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In ancient Roman religion and myth, Tellus or Terra Mater ("Mother Earth") is a goddess of the earth. Although Tellus and Terra are hardly distinguishable during the Imperial era,〔Antony Augoustakis, ''Motherhood and the Other: Fashioning Female Power in Flavian Epic'' (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 124.〕 ''Tellus'' was the name of the original earth goddess in the religious practices of the Republic or earlier.〔Gary Forsythe, ''Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History'' (Routledge, 2012), p. 73; Christopher M. McDonough, "Roman Religion," in ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome'' (Oxford University Press, 2010), vol. 1, p. 97.〕 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.〔As recorded by Augustine of Hippo, ''De civitate Dei'' 7.2.〕 She is regularly associated with Ceres in rituals pertaining to the earth and agricultural fertility. The attributes of Tellus were the cornucopia, or bunches of flowers or fruit. She was typically depicted reclining.〔Marion Lawrence, "The Velletri Sarcophagus," ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 69.3 (1965), p. 212.〕 Her male complement was a sky god such as Caelus (Uranus) or a form of Jupiter. A male counterpart Tellumo or Tellurus is mentioned, though rarely. Her Greek counterpart is Gaea (''Gē Mâtēr''),〔''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.〕 and among the Etruscans she was Cel. Michael Lipka has argued that the ''Terra Mater'' who appears during the reign of Augustus is a direct transferral of the Greek ''Ge Mater'' into Roman religious practice, while Tellus, whose temple was within Rome's sacred boundary (''pomerium''), represents the original earth goddess cultivated by the state priests.〔Michael Lipka, ''Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach'' (Brill, 2009), pp. 151–152 ''et passim.''〕 The word ''tellus, telluris'' is also a Latin common noun for "land, territory; earth," as is ''terra'', "earth, ground". In literary uses, particularly in poetry, it may be ambiguous as to whether the goddess, a personification, or the common noun is meant. This article preserves the usage of the ancient sources regarding ''Tellus'' or ''Terra''. ==Name== The two words ''terra'' and ''tellus'' are thought to derive from the formulaic phrase ''tersa tellus'', meaning "dry land". The etymology of ''tellus'' is uncertain; it is perhaps related to Sanskrit ''talam'', "plain ground". 〔Augoustakis, ''Motherhood and the Other,'' p. 124, citing the entry on ''tellus'' in Ernout-Meillet, ''Dictionnaire Etymologique De La Langue Latine''.〕 The 4th-century AD Latin commentator Servius distinguishes between ''tellus'' and ''terra'' in usage. ''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.〔Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' (1.171. )〕 ''Tellus'' thus refers to the guardian deity of Earth and by extension the globe itself.〔Entry on "Tellus," in ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 1480.〕 Tellus may be an aspect of the numen called Dea Dia by the Arval priests,〔William Warde Fowler, ''The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic'' (London, 1908), p. 74, concurring with Ludwig Preller.〕 or at least a close collaborator with her as "divinity of the clear sky."〔Robert Schilling, "Rome," in ''Roman and European Mythologies'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 114.〕 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.〔Varro, ''De re rustica'' 3.1.5, as cited by Hendrik Wagenvoort, "Initia Cereris," in ''Studies in Roman Literature, Culture and Religion'' (Brill, 1956), p. 153.〕 Ovid distinguishes between Tellus as the ''locus'' ("site, location") of growth, and Ceres as its ''causa'' ("cause, agent").〔Ovid, ''Fasti'' 1 (671–674); Georges Dumézil, ''Camillus,'' edited and translated by Udo Strutynski (University of California Press, 1980), p. 77.〕 ''Mater'', the Latin word for "mother," is often used as an honorific for goddesses, including Vesta, who was represented as a virgin. "Mother" therefore expresses the respect that one would owe a mother, though Tellus and Terra are both regarded as mothers in the genealogical sense as well. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Terra (mythology)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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