Gaia in popular culture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The embodiment of the Earth Mother in Greek mythology, Gaia entered popular culture following the publication of James Lovelock's Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth in 1979. Further books by Lovelock and others popularized the Gaia Hypothesis, which was widely embraced and passed into common usage as part of the heightened awareness of planetary vulnerability of the 1990s.
There have been numerous uses of Gaia's name in market-driven popular culture since 1980.
Paul Winter composed a "Missa Gaia", integrating world music with songs from the wild to celebrate the whole earth as a sacred space. The Missa Gaia has been performed annually since 1985 on the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi on the first Sunday in October in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. It was commissioned by the Dean of the Cathedral as a contemporary ecumenical Mass.
The theme behind the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within adapts Lovelock's philosophy of Gaia, which is also embraced within parts of the New Age movement, and by some environmentalists. The games Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX are set on a planet named Gaia.
An internet hoax circulated in 1999 concerning the reunion and new album of British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. The supposed new album's name was "Majesty of Gaia" and fans actually paid money for advance copies of the rumoured album until the band's website exposed the hoax. The eventual new album was titled Brave New World and was released in 2000.
In the game Werewolf: The Apocalypse, werewolves are supposed to be Gaia's weapons against the Wyrm, a representation of ecological destruction.
The cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers features a personification of Gaia, whose well-being is dependent on the state of the environment worldwide. The game SimEarth features a similar depiction of Gaia, with the same function.
The game Illusion of Gaia features a large statue-esque entity named Gaia, who guides the hero through the game to save the Earth. The game, as well as its sequel, Terranigma, also feature an enemy named Dark Gaia, an evil opposite to Gaia. E.V.O.: Search For Eden also features Gaia, guiding the main character of the game through evolution and time, ultimately on a path to reach Eden and live with Gaia. These games were all made by Quintet, and E.V.O. may be part of the Terra Earth series.
The techno artist BT produced a song named Lullaby for Gaia in 1997.
Gaia Online has been made an online forum and games site founded on February 18, 2003.
Gaia is the name of one of the Gundam Mobile suits in the Japanese anime, Gundam SEED Destiny.
A somewhat older use of the name dates back to the 1965 novel The Arm of the Starfish. In this book, Madeleine L'Engle, another figure associated with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, postulates a fictional island of Gaea off the coast of Portugal. Although the novel is not about the classical figure per se, it concerns the ethics of studying and abusing the wonders of the natural world, specifically tissue regeneration in starfish.
In the DC Comics book Wonder Woman, the goddess Gaea is one of the most revered goddesses worshipped. Gaea's golden girdle was later transformed into Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth.
In the game, Age of Mythology, the expansion pack features Gaia as a character usable in the campaign.
