For Nemesis tried to escape him and liked not to lie in love with her father Zeus the son of Kronos (Cronus) for shame and indignation vexed her heart: therefore she fled him over the land and fruitless dark sea. Rich-haired Nemesis gave birth to her when she had been joined in love with Zeus the king of the gods by harsh violence. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th or C6th BC) : Stasinus of Cyprus or Hegesias of Aegina, Cypria Fragment 8 (trans.It is in this way that Leda comes to be the mother of Helen of Troy, as she kept the egg in a chest until it hatched. Nemesis in her bird form lays an egg that is discovered in the marshes by a shepherd, who passes the egg to Leda. Nemesis, to avoid Zeus, turns into a goose, but he turns into a swan and mates with her anyway. While many myths indicate Zeus and Leda to be the parents of Helen of Troy, the author of the compilation of myth called Bibliotheke notes the possibility of Nemesis being the mother of Helen. In some metaphysical mythology, Nemesis produced the egg from which hatched two sets of twins: Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux. In the Theogony, Nemesis is the sister of the Moirai (the Fates), the Keres (Black Fates), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Eris (Discord) and Apate (Deception). She has also been described, by Hesiod, as the daughter of Nyx alone. Nemesis has been described as the daughter of Oceanus or Zeus, but according to Hyginus she was a child of Erebus and Nyx. She was sometimes called Adrasteia, probably meaning "one from whom there is no escape" her epithet Erinys ("implacable") is specially applied to Demeter and the Phrygian mother goddess, Cybele. In the Greek tragedies Nemesis appears chiefly as the avenger of crime and the punisher of hubris, and as such is akin to Atë and the Erinyes. From the fourth century onward, Nemesis, as the just balancer of Fortune's chance, could be associated with Tyche. Gruppe (1906) and others connect the name with "to feel just resentment".
Later, Nemesis came to suggest the resentment caused by any disturbance of this right proportion, the sense of justice that could not allow it to pass unpunished. The word nemesis originally meant the distributor of fortune, neither good nor bad, simply in due proportion to each according to what was deserved. Later, as the maiden goddess of proportion and the avenger of crime, she has as attributes a measuring rod ( tally stick), a bridle, scales, a sword, and a scourge, and she rides in a chariot drawn by griffins. In early times the representations of Nemesis resembled Aphrodite, who sometimes bears the epithet Nemesis. Nemesis, winged balancer of life, dark-faced goddess, daughter of JusticeĪnd mentioned her "adamantine bridles" that restrain "the frivolous insolences of mortals". The poet Mesomedes wrote a hymn to Nemesis in the early second century AD, where he addressed her: She is portrayed as a winged goddess wielding a whip or a dagger. Her cult may have originated at Smyrna.Īlbrecht Dürer's engraving of Nemesis, c 1502 It included a crown of stags and little Nikes and was made by Pheidias after the Battle of Marathon (490 BC), crafted from a block of Parian marble brought by the overconfident Persians, who had intended to make a memorial stele after their expected victory. There she was a daughter of Oceanus, the primeval river-ocean that encircles the world. Īs the "Goddess of Rhamnous", Nemesis was honored and placated in an archaic sanctuary in the isolated district of Rhamnous, in northeastern Attica. She is implacable justice: that of Zeus in the Olympian scheme of things, although it is clear she existed prior to him, as her images look similar to several other goddesses, such as Cybele, Rhea, Demeter, and Artemis. Nemesis appears in a still more concrete form in a fragment of the epic Cypria. Hesiod states: "Also deadly Nyx bore Nemesis an affliction to mortals subject to death" ( Theogony, 223, though perhaps an interpolated line). Origin ĭivine retribution is a major theme in the Hellenic world view, providing the unifying theme of the tragedies of Sophocles and many other literary works. The name Nemesis is related to the Greek word νέμειν némein, meaning "to give what is due", from Proto-Indo-European nem- "distribute".
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