“Gaia The Earth Mother” by Peggy Kane

“Hybla’s themes are the earth, ecology, nature and animals. Her symbols are all natural objects.  This Sicilian Goddess presides over earth and nature, tending to all its needs. She also gave birth to humanity and inspires greater earth awareness within us.

Saint Francis of Assisi‘s life is celebrated today because of his gentle relationship with nature, which he considered a family member (often calling animals ‘brothers and sisters’). This is why he became the patron of many environmentalists. To remember him and honor Hybla’s spirit, which he so powerfully displayed, say a prayer for the earth today. Invoke Hybla’s nurturing energy with words like these:
‘Earth Mother, look upon your children;
Look upon the plants – restore the earth’s greenery.
Look upon the animals and protect them from more harm.
Look upon the waters and purify each drop.
Look upon the winds, and cleanse the air.
Take the world gently in you caring arm
and love it back into wholeness once more
Amen.’

Tuck a flower petal or leaf in your pocket or shoe today to keep Hybla’s earth awareness close by. And, if you have pets, today is the perfect time to bless them. Give them special foods, find non-chemical pest repellents, and pamper them with extra love. Remember, life is a network: showing kindness to one strand extends that energy outward to the web.”

(Patricia Telesco, “365 Goddess: a daily guide to the magic and inspiration of the goddess”.)

This is a new Goddess to me, and quite intriguing, as one set of my grandparents immigrated here from Sicily in the early 1900’s.  She is one that I would personally like to research further and work with since I have a great reverence for the Earth Mother.  Also, now as Samhain grows near, for She is a Goddess of earth with connections to the Underworld and of course my Ancestors.

“The Love Embrace of the Universe” by Frida Kahlo

Patricia Monaghan tells us that Hybla was the greatest Goddess of ancient Sicily and still appears in Italian place names; She was an earth Goddess and ancestor of humanity (p 157).

“Hybla is the Sicel Goddess of nature. The Sicels were the original inhabitants of Sicily, and we know of their deities through Greek explorers and writers. Hybla was worshipped on hills in Sicily which had unusual natural phenomena, such as a volcano and mineral springs. The hills were also home to bees that produced some of the finest honey known to the ancient world. Hybla’s name was also seen as Hyblaea, and She became syncretized with the Roman Goddess Venus, who took on the name Venus Victrix Hyblensis.” [1]

Douglas Sladen writes: “A Goddess of the nether world in the Sikel religion not identified with any Greek Goddess, but in Roman times, says Freman, ‘the Goddess of Hybla became identified with the Latin Venus.  But it should be remembered that the Latin Venus was, in Her first estate, a harmless Goddess of growth, falling in well with one aspect of the powers of the nether world.  Her worship is  of course, connected with Etna” (p. 202).

 

 

 

Sources:

Fiorentino, Paolo. Sicily Through Symbolism and Myth: Gates to Heaven and the Underworld, “The Goddess Hybla“.

Sabrina. Goddess A Day, “Hybla“.

Sladen, Douglas. Sicily: The New Winter Resort, An Encyclopedia of Sicily, “Hybla” (p. 202).

 

 

Suggested Links:

Freeman, Edward. History of Sicily V1.

Wikipedia, “Sicels“.