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Aion-Uranus and Tellus with four children, perhaps the personified seasons, mosaic from a Roman villa in Sentinum, 200-250 CE, Munich Glyptothek (Inv. W504)

Terra Mater or Tellus was a goddess personifying the Earth in Roman mythology. The names Terra Mater and Tellus Mater both mean "Mother Earth" in Latin; Mater is an honorific title also bestowed on other goddesses.

[edit] Form and function

Romans appealed to her over earthquakes, and along with the grain goddess Ceres, she was responsible for the productivity of farmland. She was also associated with marriage, motherhood, pregnant women, and pregnant animals. Terra's Greek counterpart is Gaia.

Some linguists^[who?] studying the Indo-European languages believe that the two words Terra and Tellus derive from the formulaic phrase tersa tellus, meaning "dry land".^{[citation needed]} If this is true, Tellus might be the more ancient version of the name. According to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, Terra refers to the element earth (one of the four basic elements of earth, air, water, and fire) and Tellus refers to the guardian deity of Earth and by extension the globe itself.^[1] Actual classical Latin usage does not necessarily appear to respect this distinction.^[2]

[edit] References

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^ Hornblower, Simon and Spawforth, Antony, editors The Oxford Classical Dictionary Third Edition Oxford/New York: 1996 Oxford University Press--Article on Tellus Page 1480: "while Terra describes the element earth Tellus is the name of its protecting deity."
^ Ovid, Fastis, line 1 ff., 67 ff., 105 ff., 469 ff. etc.

[0] Hornblower, Simon and Spawforth, Antony, editors The Oxford Classical Dictionary Third Edition Oxford/New York: 1996 Oxford University Press--Article on Tellus Page 1480: "while Terra describes the element earth Tellus is the name of its protecting deity."

[1] Ovid, Fastis, line 1 ff., 67 ff., 105 ff., 469 ff. etc.

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