Mother Nature (sometimes known as Mother Earth or the Earth Mother) is a
personification of
nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of a
mother or
mother goddess.
European concept traditions
Greek concept
The
Mycenaean Greek: Ma-ka (transliterated as ma-ga), "Mother
Gaia", written in
Linear 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
Greek myth of the seasons
In
Greek mythology,
Persephone, daughter of
Demeter (goddess of the harvest), was abducted by
Hades (god of the dead), and taken to the
underworld 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 if
Zeus 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 eaten
pomegranate 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
Roman
Epicurean poet
Lucretius opened his didactic poem De rerum natura by addressing
Venus 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.
Post-classical concept
The pre-
Socratic philosophers abstracted the entirety of phenomena of the world as singular: physis, and this was inherited by
Aristotle.[citation needed]
The word "nature" comes from the
Latin word, "natura", meaning birth or character [see
nature (philosophy)]. In
English, 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 the
Middle Ages. As a concept, seated between the properly divine and the human, it can be traced to
Ancient Greece, though
Earth (or "Eorthe" in the Old English period) may have been personified as a goddess. The Norse also had a goddess called
Jörð (Jord, or Erth).
Medieval Christian thinkers did not see nature as inclusive of everything, but thought that it had been created by
God; earth lay below the unchanging
heavens and
moon. Nature lay somewhere in the center, with agents above her (
angels), and below her (
demons and
hell).
Therefore mother nature became only a personification, not a goddess.
Basque mythology
Amalur (sometimes Ama Lur or Ama Lurra[5]) was believed to be the
goddess of the
earth in the religion of the ancient
Basque people.[6] She was described as the mother of
Ekhi, the sun, and
Ilazki, the moon. Her name meant "mother earth" or "mother land"; the 1968
Basque documentary Ama lur was a celebration of the Basque countryside.[7]
Indigenous peoples of America
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 as
Nokomis, the
Grandmother.
In
Inca mythology, Mama Pacha or Pachamama 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" (in
Aymara and
Quechua 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 day
Ecuador to
Chile and
Argentina).
In her book Coateteleco, 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 our Mother Nature [emphasis added] were paramount to living in full harmony as human beings.")[9]
In the early 1970s, a
television ad featured character actress
Dena Dietrich as Mother Nature. Vexed by an off-screen narrator who informs her she has mistaken
Chiffon margarine for
butter, she responded with the
trademarkedslogan "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" (underscored by thunder and lightning).[10]
Mother Nature is featured in The Year Without a Santa Claus voiced by Rhoda Mann. This version was the mother of Heat Miser and Snow Miser. When
Mrs. 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 sequel A Miser Brothers' Christmas voiced by
Patricia 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 in The Smurfs voiced by
June Foray. She resides in a cottage in the Smurfs' forest.
Mother Nature is often mentioned in the
Garfield comic strip.
Progressive rock band
Kansas recorded the song "Death of Mother Nature Suite" as a protest against industrialization.
Mother Earth appears in The Earth Day Special, portrayed by
Bette 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 by
Doogie Howser and other doctors.
Mother Nature was featured in Happily Ever After, voiced by
Phyllis 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 in John Hancock written by Bo Bissett. She was referred to as Tara, a tribute to her name in Roman Mythology which was Terra or Terra Mater.
The animated film Epic featured a character named Queen Tara (voiced by
Beyoncé Knowles) who was a Mother Nature-like being.
Mother Nature was a character in the Guardians of Childhood series by
William Joyce. The long lost daughter of the
Boogieman 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 book The Sandman and the War of Dreams.
She appeared in an ad campaign for Tampax feminine hygiene products, as a woman in a green tweed skirt-suit, handing
a red "gift" to young women, who typically chase her away or beat her up, as the voiceover says, "Outsmart Mother Nature".
Mother Nature appeared in a major recurring role in the
seventh season of Once Upon a Time. Mother Nature was a title for the leader of the
dryads. In the story, the previous Mother Nature was Mother Flora (portrayed by
Gabrielle Miller). Following the death of Mother Flora at the hands of some humans,
Gothel (portrayed by
Emma Booth) became the next Mother Nature.
Mother Nature was mentioned in the hit song "
It's Raining Men." by
The Weather Girls & eventually remixed by
RuPaul. The lyrics relay that she is a single woman who is to be blessed...; that she took on the heavens, every angel, and rearranged the sky so that each and every woman could find the perfect guy.
^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.