It's All Geek to Me:
tales of the Greek Gods by Leah Samul
Mabon 1990: Gaia, Mother Earth
Also written as the word Ge. Without a mate, the mother of Uranus, Pontus and Ourea. Gaia was the word that the Greeks used to personify the earth itself, which to them was female. According to Hesiod she was the very first divinity to appear out of Chaos (the void, nothingness) and her name means "the deep breasted earth."
Gaia's first offspring were Uranus (the sky), Ourea (the mountains) and Pontus (the sea). Then she mated with Uranus and by him had various children: the Titans, the Cyclopes and the Centimanes, who were also known as the Hecatoncheires.
Possibly because he feared their strength, Uranus hated the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires and as they were born he got rid of them by hiding them in Gaia's body, or in other words, by burying them in the earth. Gaia felt this and was filled with anguish. She decided to approach her children and see if they would help her put an end to this. Cronos, called by Hesiod "the cunning trickster", agreed to help.
Gaia gave him a sharp sickle with a jagged edge, and hid him in ambush. When Uranus came to make love with Gaia that night, Cronos castrated his father with the sickle. Some of the blood from this deed fell onto Gaia and she gave birth to the Erinnyes, the Giants, and according to one version of the story, the Meliae, or ash tree nymphs. The castrated organs of Uranus themselves floated on the waves of the sea until white foam came from the cut-off flesh, and Aphrodite, whose name was given to her because she grew up from the froth of the sea, was born.
Unfortunately, Cronos grew to become much like his father Uranus. When Rhea began to give birth to the Gods and Goddesses, Cronos swallowed all of the children so that they wouldn't try to claim kingship. But Rhea called on Gaia and Uranus to help her, which they did. Gaia herself nursed the young Zeus, and fooled Cronos by giving him a stone wrapped in a baby blanket to swallow. He thought it was his child, and swallowed the stone. Gaia took the child to a safe place and nursed him.
When Zeus grew to manhood he overthrew Cronos, banishing him to the depths of the universe. Gaia was often willing to help Zeus. She warned him that if he had a son by his wife Metis, he would be deposed by this child. For that reason, he swallowed Metis when she was pregnant with Athena, hoping to prevent any further problems. After the battle that went on between the Titans and the Olympian deities, which was won by the Olympians, Gaia urged the rest of the Olympians to invite Zeus to be their ruler. In Hesiod, Gaia and Zeus don't really ever fight against each other. The only time they might possibly be construed to be at odds is when Gaia gives birth by Tartarus to Typhoeus, who was strong enough to be a serious threat to Zeus' authority. Zeus overcomes Typhoeus, but there doesn't seem to be any ill will between Gaia and Zeus.
In Apollodorus, things are a little different. At one point Gaia and Zeus fight on opposite sides because the Giants, who were her children, stormed Olympus. Gaia searched for a drug to make the Giants invulnerable, but Zeus found the drug before she could, and the Olympians were again victorious.
Even after the Olympian Gods and Goddesses took over, the Greeks still reverenced Gaia. Larousse says that the Gods and Goddesses swore on her name when they took oaths. Larousse says that the power of oracles originally belonged to Gaia, and that Apollo's oracle at Delphi was at first Gaia's. The Homeric Hymn to the Earth waxes eloquent in its praise of "the mother of us all, the oldest of all...", and it constantly reminds the reader that whoever you are, it is the earth herself who nourishes you. Regarding specific religious ritual, Burkert, admitting to speculation on this information, indicates that the "worship of the earth, Gaia, Ge, is often considered as a prototype of all piety...evoking the political as well as the agrarian aspect -- the earth not only sustains but also imposes obligations on her native sons. In customary religion, the role of Gaia is exceedingly modest; it develops from the practice of pouring libations, most notably the ceremonial carrying of water to a cleft in the ground. Neither Demeter nor the Great Goddess of Asia Minor is to be identified with Earth."
(Tripp, p. 249-50 [Hesiod, THEOGONY 116-187, 233-239, 459-497, 820-822, 881-885; Apollod 1.1.1-5, 1.2.1, 1.2.6, 1.3.6, 1.5.2, 1.6.1-3, 2.1.2, 2.5.11, 3.8.1; Homer, ODYSSEY 11.576; Homer HOMERIC HYMN TO THE EARTH; Pindar, PYTHIAN ODES 9.59-65; Hyginus FAB 203; Pausanias 1.2.6, 1.14.3, 5.14.10, 7.25.13, 8.25.8-10, 10.5.6, 10.6.6] Burkert, p. 175)