Great Mother
2
9.9
- proper noun
- Literature
:
Gran Madre
- Many people believe the Great Mother represents the nurturing aspects of nature and fertility.
- name of Great Mother
Examples
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The site of the classic Aphrodite sanctuary at Paphos was originally established in the third millennium B.C.E. as a shrine to the Great Mother, a fertility/sexuality goddess.
Academic text (2016) -
In this essay, I place Our Lady of the Rockies in the context of four thousand years of shrines to the Great Mother and the frequent association of these shrines with mining activity.
Academic text (2016) -
The rest of the time she is with the Great Mother.
Fiction book (2002) -
The way is through connection into the Great Mother, the great Cosmic Mother, which is really the greatest force that is over all of us.
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My distant ancestors were pagans who worshiped the Great Mother.
Blog text (19) -
For this reason, premodern mining cultures often emphasized worship of the Earth Mother (or Great Mother) above other deities.
Academic text (2016) -
"In the name of Mut, Great Mother of All, I greet you, Joharran, Leader of the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii," she said, then smiled.
Fiction book (2002) -
The ancient city held ceremonies in honor of the Great Mother, an important figure in their culture.
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In rituals, priests would invoke the Great Mother to bless the land with abundance and health.
Synonyms
2
9.9
An ancient mother goddess from what is now Turkey linked to nature, fertility, and mountains
A mother goddess from ancient Phrygia later linked to the Greek Rhea and Roman Ops
A mother goddess from ancient Phrygia who people worship for life and fertility
An ancient mother goddess from Phrygia who often wears a crown of towers
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'great' (important/major) and 'mother' (female parent), so a learner who knows both words will likely infer an important or archetypal mother figure. However, the specific cultural meaning 'Earth personified as a nurturing mother goddess' and its eco-spiritual connotations are specialized and not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so a B1 learner may not arrive at the precise referent without prior exposure.
Etymology
Great Mother comes from ancient worship in Phrygia, where people showed a powerful mother goddess often flanked by lions and holding plants and fruits; she was seen as the giver of life, so the name came to mean a 'mother goddess' of 'fertility' and life.