{{Short description|Personification of Earth in ancient Rome}} {{About|the personification of the Earth in ancient Roman religion and mythology|other uses|Terra (disambiguation){{!}}Terra}} {{Infobox deity | type = Roman | name = Tellus | other_names = {{lang|la|Terra}} or {{lang|la|Tierra}} | image = Aion mosaic Glyptothek Munich W504.jpg | caption = Terra reclining with the Seasons, accompanied by Aion-Uranus within a zodiac wheel (mosaic from Sentinum, AD 200–250, Glyptothek). | god_of = Goddess of the earth, earthquakes, fertility, nature, marriage and agriculture personification of the Earth | abode = Earth | symbol = Fruit, flowers, cornucopia, cattle | consort = Caelus | parents = Aether and Dies | siblings = Caelus | children = Saturn, Ops, Janus | mount = | Greek_equivalent = Gaia | member_of = the ''di selecti'' }} In ancient Roman religion and mythology, '''Tellus''' or '''Terra'''{{efn|name=name usage}} ("Mother Earth") is the personification of the Earth. Although Tellus and Terra are hardly distinguishable during the Imperial era,<ref name=Augoustakis_2010>{{cite book |first=Antony |last=Augoustakis |title=Motherhood and the Other: Fashioning female power in Flavian epic |url=https://archive.org/details/motherhoodotherf00augo |url-access=limited |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |page=[https://archive.org/details/motherhoodotherf00augo/page/n138 124]|isbn=978-0-19-958441-3 }}</ref> ''Tellus'' was the name of the original earth goddess in the religious practices of the Republic or earlier.<ref>{{cite book |first=Gary |last=Forsythe |title=Time in Roman Religion: One thousand years of religious history |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |page=73}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Christopher M. |last=McDonough |article=Roman Religion |encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |volume=1 |page=97}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Varro_de_re/><ref name=Augustine_Civ/>{{rp|7.2}} She is regularly associated with Ceres in rituals pertaining to the earth and agricultural fertility.
The attributes of Tellus were the cornucopia, bunches of flowers, or fruit. She was typically depicted reclining, or rising, waist high from a hole in the ground.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Marion |last=Lawrence |title=The Velletri Sarcophagus |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=69 |issue=3 |year=1965 |page=212|doi=10.2307/502285 |jstor=502285 |s2cid=193124610 }}</ref> Her male complement was a sky god such as Caelus (Uranus) or a form of Jupiter. Her Greek counterpart is Gaia,<ref name=Lar>{{cite book |title=Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia |publisher=The Book People |author=Haydock |year=1995 |page=215}}{{full citation needed|reason=Missing first name/initial of author, missing article-title for encyclopedia entry (rendered here with the "cite book" template|date=December 2019}}</ref> and among the Etruscans, her name was Cel. Michael Lipka has argued that the ''Terra Mater'' who appeared during the reign of Augustus, is a direct transfer of the Greek ''Ge Mater'' into Roman religious practice, while Tellus, whose ancient temple was within Rome's sacred boundary (''pomerium''), represents the original earth goddess cultivated by the state priests.<ref name=Lipka_2009>{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Lipka |title=Roman Gods: A conceptual approach |publisher=Brill |year=2009}}</ref>{{rp|151–152 ff}}
==Name== [[File:Roman - Stele - Walters 23184.jpg|thumb|upright|A dedicatory inscription to ''Terra Mater'' fulfilling a vow (''votum''), 1st century CE.]] The Indo-Europeanist scholar Michiel de Vaan suggests a possible connection between the word {{lang|la|tellūs}} ("earth, ground, soil") and the Proto-Indo-European root {{lang|ine-x-proto|telh₂-}} ("to bear, support"). According to this theory, the Earth was originally conceptualized as the "bearer" or "supporter" of the objects and creatures that dwelt atop the land.<ref>{{Citation |last=de Vaan |first=Michiel |title=Etymological Dictionary of Latin |url=https://archive.org/details/de-vaan-michiel-etymological-dictionary-of-latin |series=Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series |volume=7 |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |issn=1574-3586 |author-link=Michiel de Vaan |isbn=978-90-04-16797-1 |oclc=225873936 |ol=23157929M |year=2008 |editor-last=Lubotsky |editor-first=Alexander |editor-link=Alexander Lubotsky |pages=608-609}}</ref> The 4th century AD Latin commentator Servius distinguishes between use of ''tellus'' and ''terra''. ''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.<ref name="Servius_Aen">{{cite book |author-link=Maurus Servius Honoratus |author=Maurus Servius Honoratus |title=note on [Virgil's] ''Aeneid'' |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Serv.+A.+1.171&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053}}</ref>{{rp|1.171}} ''Tellus'' thus refers to the guardian deity of Earth and by extension the globe itself.<ref>{{cite dictionary |entry=Tellus |dictionary=The Oxford Classical Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |page=1480}}</ref> Tellus may be an aspect of the spirit called Dea Dia by the Arval priests,{{refn|Fowler (1908),<ref name=Fowler_1908/>{{rp|74}} who concurs with Ludwig Preller}} or at least a close collaborator with her as "divinity of the clear sky."<ref name="Schilling_1992">{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Schilling |chapter=Rome |title=Roman and European Mythologies |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1992 |orig-year=1981}} from the French edition of 1981.</ref>{{rp|114}}
Varro identifies ''Terra Mater'' with Ceres:
<blockquote>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.{{refn|Varro<ref name=Varro_de_re/>{{rp|3.1.5}} cited by Wagenvoort (1956).<ref name=Wagenvoort_1956/>{{rp|153}} }}</blockquote>
Ovid distinguishes between Tellus as the ''locus'' ("site, location") of growth, and Ceres as its ''causa'' ("cause, agent").<ref name=Ovid_Fasti>{{cite book |author-link=Ovid |author=Publius Ovidius Naso |title=Fastorum Libri Sex (Fasti) |trans-title=Six Books on the Calendar |title-link=Fasti (Ovid)}}</ref>{{rp|1.671–674}}<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Georges Dumézil |first=Georges |last=Dumézil |title=Camillus |url=https://archive.org/details/camillusstudyind00dume |url-access=limited |others=edited and translated by Udo Strutynski |publisher=University of California Press |year=1980 |page=[https://archive.org/details/camillusstudyind00dume/page/n84 77]|isbn=9780520028418 }}</ref> ''Mater'', the Latin word for "mother," is often used as an honorific for goddesses, including Vesta, who was represented as a virgin. "Mother" therefore is an honorific that expresses the respect one would owe any good mother. Tellus and Terra are both regarded as mothers in both the literal and honorific sense; Vesta in the honorific only.
==Temple== The Temple of Tellus was the most prominent landmark of the Carinae,<ref>Suetonius, ''Grammatici'' 15</ref><ref name=Servius_Aen/>{{rp|8.361}} a fashionable neighborhood on the Oppian Hill.<ref name=Richardson_1992>{{cite book |first=Lawrence |last=Richardson |title=A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |place=Baltimore, MD |year=1992}}</ref>{{rp|71, 378}}{{refn|According to Taylor<ref name=Taylor_1925/>{{rp|306}} it was on the lower slopes of the Esquiline Hill.}} It was near homes (''domūs'') belonging to Pompey{{refn|Pompey's ''domus rostrata'', the house that was ornamented with the prows (''rostra'') from the so-called Cilician pirates.<ref>Suetonius, ''Grammatici'', 15</ref>}}<ref>Appian, ''Bellum Civile'', 2.126</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Ann |last=Kuttner |title=Culture and history at Pompey's museum |journal=Transactions of the American Philological Association |volume=129 |year=1999 |page=349}}</ref><ref name=Richardson_1992/>{{rp|133, 378}} and to the Cicero family.<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Cicero'', 8.3</ref><ref name=Cicero_bro>{{cite book |author-link=Cicero |author=Marcus Tulius Cicero |title=Letters to My Brother Quintus}}</ref>{{rp|2.3.7}}<ref name=Richardson_1992/>{{rp|378}}
The temple was the result of a ''votum'' made in 268 BC by Publius Sempronius Sophus when an earthquake struck during a battle with the Picenes.<ref>Florus, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Florus/Epitome/1D*.html#XIIII 1.14.2]</ref><ref name=Richardson_1992/>{{rp|378}} Others<ref>Valerius Maximus [http://attalus.org/translate/valerius6a.html#c3 6.3.1b]; Dionysius of Halicarnassus [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/8C*.html#79 8.79.3].</ref> say it was built by the Roman people. It occupied the former site of a house belonging to Spurius Cassius, which had been torn down when he was executed in 485 BC for attempting to make himself king.<ref>Cicero, [http://attalus.org/cicero/domo2.html#101 ''De domo sua'' 101]</ref><ref>Livy, [https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/From_the_Founding_of_the_City/Book_2#41 2.41.11]</ref><ref>Dionysius of Halicarnassus, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/8C*.html#79 8.79.3]</ref><ref>Valerius Maximus, [http://attalus.org/translate/valerius6a.html#c3 6.3.1b].</ref> The temple constructed by Sophus more than two centuries later was most likely a rebuilding of the people's.<ref name=Richardson_1992/>{{rp|378}} The anniversary (''dies natalis'') of its dedication was December 13.
A mysterious object called the ''magmentarium'' was stored in the temple,<ref>Cicero, [http://attalus.org/cicero/haruspices.html#31 ''De haruspicum responsis'' 31]</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=John E. |last=Stambaugh |title=The functions of Roman temples |journal=Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt |year=1978|at=II.16.1, p. 571}}</ref><ref name=Richardson_1992/>{{rp|379}} which was also known for a representation of Italy on the wall, either a map or an allegory.<ref name=Varro_de_re>{{cite book |author-link=Varro |author=Marcus Terentius Varro |title=Rerum rusticarum libri tres |trans-title=Agricultural Topics in Three Books}}</ref>{{rp|1.2.1}}<ref>{{cite journal |first=Karl-J. |last=Hölkeskamp |title=Conquest, competition, and consensus: Roman expansion in Italy and the rise of the ''nobilitas'' |journal=Historia |volume=42 |issue=1 |year=1993 |page=28}}</ref><ref name=Richardson_1992/>{{rp|378–379}}
A statue of Quintus Cicero, set up by his brother Marcus, was among those that stood on the temple grounds.<ref name=Cicero_bro/>{{rp|3.1.6, 3.1.14}}<ref>{{cite journal |author-link=T.P. Wiseman |first=T.P. |last=Wiseman |title=The ambitions of Quintus Cicero |journal=Journal of Roman Studies |volume=56 |year=1966 |issue=1–2 |page=110|doi=10.2307/300137 |jstor=300137 |s2cid=163483058 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=William C. |last=McDermott |title=Q. Cicero |journal=Historia |volume=20 |year=1971 |page=107}}</ref> Cicero claims that the proximity of his property caused some Romans to assume he had a responsibility to help maintain the temple.<ref>Cicero, ''De haruspicum responsis'', 31.</ref>
==Festivals== [[File:Sarcophagus Dionysos Met 55.11.5 n08.jpg|thumb|Detail from a sarcophagus depicting a Mother Earth figure (3rd century AD).]] Festivals celebrated for Tellus were mainly concerned with agriculture and often connected with Ceres. In January, both goddesses were honored as "mothers of produce"{{refn|''Frugum matres'', Ovid<ref name=Ovid_Fasti/>{{rp|1.671}} }} at the moveable feast (''feriae conceptivae'') of Sementivae, a festival of sowing.{{refn|Scullard (1981)<ref>{{cite book |author-link=H.H. Scullard |author=Scullard, H.H. |title=Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic |url=https://archive.org/details/festivalsceremon00scul |url-access=limited |publisher=Cornell University Press |place=Ithaca, NY |year=1981 |page=[https://archive.org/details/festivalsceremon00scul/page/n67 68]|isbn=9780801414022 }}</ref> considers January 24–26 to be the regular date of the ''feriae conceptivae''.}} On December 13, the anniversary of the Temple of Tellus was celebrated along with a ''lectisternium'' (banquet) for Ceres, who embodied "growing power" and the productivity of the earth.{{refn|Wagenvoort (1956)<ref name=Wagenvoort_1956/>{{rp|159ff}} argues that Ceres herself originated as the generative aspect of Tellus.}}
Tellus received the sacrifice of a pregnant cow at the Fordicidia, a festival pertaining to fertility and animal husbandry<ref name=Beard_etal_1998>{{cite book |author1-link=Mary Beard (classicist) |first1=Mary |last1=Beard |first2=J.A. |last2=North |first3=S.R.F. |last3=Price |title=Religions of Rome: A history |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |volume=1 |isbn=9780521316828 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2rtaTFYuM3QC&q=Fordicidia&pg=PA45 |via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|45}} held April 15, in the middle of the Cerialia (April 12–19).<ref name=Wagenvoort_1956>{{cite book |author-link=Hendrik Wagenvoort |first=Hendrik |last=Wagenvoort |chapter=Initia Cereris |title=Studies in Roman Literature, Culture and Religion |publisher=Brill |year=1956}}</ref>{{rp|163}} Festivals for deities of vegetation and the earth cluster in April on the Roman calendar.<ref name=Fowler_1908>{{cite book |author-link=William Warde Fowler |first=William Warde |last=Fowler |title=The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic |place=London |year=1908}}</ref>{{rp|67}} The institution of the Fordicidia was attributed to Numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome. During a time when Rome was struggling with harsh agricultural conditions, Numa was instructed by the rustic god Faunus in a dream that a sacrifice to Tellus was needed. As is often the case with oracles, the message required interpretation: <blockquote>"By the death of cattle, oh King, Tellus must be placated: two cows, that is. Let a single heifer yield two lives (''animae'') for the rites."{{refn|''Morte boum tibi, rex, Tellus placanda duarum: / det sacris animas una iuvenca duas''.<ref name=Ovid_Fasti/>{{rp|4.641–666}} }}</blockquote> Numa solved the riddle by instituting the sacrifice of a pregnant cow.<ref>{{cite book |first=Vyacheslav V. |last=Ivanov |contribution=Fundamentals of Diachronic Linguistics |title=Semiotics around the World: Synthesis in Diversity |editor-first=Mouton |editor-last=de Gruyter |year=1994 |volume=1 |pages=64–66}} – discusses Vedic and Hittite parallels.</ref> The purpose of the sacrifice, as suggested by the Augustan poet Ovid and by the 6th-century antiquarian John Lydus, was to assure the fertility of the planted grain already growing in the womb of Mother Earth in the guise of Tellus.<ref name=Ovid_Fasti/>{{rp|4.633 ff}}{{refn|John Lydus, ''De Mensibus'', 4.49, drawing on Varro, as noted by Fowler (1908).<ref name=Fowler_1908/>{{rp|71}}}}<ref name=Beard_etal_1998/>{{rp|53}} This public sacrifice was conducted in the form of a holocaust on behalf of the state at the Capitol, and also by each of the thirty ''curiae'', the most ancient divisions of the city made by Romulus from the original three tribes.<ref name=Fowler_1908/>{{rp|71, 303}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Christopher John |last=Smith |title=The Roman Clan: The ''gens'' from ancient ideology to modern anthropology |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |page=[https://archive.org/details/romanclangensfro00smit/page/n222 207]}}</ref> The state sacrifice was presided over by the Vestals, who used the ash from the holocaust to prepare ''suffimen'', a ritual substance used later in April for the Parilia.<ref name=Ovid_Fasti/>{{rp|4.731–734}}<ref>{{cite journal |first=Daniel P. |last=Harmon |title=Religion in the Latin elegists |journal=Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt |year=1986 |at=2.16.3, p. 1958}}</ref><ref name=Fowler_1908/>{{rp|71}}<ref name=Beard_etal_1998/>{{rp|53, 383}}
During the Secular Games held by Augustus in 17 BC, Terra Mater was among the deities honored in the Tarentum in the Campus Martius. Her ceremonies were conducted by "Greek rite" (''ritus graecus''), distinguishing her from the Roman Tellus whose temple was within the ''pomerium''. She received the holocaust of a pregnant sow.<ref name=Lipka_2009/>{{rp|151–152, 157}} The Secular Games of 249 BC had been dedicated to the underworld deities Dis pater and Proserpina, whose underground altar was in the Tarentum. Under Augustus, the Games (''ludi'') were dedicated to seven other deities, invoked as the ''Moerae, Iuppiter, Ilithyia, Iuno, Terra Mater, Apollo'' and ''Diana''.<ref name=Lipka_2009/>{{rp|150}}
==Prayers and rituals== The ''sacrum ceriale'' ("cereal rite") was carried out for Tellus and Ceres by a flamen, probably the Flamen Cerialis, who also invoked twelve male helper gods.<ref>Varro, ''Antiquitates'' frg. 266 (edition of Cardauns), Servius Danielis, note to ''Georgics'' {{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=523229FBA11D272BC5DFB4D8E5EFD351?doc=Serv.+G.+1.21&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0092 |title=1.21 |postscript=none}}, citing Fabius Pictor{{clarify|reason=Is this two citations or one?|date=December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author-link=Jörg Rüpke |first=Jörg |last=Rüpke |title=Religion in Republican Rome: Rationalization and ritual change |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2012 |page=181}}</ref><ref name=Lipka_2009/>{{rp|57, 69}} According to Varro,{{refn|As cited by Nonius, p. 240 in the edition of Wallace Lindsay, as cited by Schilling<ref name=Schilling_1992/>{{rp|122}} }} the two goddesses jointly received the ''porca praecidanea'', a pig sacrificed in advance of the harvest.{{refn|Cato<ref name=Cato_Ag>{{cite book |author-link=Cato the Elder |author=Cato |title=On Agriculture |at=134}}</ref> and Gellius<ref name=Gellius_Nt>{{cite book |author-link=Aulus Gellius |author=Gellius |title=Attic Nights |at=4.6.8}}</ref> name Ceres as the sole recipient.}} Some rites originally pertaining to Tellus may have been transferred to Ceres, or shared with her, as a result of her identification with Greek Demeter.{{refn|Schilling<ref name=Schilling_1992/>{{rp|124}} "Cicero as Theologian"}}
Tellus was felt to be present during rites of passage, either implicitly, or invoked. She was perhaps involved in the ceremonies attending the birth of a child, as the newborn was placed on the ground immediately after coming into the world.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} Tellus was also invoked at Roman weddings.<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 4.166</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Spaeth |title=The Roman Goddess Ceres |page=5}}{{full citation needed|date=December 2019}}</ref>
Dedicatory inscriptions to either Tellus or Terra are relatively few,<ref name=Taylor_1925>{{cite journal |author-link=Lily Ross Taylor |first=Lily Ross |last=Taylor |title=The Mother of the Lares |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=29 |issue=3 |year=1925|pages=299–313 |doi=10.2307/497560 |jstor=497560 |s2cid=192992171 }}</ref>{{rp|304}} but epitaphs during the Imperial period sometimes contain formulaic expressions such as "Terra Mater, receive me."<ref name=Fowler_1922>{{cite book |author-link=William Warde Fowler |first=William Warde |last=Fowler |title=The Religious Experience of the Roman People |place=London |year=1922 |page=122}}</ref> In the provincial mining area of Pannonia, at present-day Ljubija, votive inscriptions record dedications to Terra Mater from ''vilici'', imperial slave overseers who ran operations at ore smelting factories (''ferrariae'').<ref>{{cite book |first=Alfred Michael |last=Hirt |title=Imperial Mines and Quarries in the Roman World: Organizational aspects 27 BC–AD 235 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |at=sect. 6.2}}</ref><ref name=Dusanic_1977>{{cite journal |first=Slobodan |last=Dušanić |title=Aspects of Roman Mining in Noricum, Pannonia, Dalmatia and Moesia Superior |journal=Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt |volume=2 |issue=6 |year=1977}}</ref>{{rp|58–59}}
These are all dated April 21, when the founding day (''dies natalis,'' "birthday") of Rome was celebrated, perhaps reflecting the connection between the Parilia on April 21 and the Fordicidia as a feast of Tellus.<ref name=Dusanic_1977/>{{rp|59–60}} The emperor Septimius Severus restored a temple of Terra Mater at Rudnik, a silver mining area of Moesia Superior.<ref>''CIL'' 3.8333</ref><ref name=Dusanic_1977/>{{rp|59 (note 29), 78}} Measuring 30 by 20 meters, the temple was located at the entrance to the work zone.<ref name=Dusanic_1977/>{{rp|78}}
==Iconography== [[File:Tellus - Ara Pacis.jpg|thumb|300px|The attributes of the central figure on this panel of the Ara Pacis mark her as an earth and mother goddess, often identified as Tellus.]]
Tellus is often identified as the central figure on the so-called ''Italia'' relief panel of the Ara Pacis, which is framed by ''bucrania'' (ornamental ox heads) and motifs of vegetative and animal fertility and abundance.<ref>{{cite book |first=Denis |last=Feeney |contribution=Interpreting sacrificial ritual in Roman poetry: Disciplines and their models |title=Rituals in Ink: A conference on religion and literary production in ancient Rome |editor-first=Franz |editor-last=Steiner |year=2004 |page=12}}</ref><ref>For more on the iconography of Tellus, see ''Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae'', 7.1.879–889.</ref> Terra long remained common as a personification, if not exactly treated as a goddess. She often formed part of sets of the personified Four Elements, typically identified by a cornucopia, farm animals, and vegetable products.
==Tellumo== Male counterparts named ''Tellumo'' or ''Tellurus'' are mentioned, although rarely. Augustine of Hippo identified Tellumo as the male counterpart of Tellus.<ref name=Augustine_Civ>{{cite book |author-link=Augustine of Hippo |author=Augustine of Hippo |title=De civitate Dei |title-link=De civitate Dei}}</ref>{{rp|7.23}} A Tellurus is named by Capella<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Martianus Capella |author=Martianus Minneus Felix Capella |title=De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii |trans-title=On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury |at=1.49}}</ref> but by no other source.<ref>{{cite book |first=Roger D. |last=Woodard |title=Indo-European sacred space: Vedic and Roman cult |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2006 |page=115}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=William Harris |last1=Stahl |first2=E.L. |last2=Bruge |title=Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts: The marriage of philology and Mercury |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1977 |page=23}}</ref>
==In science== In several modern Romance languages, ''Terra'' or ''Terre'' is the name of planet Earth. Earth is sometimes referred to as "Terra" by speakers of English to match post-classical Latin astronomical naming conventions, and to distinguish the planet from the soil covering part of it. It is also, rarely, called "Tellus", mainly via the adjective "tellurian".<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Valentin Naboth |first=Valentinus |last=Nabodus |title=Primae de coelo et terra institutiones ... |trans-title=The main precepts for understanding the celestial and terrestrial ... |pages=33, 41–42 |place=Venete |year=1573 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dNk5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PT98 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
==In the arts== Tellus was the inspiration for the name of the Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine.<ref>[https://monoskop.org/Joseph_Nechvatal] Joseph Nechvatal at Monoskop</ref>
==See also== {{Commons category|Allegories of earth}} {{Commons category|Tellus}} *Telluride (disambiguation) *Phra Mae Thorani
{{Clear}}
==Notes== {{notelist|refs= {{efn|name=name usage|This article preserves the nomenclature ''Tellus'' or ''Terra'' as used by individual ancient sources.}} }}
==References== {{Reflist|25em}}
{{Roman religion}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terra (Mythology)}} Category:Roman agricultural goddesses Category:Childhood goddesses Category:Earth goddesses Category:Roman fertility goddesses Category:Mother goddesses Category:Nature goddesses Category:Roman goddesses Category:Personifications Category:Personifications in Roman mythology Category:World Category:Earth in religion Category:Cattle deities