology,
 * Thracian: Zemelā (from the root *gʰem-elā),
 * Greek: the chthonic deities of the underworld (from χθών / khthốn).

Additionally, remnants of the root *dʰéǵʰōm can be found in formulaic phrases and religious epithets:


 * Hittite: Daganzipas, composed of the root dagan- attached to šepa/šipa ("genius"),
 * Vedic: the compound Dyāvākṣamā ("heaven and earth"), sometimes associated with the goddess Prithvi (the “Broad One”),
 * Slavic: mat’ syra Zemlya ("Mother Moist Earth"), pronounced during oaths as the Earth is called to witness in land disputes.