𓈒 :heartpulse: Lady , Maia 𖦹 ♰ ◞ Overview 𓏏 MAIA was the eldest of the Pleiades, the seven nymphs of the constellation Pleiades. She was a shy goddess who dwelt alone in a cave near the peaks of Mount Kyllene (Cyllene) in Arkadia where she secretly gave birth to the god Hermes, her son by Zeus. She also raised the boy Arkas (Arcas) in her cave whose mother Kallisto (Callisto) had been transformed into a bear.
︵｡ Hellenic ♡ Nymph of ༚ 𓏵 earth ..
𓈒 :classical_building: portrayed , art 𖦹 ♰ ◞ She is rarely depicted in ancient art, but when shown, it is often in the company of her sisters (the Pleiades) or with her son, Hermes. She is associated with the constellation Pleiades and sometimes shown in a cave setting, reflecting her role as a mountain nymph.
𓏏 Worship / Devotional acts ︵｡ All nymphs, whose number is almost infinite, may be divided into two great classes. The first class embraces those who must be regarded as a kind of inferior divinities, recognised in the worship of nature. ♡ The early Greeks saw in all the phenomena of ordinary nature some manifestation of the deity; springs, rivers, grottoes, trees, and mountains, all seemed to them fraught with life; and all were only the visible embodiments of so many divine agents. The salutary and beneficent powers of nature were thus personified, and regarded as so many divinities; and the sensations produced on man in the contemplation of nature, such as awe, terror, joy, delight, were ascribed to the agency of the various divinities of nature. The second class of nymphs are personifications of tribes, races, and states, such as Cyrene, and many others. Learn about hermes and gaia, include nature worahip, milk, honey, wheat, constelation research, and learn about the Pleiades
༚ 𓏵 Sources + Notes .. theoi, Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore, greek mythology Aiskhylos (Aeschylus) apparently idenifies Maia "the nursing mother" with Gaia "the Earth." On several occassions he calls the earth-goddess Gaia Maia (Mother Earth) and pairs her with Hermes Khthonios ("of the Earth"). The month of May (Latin Maius) was supposedly named for Maia, though ancient etymologists also connected it to the maiores, "ancestors," again from the adjective maius, maior, meaning those who are "greater" in terms of generational precedence.
