Central part of a large floor mosaic, from a Roman villa in Sentinum (now known as Sassoferrato, in Umbria, Italy), ca. 200–250 C.E. Aion, the god of eternity, is standing inside a celestial sphere decorated with zodiac signs, in between a green tree and a bare tree (summer and winter, respectively). Sitting in front of him is the mother-earth goddess, Tellus (the Roman counterpart of Gaea) with her four children, who possibly represent the four seasons.
Public domain.
Myths about Uranus
Uranus, which was
discovered by
William Herschel in 1781, was unknown in ancient times. Astronomers decided to continue the practice of naming planets after deities in Greek and Roman mythology, so named this new planet after the Greek god Ouranos (Roman Caelus).
Ouranos was the son and husband of Gaea and the primeval god of the sky. His father is sometimes said to have been Aether (Air). He was the father of the Titans, the Cyclopes, the Hecatonchires, the Erinyes, and the Gigantes, the Meliae, and Aphrodite. He was horrified by his eldest children, and locked them up inside the Earth. But this caused Gaea a lot of pain, and she convinced her Titan sons to fight their father. Chronos (Saturn) - one of the Titans - castrated Ouranos with a sickle, and his blood cause the birth of the Erinyes and the Gigantes. We don't have art that shows Ouranos, but this image of a Roman mosaic from a villa in Italy does show his wife, Gaea, with the Anatolian god Aion, who was identified with both Chronos and Ouranos, and her children.
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