Earth Temple (Skyward Sword)


 * For the dungeon in The Wind Waker, see Earth Temple (The Wind Waker).

The Earth Temple is a dungeon featured in SS undefined. The main item obtained is the Bomb Bag and its boss is Scaldera.

Entrance to the Temple
The Earth Temple is a fire-based dungeon located up Eldin Volcano. Link visits the temple to locate the Earth Spring where Zelda is said to be cleansing herself. However, before Link can enter, he must find five key pieces to the temple using Fi's Dowsing abilities, as hinted by a conversation between Ledd and Cobal. The key pieces can be found in soft spots which Link can dig up with the Digging Mitts. The spots are: near the temple's entrance, beneath a wooden watchtower southwest from the temple's entrance, behind a bombable wall in the middle of the inclined sandy road in the center, in a rocky area accessible through a couple of geysers near the end of the western slippery sandy road, and within a bombable wall inside a lava-filled cave accessible after crossing the aforementioned western sandy road.

Themes and Navigation
The Earth Temple has an Eastern design resembling Mongolian temples and sanctuaries. In a similar fashion to the Ancient Cistern, the statues found throughout the temple are inspired by Buddhist and Hindu iconography. In particular, the three-eyed and dragon-like statues are akin to wrathful deities or demons depicted in imagery associated with both religions. The elephant statues near the entrance of the temple also have a symbolic connection to Buddhism and Hinduism.

Like Skyview Temple, the dungeon shows signs of deterioration. It comprises only five (albeit cavernous) rooms, the fewest of any dungeon in the game.

A major part of the temple is traversed by logrolling on a large stone eyeball, because most of the central room and the east area is filled with lava. Enemies such as Fire Keese and Magma Spume will try to knock the young hero off the stone eyeball. Magma Spume can be rolled over and killed using the eyeball. Lizalfos also appear frequently, and a pair of them are fought as the dungeon's minibosses. The dungeon's treasure is the Bomb Bag. It originally belonged to Ledd; the Mogma gives it to Link for helping him. The dungeon is filled with Bomb Flowers, which can be used to solve puzzles or fill the Bomb Bag. There is a large number of bomb rocks, including a few that must be destroyed from on top of the eyeball. The boss of the Earth Temple is Scaldera, set upon Link by Ghirahim.

The Earth Temple contains many similarities to the Dodongo's Cavern from Ocarina of Time, and may have been meant as a reference to it. Both are the second dungeons in their respective games, are fire-themed volcanic caves, feature Lizalfos as minibosses, house a Bomb Bag as their main item, and have bosses that are defeated by having them swallow Bombs.

Theory
The Earth Temple serves as one of two locations where Zelda must pray to regain her memories of being Hylia. These memories, meanwhile, seem to be necessary for Zelda to invoke her blessing on the Master Sword and allow it to attain its final form, thus making this temple, as well as the Skyview Temple, critical to this process. In, there are also two temples- the Earth and Wind temples- involved in infusing the Master Sword with its full power, and they also require prayers to accomplish this. These similarities in function seem to imply a connection between these four temples, likely with the former becoming the latter.

In this case, the Earth Temple may have become The Wind Waker's Wind Temple, as the two temples both incorporate a great deal of metal mesh and are honeycombed with tunnels. Both also seem to be in similar locations geographically (both of them being in the northern sectors of the overworld and relatively close to mountains, e.g. the Earth temple is at the base of Eldin Volcano in Skyward Sword and the Wind temple is relatively close to Dragon Roost Island in The Wind Waker; both mountains being hypothesized to be Death Mountain as seen in different eras).