| Themis | |
|---|---|
Goddess of divine law and order | |
| Member of the Titans | |
 Themis of Rhamnous, Attica, by the sculptor Chairestratos, c. 300 BCE | |
| Abode | Mount Olympus |
| Symbol | Bronze Sword |
| Personal information | |
| Parents | Uranus and Gaia |
| Siblings |
|
| Consort | Zeus |
| Offspring | |
In Greek mythology, Themis (/ˈθiːmɪs/; Ancient Greek: Θέμις, romanized: Themis, lit. 'justice, law, custom')[1] is one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia and Uranus, and the second wife of Zeus. She is the personification of justice, divine order, fairness, law, and custom, and her symbols include the Scales of Justice.
Name[edit]
Themis means "divine law" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the Greek verb títhēmi (τίθημι), meaning "to put."[citation needed]
To the ancient Greeks she was originally the organizer of the "communal affairs of humans, particularly assemblies."[2] Moses Finley remarked of themis, as the word was used by Homer in the 8th century BCE, to evoke the social order of the 10th- and 9th-century Greek Dark Ages:
Themis is untranslatable. A gift of the gods and a mark of civilized existence, sometimes it means right custom, proper procedure, social order, and sometimes merely the will of the gods (as revealed by an omen, for example) with little of the idea of right.[3]
Finley adds, "There was themis—custom, tradition, folk-ways, mores, whatever we may call it, the enormous power of 'it is (or is not) done.'"[4]
In the Hymn to Apollo, Themis is referred to as "Ichnaea", meaning "Tracker".[5]
Description[edit]
Some classical descriptions of Themis describe a sober-looking woman holding scales.[6] Themis is an earth goddess much like her mother, Gaia, and in some stories it is hard to tell the two apart.[7] Some classical depictions of Themis show her holding a sword.[8]
When Themis is disregarded, Nemesis brings just and wrathful retribution; thus Themis shared the small temple at Rhamnous with Nemesis.[9] Themis is not wrathful; When a distraught Hera returned to Olympus after quarrelling with Zeus, Themis, "of the lovely cheeks," was the first to offer her a cup.[10]
Themis presided over the proper relation between man and woman, the basis of the rightly ordered family (the family was seen as the pillar of the deme.) Judges were often referred to as "themistopóloi" (the servants of Themis). Such was also the basis for order upon Olympus. Even Hera addressed her as "Lady Themis."[11]
Hesiod[edit]
Themis occurred in Hesiod's Theogony as the first recorded appearance of Justice as a divine personage. Drawing not only on the socio-religious consciousness of his time but also on many of the earlier cult-religions, Hesiod described the forces of the universe as cosmic divinities. Hesiod portrayed temporal justice, Dike, as the daughter of Zeus and Themis. Dike executed the law of judgments and sentencing and, together with her mother Themis, she carried out the final decisions of Moirai.[12]
Themis presided over divine justice, while Dike presided over human justice.
Aeschylus[edit]
In the play Prometheus Bound, traditionally attributed to Aeschylus, it is said by Prometheus that Themis is called many names, including Gaia.[13]
Family[edit]
In Hesiod's Theogony, Themis is one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky).[14] She is the second wife of her nephew Zeus, by whom she is the mother of the Horae (Seasons), listed as Eunomia (Law), Dike (Justice), Eirene (Peace), and the Moirai (Fates), listed as Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.[15]
In Hyginus' Fabulae, Themis is the daughter of Aether and Terra (Earth),[16] and by Zeus the mother of the Horae.[17] In his Bibliotheca historica, Diodorus Siculus mentions an island called Panchaea, where Themis was said to be the mother of Athena by Zeus.[18]
In the play Prometheus Bound, traditionally attributed to Aeschylus, Themis is the mother of Prometheus.[19] Similarly to Hesiod's account, the Orphic Hymn to Themis calls her the daughter of Gaia and Uranus,[20] and the Orphic Hymn to the Seasons calls her the mother, by Zeus, of the Horae.[21] Themis is also sometimes called mother of the Hesperides by Zeus.[22]
Mythology[edit]
Themis built the Oracle at Delphi and was herself oracular.[23] According to another legend, Themis received the Oracle at Delphi from Gaia and later gave it to Phoebe, who gave it to her grandson Apollo as a birthday gift.[24] According to Ephorus, Themis helped Apollo found the oracle, with the intent of helping mankind.[25] Some examples of Themis' visions; In Ovid's Metamorphoses in The Story of Dryope Themis warns the Gods of an oncoming Civil war in Thebes and the misfortunes to come with it.[26] In another tale she also warns Zeus and Poseidon to not marry Thetis because her son will be more powerful than his father.[27] According to Ovid, it was Themis rather than Zeus who told Deucalion to throw the bones of "his Mother" over his shoulder to create a new race of humankind after the deluge.[28]
In Homer's Iliad she is tasked with calling the gods to council on Olympus by Zeus.[29]
Themis was present at Delos to witness the birth of Apollo, and nursed him with nectar and ambrosia.[30] In his De Astronomica, Hyginus lists Themis, in addition to the nymph Amalthea, as the foster-mother and nurse of the young Zeus.[31] In a fragment of Pindar, Themis was brought from the springs of Oceanus by the Moirai (in this version not her daughters) to Olympus, where she became the first wife of Zeus (rather than the second), and by him the mother of the Horae.[32]
In the Orphic "Rhapsodic Theogony", or Rhapsodies, (first century BC/AD)[33] Nyx (Night) prophesied that Themis would remain a virgin until Rhea gave birth to a child of Cronus.[34]
Themis, alongside the Moirai, once stopped Zeus from killing thieves who attempted to steal honey from the sacred Dictaean cave, as it would be considered impious for anyone to die in the cave. Thus, Zeus instead turned the thieves into birds.[35] Themis played a role in Eros growing up; Aphrodite was worried about her son, Eros, staying a child forever and brought him to Themis. Themis told her to give Eros a brother, as he wasn't growing because of his solitude. Aphrodite then gave birth to Anteros, and Eros grew whenever he was near him.[36]
Cult[edit]
Themis had several temples in Greece, though they are not described in any great detail by ancient authors. She had temples at the oracular shrine of Zeus at Dodona, at Tanagra,[37] in Athens nearby to the Acropolis,[38] a temple in Rhamnous beside one of Nemesis,[39] and a Temple of Themis Ikhnaia in Phthiotis, Thessalia.[40] Pausanias describes her sanctuary in Thebes in somewhat more detail than what was normally the case and it may therefore have been of more importance:
- Along the road from the Neistan gate [at Thebes, Boiotia] are three sanctuaries. There is a sanctuary of Themis, with an image of white marble; adjoining it is a sanctuary of the Moirai (Moirae, Fates) [her daughters], while the third is of Zeus Agoraios (of the Market.)[41]
Themis also had an altar in Olympia: "On what is called the Stomion (Mouth) the altar to Themis has been built."[42] Themis was sometimes depicted in the sanctuaries of other gods and may have shared temples with them occasionally, and she is mentioned to have shared a temple with Aphrodite in Epidauros: "Within the grove [of the sanctuary of Asklepios (Asclepius) at Epidauros] are a temple of Artemis, an image of Epione, a sanctuary of Aphrodite and Themis, a race-course."[43]
The temple of Themis in Athens is found west of the theater of Dionysus.[44] Themis' temple in Dodona is tetrastyle pronaos in antis with a cella, an entrance on the northside and outside was a large altar. The temple columns in Dodona were Ionic made out of local sandstone.[45]
Modern depictions[edit]
The philosopher Georg Wilhelm Hegel developed the Themis-Dike contrast into one of opposition; the two goddesses being used to explain the Antigone narrative.[46]
Themis in modern-day depictions is often called "Lady Justice"[47] and statues can be found outside many courthouses.
Genealogy[edit]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Beekes, s.v. Θέμις, p. 539.
- ^ (University of Washington School of Law) Themis, Goddess of Justice
- ^ Finley, The World of Odysseus, rev. ed.(New York: Viking Prewss) 1978: 78, note.
- ^ Finley, The World of Odysseus. p. 82.
- ^ Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo, 96; Gantz, p. 52.
- ^ Inc. Encyclopaedia Britannnica (2006). "Encyclopedia of World Religions". CC Advisor. doi:10.5260/cca.199425. Retrieved 2021-06-07 – via ProQuest.
- ^ de Ville, Jacques (2013). "Mythology and the Images of Justice". Law and Literature. 23 (3): 324–364. doi:10.1525/lal.2011.23.3.324. hdl:10566/288. ISSN 1535-685X. S2CID 220308728.
- ^ Bennett, De Robigne Mortimer (1880). The Gods and Religions of Ancient and Modern Times ... Bennett. p. 227.
- ^ Munn, Mark H. (2006-07-11). The Mother of the Gods, Athens, and the Tyranny of Asia: A Study of Sovereignty in Ancient Religion. University of California Press. p. 337. ISBN 978-0-520-93158-9.
- ^ Homer, Iliad 15.88.
- ^ See, Sally (2014-12-25). The Greek Myths. S&T. p. 11.
- ^ Donna Marie Giancola, "Justice and the Face of the Great Mother (East and West)"
- ^ Aeschylus, Prometheus bound 211 (Sommerstein, pp. 446, 447; Harrison, p. 480.
- ^ Hesiod, Theogony 133–138; Gantz, p. 52; Caldwell, p. 5, table 3; Grimal, s.v. Themis, p. 443; Tripp, s.v. Themis, pp. 558–559; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Themis; Morford, p. 60; March, s.v. Themis, p. 376. Themis is similarly called the daughter of Gaia and Uranus by Apollodorus, who includes her in his list of Titans (Apollodorus, 1.3.1).
- ^ Hesiod, Theogony 901–906; Gantz, p. 53; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Themis. Despite the Moirai being called the offspring of Zeus and Themis, they are earlier, at Hesiod, Theogony 217, listed as the daughters of Nyx (Night) (Hard, p. 27).
- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae Theogony 3 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95).
- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 183 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 158), Theogony 25 (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 96).
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, 6.1.9.
- ^ Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 18, 211, 873 (Sommerstein, pp. 444, 445 n. 2, 446, 447 n. 24, 538, 539 n. 113).
- ^ Orphic Hymn 79 to Themis, 1–3; (Athanassakis & Wolkow, p. 62).
- ^ Orphic Hymn 43 to the Seasons, 1 (Athanassakis & Wolkow, p. 37).
- ^ Scholiast on Euripides, Hippolytus 742 (Cavarezan, p. 288) [= Pherecydes fr. 16d Fowler, p. 286 = FGrH 3 F33a]; Fowler 2013, p. 294; Smith, s.v. Themis, s.v. Hesperides.
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, 5.67.4; Orphic hymn 79
- ^ Aeschylus, Eumenides 1–8; West 1985, p. 174.
- ^ Strabo, Geographica 9.3.11 [= FGrH 70 F 31b]; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Themis.
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.324–417.
- ^ Apollodorus, 3.13.5.
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.313–381; Hard, p. 404; Tripp, s.v. Themis, pp. 558–559; Fontenrose, p. 417.
- ^ Homer, Iliad 20.5.
- ^ Homeric Hymn to Apollo (3), 96, 123–125; Gantz, p. 52; Hard, p. 144; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. Themis.
- ^ Hyginus, De Astronomica 2.13.6. Hyginus attributes this statement to "Musaeus", presumably Musaeus of Athens; see also West, p. 43.
- ^ Pindar, fr. 30 Race, p. 236, 237 [= Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 5.14.137.1]; Gantz, p. 52.
- ^ Meisner, pp. 1, 5; cf. West 1983, pp. 261–262.
- ^ West, p. 73, 266; Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus 30 a (I 396, 29 Diehl) [= Orphic fr. 144 Kern]. The children Themis later gave birth to were here too the Horae and the Moirai (Orphic frr. 126 [= Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Republic II 207, 14 Kr.], 162 [= Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus 41 e (III 274, 17 Diehl)], 181 [= Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus 40 a (III 118, 30 Diehl)] Kern; West, p. 73, 266, 267).
- ^ Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 19.
- ^ Dwight, p. 266.
- ^ Pausanias, 9.22.1.
- ^ Pausanias, 1.22.1; Harrison, p. 481.
- ^ Burkert, p. 184.
- ^ Strabo, 3.2.11; Harrison, p. 481.
- ^ Pausanias, 9.25.4.
- ^ Pausanias, 5.14.10.
- ^ Pausanias, 2.27.6.
- ^ Acropolis, Temple of Themis. Built between 480 and 320 BC. Artstor, library-artstor-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/asset/ASITESPHOTOIG_10313398073
- ^ Temple of Themis. 4th-3rd centuries BC, 14-Jun-09. Artstor, library-artstor-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/asset/ASITESPHOTOIG_10313399354
- ^ Hegel, George Wilhelm Friedrich (1977). The Phenomenology of Spirit. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 267–289. ISBN 978-0-19-824597-1.
- ^ West Publishing Company (1983). The Guide to American law : everyone's legal encyclopedia. Internet Archive. St. Paul [Minn.] : West Pub. Co. pp. 687–688. ISBN 978-0-314-73224-8.
- ^ Hesiod, Theogony 132–138, 337–411, 453–520, 901–906, 915–920; Caldwell, pp. 8–11, tables 11–14.
- ^ Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in Hesiod, Theogony 371–374, in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (4), 99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
- ^ According to Hesiod, Theogony 507–511, Clymene, one of the Oceanids, the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, at Hesiod, Theogony 351, was the mother by Iapetus of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus, while according to Apollodorus, 1.2.3, another Oceanid, Asia was their mother by Iapetus.
- ^ According to Plato, Critias, 113d–114a, Atlas was the son of Poseidon and the mortal Cleito.
- ^ In Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 18, 211, 873 (Sommerstein, pp. 444–445 n. 2, 446–447 n. 24, 538–539 n. 113) Prometheus is made to be the son of Themis.
References[edit]
- Aeschylus, The Eumenides in Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes, Vol 2, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1926, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Aeschylus, Persians. Seven against Thebes. Suppliants. Prometheus Bound. Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Loeb Classical Library No. 145. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-99627-4. Online version at Harvard University Press.
- Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica translated by Robert Cooper Seaton (1853–1915), R. C. Loeb Classical Library Volume 001. London, William Heinemann Ltd, 1912. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Athanaassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow, The Orphic Hymns, Johns Hopkins University Press; owlerirst Printing edition (May 29, 2013). ISBN 978-1-4214-0882-8. Google Books.
- Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Beekes, Robert S. P., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009.
- Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). ISBN 978-0-941051-00-2.
- Cavarzeran, Jacopo, Scholia in Euripidis "Hippolytum": Edizione critica, introduzione, indici, in Sammlung griechischer und lateinischer Grammatiker, Volume 19, De Gruyter, 2016. ISBN 978-3-110-47139-7. De Gruyter. Google Books.
- Diodorus Siculus, Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History. translated by C. H. Oldfather, twelve volumes, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Online version by Bill Thayer.
- Dwight, Mary Ann, and White, Andrew Dickson, Grecian and Roman mythology, New York, Putnam, 1849. Internet Archive.
- Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins, University of California Press, 1959. ISBN 978-0-520-04091-5. Google Books.
- Fowler, R. L. (2000), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0198147404.
- Fowler, R. L. (2013), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0198147411.
- Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
- Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
- Harrison, Jane Ellen, Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion, second edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1927. Google Books.
- Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae in Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007. ISBN 978-0-87220-821-6.
- Hyginus, Astronomica from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Kern, Otto. Orphicorum Fragmenta, Berlin, 1922. Internet Archive.
- March, Jennifer R., Dictionary of Classical Mythology, London, Cassell, 1998. ISBN 978-1-78297-635-6.
- Meisner, Dwayne A., Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods, Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-19-066352-0.
- Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-530805-1.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859–1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- The Oxford Classical Dictionary, second edition, Hammond, N.G.L. and Howard Hayes Scullard (editors), Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-19-869117-3.
- Pindar, Nemean Odes. Isthmian Odes. Fragments, Edited and translated by William H. Race. Loeb Classical Library No. 485. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-674-99534-5. Online version at Harvard University Press.
- Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Strabo, Geography, Editors, H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., London. George Bell & Sons. 1903. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
- West, M. L. (1983), The Orphic Poems, Clarendon Press Oxford, 1983. ISBN 978-0-19-814854-8.
- West, M.L., (1985), "Hesiod's Titans" in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 105, pp. 174–175. JSTOR 631535.
External links[edit]
- Baynes, T. S.; Smith, W.R., eds. (1888). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 250.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 758.
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