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with the Earth to produce the inferior divinities, man, and all other creatures. Upon this was founded that veneration they had for the Earth, which they considered as a goddess, and the honours which were paid her. They called her Mother earth, and mother of the Gods. The Phenicians adored both these two principles under the names of Tautes and Astarte. They were called by some of the Scythian nations Jupiter and Apia; by the Thracians Cotis and Bendis; by the inhabitants of Greece and Italy, Saturn and Ops. All antiquity is full of traces of this worship, which was formerly universal. We know that the Scythians adored the Earth as a goddess, wife of the supreme God; the Turks celebrated her in their hymns; the Persians offered sacrifices to her. Tacitus attributes the same worship to the Germans, particularly to the inhabitants of the north of Germany. He says, “They adore the goddess Herthus[1], (meaning the Earth”) and
- ↑ The name which Tacitus gives to this goddess, signifies the Earth in all the northern (or Teutonic) languages. Thus it is in the ancient Gothic, Airtha: in the Anglo-Saxon, Eorthe, Ertha, Hertha: English, Earth: in Danish, Jord: in Belgic, Aerde, &c. Vid. Junii Etymolog. Anglican. T.
