In particular. we are told of Hölderlin's poetizing of "Mother Earth" in the concluding strophe of the hymn "Germania" (IV. 1 84f.) and also in the hymn "To Mother Earth" ( IV, 1 54ff.), as well as in Fragment 4 ( IV. 283f.; cf. ibid., 323). "Like Hertha green" -green is what determines the goddess Earth and is thus itself determined by the holy and is "holy green":
Und das heilige Grün, der Zeuge des seeligen, tiefen
Lebens der Welt. ...
And holy green. witness of the blessed, profound
Life of the world. ...
("Der Wanderer," IV. 103. I. 41f.)
a) "The children of the heavens"
The difficulty in understanding this line of the Ister hymn lies initially in determining what is meant here by "they are the children of the heavens." We shall simply try to propose two possible readings. In the preceding lines, two things are named in the plural: the heavenly and the rivers. If "the children of the heavens" means the same as "the heavenly," as the children of the Highest, that is, of "Father Aether," then the lines would be saying that the heavenly are "green," "just like" Mother Earth (draft, IV, 367). Because the Highest One in the heavens can descend with his children. the heavenly, via the shared mediation of the communicative sign, the heavenly are as near as the emergence and growth of the verdant earth, which is itself a goddess. The "and" in line 58 would then mean: "And therefore," because they can descend. ...
Or does "the children of the heavens" refer to the rivers? It is indeed said in the hymn "The Journey," line 94: "one of her sons, the Rhine"—one of hers. namely of Mother Earth. According to this, the rivers are indeed the sons of the earth, "earth-sons." and in Hölderlin's usage this always means human beings. Yet according to the word of the Ister hymn, the rivers are "children" of the heavens. that is. sons of the gods. Yet we already know that the rivers are demigods; they are sons of the earth and children of the heavens at the same time. Dionysos—the "god" of the poets-is the son of Zeus and of Semele. Yet in what way are the rivers "children of the heavens"? The beginning of the hymn "The Journey" gives us the answer (cf. IV. 167):
Glükseelig Suevien. meine Mutter.
denn nah dem Heerde des Hausses