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THEMIS

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 758 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THEMIS , in See also:

Greek See also:mythology, the personification of See also:justice. In See also:Homer Biµss is used both as a See also:common and as a proper noun. As a common noun (plural %wares, %p tes, 0iuu5es), it is the See also:body of rules and precedents established at the beginning of the See also:world, as a See also:guarantee of its See also:order and See also:harmony (see GREEK See also:LAW); Personified, Themis is the servant or See also:companion of See also:Zeus, her See also:chief See also:function being to summon the assemblies of both gods and men (Odyssey, ii. 68). In the Hesiodic theogony, she is the daughter of See also:Uranus and Gaea, and according to See also:Pindar the wife of Zeus, by whose See also:side she sits, assisting him with her See also:advice, which is even better than that of any of the gods. She is the See also:mother of the Horae and of the Moirae (Fates), an indication of her See also:influence in the See also:physical and moral world. She isthe representative of divine justice in all its relatior,r 'so men, and takes See also:special See also:cognizance of the rights of hospitality. Her opposite is Hybris (v(3pts), insolent encroachment upon the rights of others, on whose track she follows to punish, lihe See also:Nemesis. In this aspect both Themis and Nemesis are called i vaia kilos, track). In the See also:lexicon of See also:Festus, Themis is described as the goddess who prescribes that which is right in accordance with divine law (fas) and is herself identical with this divine law. She is also a prophetic divinity, and there was a tradition that the See also:oracle at See also:Delphi had first been in the hands of Gaea, who transferred it to Themis (sometimes identified with her) by whom it was handed over to See also:Apollo (See also:Aeschylus, See also:Eumenides, 2; See also:Euripides, Iphig. in T. 1181).

Orphic See also:

poetry makes her a daughter of Helios, whose See also:eye is all-seeing (7ravbipKrts) and penetrates all mysteries. She was especially honoured at See also:Athens, Delphi, See also:Thebes, See also:Aegina and Troezene, where there was an See also:altar dedicated to a triad of Themides (on the See also:analogy of the triads of Horae, Charites, Moirae). In See also:art she was represented as of dignified and commanding presence, with the cornucopiae (symbolizing the blessings resulting from order) and a pair of scales. See See also:article " Justitia " by J. A. Hild in Daremberg and Saglio's See also:Diet. See also:des Antiquites; H. See also:Ahrens, See also:Die Gottin Themis (1862); R. Hirzel, Themis, See also:Dike, and Verwandtes (1907).

End of Article: THEMIS

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