Joseph Werner:Diana of Ephesus as allegory of Nature, c. 1680
Mother Nature (sometimes known asMother Earth or theEarth Mother) is apersonification ofnature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of amother ormother goddess.
TheMycenaean Greek:Ma-ka (transliterated asma-ga), "MotherGaia", written inLinear B syllabic script (13th or 12th century BC), is the earliest known instance of the concept of earth as a mother.[1]
Demeter would take the place of her grandmother,Gaia, and her mother,Rhea, as goddess of the earth in a time when humans and gods thought the activities of the heavens more sacred than those of earth.[2]
— Leeming, Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia
InGreek mythology,Persephone, daughter ofDemeter (goddess of the harvest), was abducted byHades (god of the dead), and taken to theunderworld as his queen. The myth goes on to describe Demeter as so distraught that no crops would grow and the "entire human race [would] have perished of cruel, biting hunger ifZeus had not been concerned" (Larousse 152). According to myth, Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone to her mother, but while in the underworld, Persephone had eatenpomegranate seeds, the food of the dead and thus, she must then spend part of each year with Hades in the underworld. The myth continues that Demeter's grief for her daughter in the realm of the dead, was reflected in the barren winter months and her joy when Persephone returned was reflected in the bountiful summer months
RomanEpicurean poetLucretius opened his didactic poemDe rerum natura by addressingVenus as a veritable mother of nature.[3] Lucretius used Venus as "a personified symbol for the generative aspect of nature".[4] This largely had to do with the nature of Lucretius' work, which presents a nontheistic understanding of the world that eschewed superstition.
Mother Earth image, 17th century alchemical text,Atalanta Fugiens
The pre-Socratic philosophers abstracted the entirety of phenomena of the world as singular:physis, and this was inherited byAristotle.[citation needed]
The word "nature" comes from theLatin word, "natura", meaning birth or character [seenature (philosophy)]. InEnglish, its first recorded use (in the sense of the entirety of the phenomena of the world) was in 1266. "Natura" and the personification of Mother Nature were widely popular in theMiddle Ages. As a concept, seated between the properly divine and the human, it can be traced toAncient Greece, thoughEarth (or "Eorthe" in the Old English period) may have been personified as a goddess. The Norse also had a goddess calledJörð (Jord, orErth).
Medieval Christian thinkers did not see nature as inclusive of everything, but thought that it had been created byGod; earth lay below the unchangingheavens andmoon. Nature lay somewhere in the center, with agents above her (angels), and below her (demons andhell).
Therefore mother nature became only a personification, not a goddess.
Amalur (sometimesAma Lur orAma Lurra[5]) was believed to be thegoddess of theearth in the religion of the ancientBasque people.[6] She was described as the mother ofEkhi, the sun, andIlazki, the moon. Her name meant "mother earth" or "mother land"; the 1968Basque documentaryAma lur was a celebration of the Basque countryside.[7]
Algonquian legend says that "beneath the clouds lives the Earth-Mother from whom is derived the Water of Life, who at her bosom feeds plants, animals and human" (Larousse 428). She is otherwise known asNokomis, theGrandmother.
InInca mythology,Mama Pacha orPachamama was a fertility goddess who presided over planting and harvesting. Pachamama is usually translated as "Mother Earth" but a more literal translation would be "Mother Universe" (inAymara andQuechua mama = mother / pacha = world, space-time or the universe).[8] It was believed that Pachamama and her husband,Inti, were the most benevolent deities and were worshiped in parts of the Andean mountain ranges (stretching from present dayEcuador toChile andArgentina).
In her bookCoateteleco, pueblo indígena de pescadores ("Coatetelco, indigenous fishing town", Cuernavaca, Morelos: Vettoretti, 2015), Teódula Alemán Cleto states,En nuestra cultura prehispánica el respeto y la fe a nuestra madre naturaleza fueron primordiales para vivir en plena armonía como seres humanos. ("In our [Mexican] prehispanic culture, respect and faith in ourMother Nature [emphasis added] were paramount to living in full harmony as human beings.")[9]
Jamie Lee Curtis with her bookMother Nature – a graphic novel
In the early 1970s, atelevision ad featured character actressDena Dietrich as Mother Nature. Vexed by an off-screen narrator who informs her she has mistakenChiffon margarine forbutter, she responded with thetrademarkedslogan "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" (underscored by thunder and lightning).[10]
Mother Nature is featured inThe Year Without a Santa Claus voiced by Rhoda Mann. This version was the mother of Heat Miser and Snow Miser. WhenMrs. Claus is unable to get them to compromise on a deal regarding snow in Southtown and a brief warm-up at the North Pole, she goes to Mother Nature for help. Mother Nature intimidates her children to doing as Mrs. Claus asks from them.
Mother Nature appears in the 2008 sequelA Miser Brothers' Christmas voiced byPatricia Hamilton. Besides Heat Miser and Snow Miser, she is also shown to be the mother of Earthquake, Thunder and Lightning, the Tides, and North Wind. In the story after Santa Claus gets injured during one of the Miser Brothers' feuds (with some part of North Wind's henchmen secretly sabotaging Santa's new sleigh), she and Mrs. Claus make the Miser Brothers work at Santa's workshop to make it up to Santa Claus.
Mother Nature appeared as a recurring character inThe Smurfs voiced byJune Foray. She resides in a cottage in the Smurfs' forest.
Mother Nature is often mentioned in theGarfield comic strip.
Mother Earth appears inThe Earth Day Special, portrayed byBette Midler. In the story when she falls from the sky and faints due to the problems with nature, she is rushed to the hospital where she is tended to byDoogie Howser and other doctors.
Mother Nature was featured inHappily Ever After, voiced byPhyllis Diller. She was depicted as the most powerful force of good in the movie, having complete control over nature, as well as the ability to create creatures from potions she made in her sanctuary.
Mother Nature was featured inJohn Hancock written by Bo Bissett. She was referred to as Tara, a tribute to her name in Roman Mythology which wasTerra orTerra Mater.
The animated filmEpic featured a character named Queen Tara (voiced byBeyoncé Knowles) who was a Mother Nature-like being.
Mother Nature was a character in the Guardians of Childhood series byWilliam Joyce. The long-lost daughter of theBoogieman Pitch, she was a young woman who could control phenomenons of nature. She stayed hidden while she watched the world. Her character was expanded in the latest bookThe Sandman and the War of Dreams.
Mother Nature appeared in a major recurring role in theseventh season ofOnce Upon a Time. Mother Nature was a title for the leader of thedryads. In the story, the previous Mother Nature was Mother Flora (portrayed byGabrielle Miller). Following the death of Mother Flora at the hands of some humans,Gothel (portrayed byEmma Booth) became the next Mother Nature.
^Catto, Bonnie A. (1988). "Venus and Natura in Lucretius: "De Rerum Natura" 1.1–23 and 2.167–174".The Classical Journal.84 (2):97–104.ISSN0009-8353.JSTOR3297566.
