The womb analogy was the dominant metaphor for earth’s mineral generation

Evidence

The most commonly used analogy, however, was between the female’s reproductive and nurturing capacity and the mother earth’s ability to give birth to stones and metals within its womb through its marriage with the sun. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 143

Categorization

• XREF: Directly serves the polyad’s ecofeminist thread: the womb-metaphor for metal growth is the precise image Bacon later inverted. — connects to: Premodern thinkers believed metals grew underground like living plants from seeds — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 165; The female earth was central to premodern organic cosmology — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 61; Earthquakes were attributed to the earth breaking wind like a living body — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 141 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Premodern thinkers believed metals grew underground like living plants from seeds #corroborates (0.82) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 165
• The female earth was central to premodern organic cosmology #expands (0.75) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 61