Gaya | Victoria Olt

2020

Gold and handmade watercolor on paper

18 x 24 in
46 x 61 cm + frame included for free in shipments within Estonia

} Gaya {

is the personification of the Earth in Greek mythology. She was a primordial being, one of the first to be born from the void of Chaos. To alleviate her loneliness she created Uranus (Sky/Heavens) and took him as husband. Together they had the Titans, the Hekatonkheires, and the Elder Cyclopes. Uranus, however, turned out to be lusty and cruel. The last straw for Gaia was when Uranus locked away the Cyclopes and Hekatonkheires inside the belly of Earth, causing Gaia great pain and discomfort. Gaia persuaded her Titan sons to rebel. Four of the Titans positioned themselves at the corners of the world, ready to grasp their father as he descended to lie with Gaia, while the fifth, Kronos, took his place in the center and there castrated Uranus with a sickle. Uranus’s blood fell on the Earth, producing the Erinyes and the Giants.

Uranus prophesied the fall of the Titans by their own sons. A prophecy that fulfilled itself when Zeus deposed the five brothers and cast them into the pit of Tartaros.