A.“γαίης” Hom. (and Antiph., v. infr.), Trag. γαίας, dat. “γαίᾳ” A.Pers.618, S.Aj.659, E.Med.736, etc., acc. γαῖαν: nom. γαίη only in late Poets, IG14.1935, etc.; Dor. γαία_ ib.803 (Naples): pl. “γαῖαι” Od. (v. infr.), LXX 4 Ki.18.35, al.:—poet. for γῆ, land, country, φίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν to one's dear fatherland, Il.2.140, al.; “γαῖάν τε τεὴν δῆμόν τε” Od.8.555: pl., “οὐδέ τις ἄλλη φαίνετο γαιάων” 12.404, D.P.882.
2. earth, χυτὴ γ. earth thrown up to form a cairn, Il.23.256; ὦ γ. κεραμί, of potters' earth, Eub.43, cf. Sannyr.4; “κύτος πλαστὸν ἐκ γαίης” Antiph.52.3; the forms γαιῶν, γαίαις, γαίας in codd. of LXX are written for γεῶν, etc.
3. earth, as an element, “ὑμεῖς . . ὕδωρ καὶ γ. γένοισθε” Il.7.99; “ἐμοῦ θανόντος γ. μειχθήτω πυρί” Trag.Adesp.513; “γαίης καὶ ὕδατος ἐκγενόμεσθα” Xenoph.33, cf. Emp.17.18, 109.1, etc.
II. the earth, Theoc.18.20: elsewh. Γαῖα, as pr. n., Earth, Hes. Th.45, A.Eu.2, etc. (The usu. form in Hom.; used in Trag. metri gr. and by Com. in paratrag., v. supr.)