In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Tellus, Terra, Tellus Mater or Terra Mater ("Earth" or "Mother Earth") is the personification of the Earth. Although Tellus and Terra are hardly distinguishable during the Imperial era, Tellus was the name of the original earth goddess in the religious practices of the Republic or earlier. The scholar Varro (1st century BC) lists Tellus as one of the di selecti, the twenty principal gods of Rome, and one of the twelve agricultural deities. She is regularly associated with Ceres in rituals pertaining to the earth and agricultural fertility. The attributes of Tellus were the cornucopia, bunches of flowers, or fruit. She was typically depicted reclining, or rising, waist high from a hole in the ground. Her male complement was a sky god such as Caelus (Uranus) or a form of Jupiter. Her Greek counterpart is Gaia, and among the Etruscans, her name was Cel. Michael Lipka has argued that the Terra Mater who appeared during the reign of Augustus, is a direct transfer of the Greek Ge Mater into Roman religious practice, while Tellus, whose ancient temple was within Rome's sacred boundary (pomerium), represents the original earth goddess cultivated by the state priests.
Name
The Indo-Europeanist scholar Michiel de Vaan suggests a possible connection between the word tellūs ("earth, ground, soil") and the Proto-Indo-European root *telh₂- ("to bear, support"). According to this theory, the Earth was originally conceptualized as the "bearer" or "supporter" of the objects and creatures that dwelt atop the land. The 4th century AD Latin commentator Servius distinguishes between use of tellus and terra. Terra, he says, is properly used of the elementum, earth as one of the four classical elements with air (Ventus), water (Aqua), and fire (Ignis). Tellus is the goddess, whose name can be substituted (ponimus ... pro) for her functional sphere the earth, just as the name Vulcanus is used for fire, Ceres for produce, and Liber for wine. Tellus thus refers to the guardian deity of Earth and by extension the globe itself. Tellus may be an aspect of the spirit called Dea Dia by the Arval priests, or at least a close collaborator with her as "divinity of the clear sky." Varro identifies Terra Mater with Ceres:
Not without cause was the Earth (Terra) called Mater and Ceres. It was believed that those who cultivated her led a pious and useful life (piam et utilem ... vitam), and that they were the sole survivors from the line of King Saturn. Ovid distinguishes between Tellus as the locus ("site, location") of growth, and Ceres as its causa ("cause, agent"). Mater, the Latin word for "mother," is often used as an honorific for goddesses, including Vesta, who was represented as a virgin. "Mother" therefore is an honorific that expresses the respect one would owe any good mother. Tellus and Terra are both regarded as mothers in both the literal and honorific sense; Vesta in the honorific only.
Temple The Temple of Tellus was the most prominent landmark of the Carinae, a fashionable neighborhood on the Oppian Hill. It was near homes (domūs) belonging to Pompey and to the Cicero family. The temple was the result of a votum made in 268 BC by Publius Sempronius Sophus when an earthquake struck during a battle with the Picenes. Others say it was built by the Roman people. It occupied the former site of a house belonging to Spurius Cassius, which had been torn down when he was executed in 485 BC for attempting to make himself king. The temple constructed by Sophus more than two centuries later was most likely a rebuilding of the people's. The anniversary (dies natalis) of its dedication was December 13. A mysterious object called the magmentarium was stored in the temple, which was also known for a representation of Italy on the wall, either a map or an allegory. A statue of Quintus Cicero, set up by his brother Marcus, was among those that stood on the temple grounds. Cicero claims that the proximity of his property caused some Romans to assume he had a responsibility to help maintain the temple.
Festivals
Festivals celebrated for Tellus were mainly concerned with agriculture and often connected with Ceres. In January, both goddesses were honored as "mothers of produce" at the moveable feast (feriae conceptivae) of Sementivae, a festival of sowing. On December 13, the anniversary of the Temple of Tellus was celebrated along with a lectisternium (banquet) for Ceres, who embodied "growing power" and the productivity of the earth. Tellus received the sacrifice of a pregnant cow at the Fordicidia, a festival pertaining to fertility and animal husbandry held April 15, in the middle of the Cerialia (April 12–19). Festivals for deities of vegetation and the earth cluster in April on the Roman calendar. The institution of the Fordicidia was attributed to Numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome. During a time when Rome was struggling with harsh agricultural conditions, Numa was instructed by the rustic god Faunus in a dream that a sacrifice to Tellus was needed. As is often the case with oracles, the message required interpretation:
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