Dhéǵhōm


Dhéǵhōm, or Plethwih, is the reconstructed name of the Earth-goddess in the Proto-Indo-European mythology. The Mother Earth is portrayed as the vast and dark house of mortals. She is often paired with Dyēus, the daylight sky and seat of the gods, in a relationship of union and contrast. Dhéǵhōm is associated with fertility and growth, but also with death as the final dwelling of the deceased.

Name

Etymology

The root for the word "earth", *dʰéǵʰōm, is one of the most attested in Indo-European languages. On the other hand, the linguistic evidence for the ritualization of the name *dʰéǵʰōm is not systematically spread across traditions, as she also appears under other names and epithets, principally *Pleth₂-wih₁. If the goddess-earth is reliably reconstructed under the name *dhéǵhōm, she was the Earth itself conceived as a divine entity, rather than a goddess of the earth.

Epithets

The "Broad One"

The commonest epithet applied to the earth in Indo-European poetic traditions is *Pléth₂wih₁. A group of cognates appear in Prithvi, the Vedic earth-goddess, in the Greek nymph Plataia, and most likely in the Gaulish goddess Litavis. It is also attested in linguistically related poetic expressions that associate the two roots dʰéǵʰōm and *pléth₂wih₁: Avestan ząm pərəϑβīm, Sanskrit kṣā́m... pṛthivī́m and Old Hittite palḫiš ... dagan.
Another similar epithet is the "All-Bearing One", the one who bears all things or creatures. She was also referred to as "much-nourishing" or "rich-pastured" in Vedic, Greek, and Old Norse ritual expressions that shared the root *plh₁u-.
Similar expressions of the width of the land or earth are attested in relation to Gaia: "wide-bosomed", "wide-pathed" and "vast". Greek scholar Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, Book 7, tells of a temple dedicated to "Broad-bosomed Gaia".

Mother Earth

The Earth-goddess was widely celebrated with the title of "mother", and often paired with Dyēus, the Proto-Indo-European god of the daylight sky. She is called annas Daganzipas in Hittite liturgy, and paired with the Storm-god of heaven. To the goddess of the earth Prithvi is often attached the epithet Mata in the Rigveda, especially when she is mentioned together with Dyaus, the sky-father.
The goddess of the harvest and agriculture Demeter could also be a cognate, deriving from the Illyrian root Dā- attached to māter. The Roman evidence for the idea of Earth as a mother is doubtful, as it is usually associated with the name Terra, not Tellus, and it may be due to Greek influence. The Anglo-Saxon goddess Erce is titled the "mother of Earth" in a ritual to be performed on plough-land that is unfruitful. She is also called Fīra Mōdor in Old English poetry.
A similar epithet is ascribed to Gaia, as Μητηρ Παντων, recorded, for instance, in Aeschylus' Prometheus Unbound, and in The Libation Bearers. In a Samaveda hymn dedicated to the Vedic fire god Agni, he is described as "rapidly... along his mother earth". In the same vein, the word bhūmi, an epithet of Prithvi meaning "soil", is used in reference to a threefold division of the universe in heavens, sky and earth. On her own, Bhūmi is another Vedic deity with Mother-Earth attributes. In an Atharveda Hymn , the celebrant invokes Prithvi as his Mother, because he is "a son of Earth".

Dark Earth

A Proto-Indo-European epithet, reconstructed as *dʰéǵʰōm dʰṇgu-/dʰengwo-, is also attested in several traditions. The formula dankuiš daganzipaš is frequent in Hittite literature; it was used especially to name the underworld, but sometimes also the earth's surface. Other reflexes are found in Greek γαîα μέλαινα / Gaia Melaina, in Albanian dhe të zi, in Slavonic *črnā zemyā or in Old Irish domun donn. A Lithuanian expression takes the form "may the black earth not support me".
The formula of the dark earth seems to be related to invocation or oaths, where the announcer summons the Earth as an observer or witness, as seen by Solon's elegiac Fragment 36.

Role

Mating of Earth Mother and Sky Father

In the Indo-European cosmology, the earth *dhéǵhōm was perceived as a vast, flat and circular continent surrounded by waters, and the Earth goddess as the dark dwelling of mortals, in contrast with Dyēus, the bright diurnal sky and the seat of the gods. The Earth and Heaven couple is however not at the origin of the other gods, as the Divine Twins and Hausos were probably conceived by Dyēus alone. According to Jackson however, Dhéǵhōm is "a more fitting partner of Perkwunos than of Dyēus", as the former is associated with the fructifying rains as a weather god.
Both deities often appear as a pair, the Sky Father uniting with Mother Earth to bring fertility. In the Vedic texts, Prithvi the mother is usually paired with Dyaus the father, as shown for instance in Samaveda hymns. In an Atharveda Hymn, Prithvi is coupled with Parjanya, a deity of rain and fertilizer of earth.
In Hittite mythology, the Storm God of Heaven, one of the most important in the Hittite pantheon, has been syncretized with local Anatolian or Hattian deities, merging with a local storm god with terrestrial characteristics. At a later point, the Storm God of Heaven was paired with local goddess Wurulemu, with chthonic traits.
Zeus is associated with Semele, a possible descendant of Dhéǵhōm, but also with Demeter, which could be another cognate stemming from the Mother Earth. In the Danaids, Aeschylus describes how Ouranos and Chthôn are seized by a mutual desire for sexual intercourse: the rain falls, then Earth conceives and brings forth pasture, cereal crops, and foliage. According to Herodotus, the Scythians considered Earth to be the wife of Zeus. Likewise, "Heaven and Earth" regularly appear as a duo among deities invoked as witnesses to Hittite treaties, and the Roman Tellus Mater is paired with Jupiter in Macrobius's Saturnalia.
The mating of Zeus and female characters with chthonic elements or associated with earth may be a remnant of the Sky/Earth coupling. Other religious expressions and formulas in Greek cultic practice attest to a wedding or union between a sky-god and an earth-mother: the Homeric Hymn to Gaia calls her "Wife of Starry Ouranos"; weddings in Athens were dedicated to both Ouranos and Gaia; an Orphic hymn tells that the cultist is both "a child of Earth and starry Sky"; in Athens, there was a statue of Gaia on the Acropolis depicting her beseeching Zeus for rain;
In Norse Mythology, the goddess Jörd, a giantess or jötunn, whose name means "earth", begets the thunder-god Thor with Odinn–not a sky-god, although a chief god of the Norse pantheon. A line in the Gylfaginning by Norse poet Snorri Sturluson mentions that the Earth is both daughter and wife of the All-Father, identified as Odinn.

Final dwelling of mortals

The word for "earth" underlies the many formations for designating humans as mortals, either because they are "earthly" or because they were fashioned from the earth itself. It is attested in descendent cognates of *dʰéǵʰōm: Latin humus and homo ; Germanic *guman ; Lithuanian žmuõ, Gaulish Xtonion, Phrygian ζεµελως. This suggests a hierarchical conception of the status of mankind regarding the gods, confirmed by the widespread use of the term "mortal" as a synonym of "human" rather than "living species" in Indo-European traditions.
Dhéǵhōm had a connection with both death and life, as the deceased shall return to her and the crop grows from her moist soil, fertilized by the rain of Dyēus. The Earth is thus portrayed as the giver of good things: she is exhorted to become pregnant in an Old English prayer and Slavic peasants described Zemlja, Mother Earth, as a prophetess that shall offer favourable harvest to the community. The unions of Zeus with Semele and Demeter is likewise associated with fertility and growth in Greek mythology.
A reflex of *Dhéǵhōm as the mother of mortals and their final resting place may be found in Demetrioi, an Athenian designation for the dead, and in Aeschylus's verses in his Choephori 127: "Yea, summon Earth, who brings all things to life, / And rears and takes again into her womb."

Evidence

''*Dʰéǵʰōm''

Cognates stemming from the root *dʰéǵʰōm are attested in the following mythologies:
Other cognates are less secured: by Sebastiano Ricci.
Additionally, remnants of the root *dʰéǵʰōm can be found in formulaic phrases and religious epithets:
Cognates stemming from the epithet *Pleth₂wih₁ are attested in the following traditions:
Other cognates are less secured: