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'{{Short description|Goddess of retribution in Greek mythology}} {{Other uses}} {{Infobox deity | type = Greek | name = Nemesis | deity_of = Goddess of retribution | member_of = | image = Alfred Rethel 002.jpg | alt = | caption = ''Nemesis'', by [[Alfred Rethel]] (1837) | other_names = [[Rhamnousia]]/ [[Rhamnusia]] | hiro = | affiliation = | cult_center = | weapon = | battles = | artifacts = | animals = [[Goose]] | symbol = [[Sword]], [[Whip|lash]], [[dagger]], [[measuring rod]], [[Weighing scale|scale]]s, [[bridle]] | height = | age = | tree = | day = | color = | number = | consort = [[Zeus]], [[Tartarus]] | parents = [[Nyx]] with no father or with [[Erebus]], [[Oceanus]] or [[Zeus]] | siblings = [[Achlys]], [[Apate (deity)]], [[Dolos (mythology)]], [[Eleos]], [[Elpis]], [[Epiphron]], [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]], [[Geras]], [[Hesperides]], [[Hybris (mythology)]], [[Hypnos]], [[Keres (mythology)|Ker]], [[Moirai]], [[Momus]], [[Moros]], [[Oizys]], [[Oneiroi]], [[Philotes (mythology)|Philotes]], [[Sophrosyne]], [[Thanatos]], or the [[Oceanides]], the [[Potamoi]] | offspring = [[Helen of Troy]], the [[Telchines]] | predecessor = | successor = | army = | mount = | texts = | Roman_equivalent = <!-- No clear Roman equivalent; so please don't restore [[Invidia]] (an emotion, sometimes personified, but not a deity. --> | Etruscan_equivalent = | region = | ethnic_group = | festivals = Nemeseia | hinduism_equivalent = [[Shani]] }} In [[ancient Greek religion]], '''Nemesis''',{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|ɛ|m|ə|s|ɪ|s}} [[Ancient Greek]]: Νέμεσις}} also called '''Rhamnousia''' or '''Rhamnusia''' ({{lang-grc|Ῥαμνουσία}})<ref>[http://www.poesialatina.it/_ns/greek/testi/Suda/Lexicon.html Suda, rho, 33]</ref> ("the [[goddess]] of [[Rhamnous]]"), is the goddess who enacts [[divine retribution|retribution]] against those who succumb to [[hubris]], arrogance before the gods.<ref name="auto">Ammianus Marcellinus 14.11.25</ref> <!-- It is said Adrestia was a handmaiden of Nemesis, not herself. There is also no mentions of Nemesis being a daughter of Ares, which makes the connections even less likely. --> ==Etymology== [[Image:ADurerFortunaengraving.jpg|thumb|left|[[Albrecht Dürer]]'s engraving of ''Nemesis'', c 1502]] The name ''Nemesis'' is related to the [[Greek language|Greek]] word νέμειν ''némein'', meaning "to give what is due",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=nemesis|title=Nemesis&nbsp;– Origin and history of nemesis by Online Etymology Dictionary|website=www.etymonline.com}}</ref> from [[Proto-Indo-European]] ''nem-'' "distribute".<ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, pp. 1005–06.</ref> ==Origin== Divine retribution is a major theme in the [[Hellenistic period|Hellenic]] world view, providing the unifying theme of the [[Greek tragedy|tragedies]] of [[Sophocles]] and many other literary works.<ref>{{citation | url = http://literarydevices.net/nemesis/| title = Examples of Nemesis in Literature | access-date = October 12, 2013 }}</ref> [[Hesiod]] states: "Also deadly [[Nyx (mythology)|Nyx]] bore Nemesis an affliction to mortals subject to death" (''[[Theogony]]'', 223, though perhaps an interpolated line). Nemesis appears in a still more concrete form in a fragment of the epic ''[[Cypria]]''. She is implacable justice: that of [[Zeus]] in the [[Twelve Olympians|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 (mythology)|Rhea]], [[Demeter]], and [[Artemis]].<ref>The primeval concept of Nemesis is traced by Marcel Mauss (Mauss, ''The Gift: the form and reason for exchange in archaic societies'', 2002:23: "Generosity is an obligation, because Nemesis avenges the poor... This is the ancient morality of the gift, which has become a principle of justice". Jean Coman, in discussing Nemesis in [[Aeschylus]] (Coman, ''L'idée de la Némésis chez Eschyle'', Strasbourg, 1931:40–43) detected "traces of a less rational, and probably older, concept of deity and its relationship to man", as Michael B. Hornum observed in ''Nemesis, the Roman State and the Games'', 1993:9.</ref> As the "Goddess of Rhamnous", Nemesis was honored and placated in an archaic sanctuary in the isolated district of Rhamnous, in northeastern [[Attica]]. There she was a daughter of [[Oceanus]], the primeval river-ocean that encircles the world. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] noted her iconic statue there. It included a crown of stags and little [[Nike (mythology)|Nikes]] and was made by [[Pheidias]] after the [[Battle of Marathon]] (490 BC), crafted from a block of [[Paros|Parian]] [[marble]] brought by the overconfident Persians, who had intended to make a memorial [[stele]] after their expected victory.<ref>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'', 1.33.2–3.</ref> Her cult may have originated at [[Smyrna]]. She is portrayed as a winged goddess wielding a whip or a dagger. The poet [[Mesomedes]] wrote a hymn to Nemesis in the early second century AD, where he addressed her: <blockquote>Nemesis, winged balancer of life, dark-faced goddess, daughter of Justice</blockquote> and mentioned her "adamantine bridles" that restrain "the frivolous insolences of mortals". In early times the representations of Nemesis resembled Aphrodite, who sometimes bears the epithet Nemesis.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}} Later, as the maiden goddess of proportion and the [[Retributive justice|avenger of crime]], she has as attributes a [[measuring rod]] ([[tally stick]]), a [[bridle]], [[Weighing scale#Symbolism|scales]], a [[sword]], and a [[scourge]], and she rides in a [[chariot]] drawn by [[griffin]]s. ==Fortune and retribution== The word ''nemesis'' originally meant the distributor of fortune, neither good nor bad, simply in due proportion to each according to what was deserved.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}} [[O. Gruppe]] (1906) and others connect the name with "to feel just resentment". From the fourth century onward, Nemesis, as the just balancer of [[Fortuna (mythology)|Fortune]]'s chance, could be associated with [[Tyche]]. 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]]. She was sometimes called "[[Adrestia|Adrasteia]]", probably meaning "one from whom there is no escape"; her epithet ''Erinys'' ("implacable") is specially applied to Demeter and the [[Phrygians|Phrygian]] mother goddess, [[Cybele]]. ==Kin== [[File: Pierre-Paul Prud'hon - Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime.JPG|thumb|317x317px|'' Justice (Dike, on the left) and Divine Vengeance (Nemesis, right) are pursuing the criminal murderer.'' By [[Pierre-Paul Prud'hon]], 1808]] Nemesis has been described as the daughter of [[Oceanus]] or [[Zeus]], but according to [[Hyginus]] she was a child of [[Erebus]] and [[Nyx]]. She has also been described, by [[Hesiod]], as the daughter of Nyx alone. In the [[Theogony]], Nemesis is the sister of the [[Moirai]] (the Fates), the [[Keres (mythology)|Keres]] (Black Fates), the [[Oneiroi]] (Dreams), [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]] (Discord) and [[Apate (deity)|Apate]] (Deception) ===Progeny=== ====Helen==== [[File:Leda - after Michelangelo Buonarroti.jpg|thumb|302x302px|''[[Leda and the Swan (Michelangelo)|Leda and the Swan]]'', copy of [[Michelangelo]]'s lost painting.]] 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]]. While many myths indicate [[Zeus]] and [[Leda (mythology)|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. Nemesis, to avoid Zeus, turns into a goose, but he turns into a swan and mates with her anyway. Nemesis in her bird form lays an egg that is discovered in the marshes by a shepherd, who passes the egg to [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]]. It is in this way that [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]] comes to be the mother of [[Helen of Troy]], as she kept the egg in a chest until it hatched.<ref>(Pseudo-Apollodorus) R. Scott Smith, Stephen Trzaskoma, and Hyginus. ''Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology''. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007:60.</ref> * Stasinus of Cyprus or Hegesias of Aegina, Cypria Fragment 8 (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th or C6th BC) : <blockquote>Rich-haired Nemesis gave birth to her [Helene (Helen)] when she had been joined in love with Zeus the king of the gods by harsh violence. 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. But Zeus ever pursued and longed in his heart to catch her. Now she took the form of a fish and sped over the waves of the loud-roaring sea, and now over Okeanos' (Oceanus') stream and the furthest bounds of Earth, and now she sped over the furrowed land, always turning into such dread creatures as the dry land nurtures, that she might escape him.</blockquote> * Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 127 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd AD) : <blockquote>Nemesis, as she fled from Zeus' embrace, took the form of a goose; whereupon Zeus as a swan had intercourse with her. From this union, she laid an egg, which some herdsman found among the trees and handed over to Lede (Leda). She kept it in a box, and when Helene was hatched after the proper length of time, she reared her as her own.</blockquote> * Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 33. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd AD) : <blockquote>I will now go on to describe what is figures on the pedestal of the statue [of Nemesis at Rhamnos], having made this preface for the sake of clearness. The Greeks say that Nemesis was the mother of Helene (Helen), while Leda suckled and nursed her. The father of Helene the Greeks like everybody else hold to be not [[Tyndareus|Tyndareos]] (Tyndareus) but Zeus. Having heard this legend [the sculptor] Pheidias has represented Helene as being led to Nemesis by Leda, and he has represented Tyndareos and his children.</blockquote> * Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 8 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd AD) : <blockquote>Constellation Swan ([[Cycnus|Cygnus]]). When Jupiter [Zeus], moved by desire, had begun to love Nemesis, and couldn't persuade her to lie with him, he relieved his passion by the following plan. He bade Venus ([[Aphrodite]]), in the form of an eagle, pursue him; he, changed to a swan as if in flight from the eagle, took refuge with Nemesis and lighted in her lap. Nemesis did not thrust him away, but holding him in her arms, fell into a deep sleep. While she slept, Jupiter [Zeus] embraced her and then flew away. Because he was seen by men flying high in the sky, they said he was put in the stars. To make this really true, Jupiter put the swan flying and the eagle pursuing in the sky. But Nemesis, as if wedded to the tribe of birds, when her months were ended, bore an egg. Mercurius (Mercury) [[Hermes]] took it away and carried it to Sparta and threw it in Leda's lap. From it sprang Helen, who excelled all other girls in beauty.</blockquote> ====Telchines==== One source of the myth says that Nemesis was the mother of the [[Telchines]], who others say were children of [[Pontus (mythology)|Pontus]] and [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaea]] or [[Thalassa (mythology)|Thalassa]]. * Bacchylides, Fragment 52 (from Tzetzes on Theogony) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric IV) (Greek lyric C5th BC) : <blockquote>The four famous Telkhines (Telchines), [[Actaeus|Aktaios]] (Actaeus), [[Megalesius|Megalesios]] (Megalesius), [[Ormenus|Ormenos]] (Ormenus) and [[Lycus (mythology)|Lykos]] (Lycus), whom [[Bacchylides|Bakkhylides]] (Bacchylides) calls the children of Nemesis and [[Tartaros]].</blockquote><blockquote>[N.B. Tartaros is the spirit of the great pit beneath the earth.]</blockquote> ==Acts and deeds== ===Narcissus=== Nemesis enacted divine retribution on [[Narcissus (mythology)|Narcissus]] for his vanity. After he rejected the advances of the nymph [[Echo (mythology)|Echo]], Nemesis lured him to a pool where he caught sight of his own reflection and fell in love with it, eventually dying.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph3.htm#476975712|title=Metamorphoses (Kline) 3, the Ovid Collection, Univ. of Virginia E-Text Center|work=virginia.edu|access-date=21 January 2015}}</ref> ==Local cult== A festival called '''Nemeseia''' (by some identified with the '''Genesia''') was held at [[Athens]]. Its object was to avert the nemesis of the dead, who were supposed to have the power of punishing the living, if their cult had been in any way neglected ([[Sophocles]], ''[[Electra (Sophocles)|Electra]],'' 792; [[E. Rohde]], ''Psyche,'' 1907, i. 236, note I). ===Smyrna=== [[File:HadrianNemesis.jpg|thumb|''Nemesis'' on a brass [[sestertius]] of [[Hadrian]], struck at [[Rome]] AD 136]] At [[Smyrna]] there were two manifestations of Nemesis, more akin to [[Aphrodite]] than to Artemis. The reason for this duality is hard to explain. It is suggested that they represent two aspects of the goddess, the kindly and the implacable, or the goddesses of the old city and the new city refounded by Alexander. The martyrology ''Acts of [[Pionius]]'', set in the "[[Decius|Decian persecution]]" of AD 250–51, mentions a lapsed Smyrnan Christian who was attending to the sacrifices at the altar of the temple of these Nemeses. ===Rome=== Nemesis was one of several [[tutelary deity|tutelary deities]] of the drill-ground (as ''Nemesis campestris''). Modern scholarship offers little support for the once-prevalent notion that arena personnel such as [[gladiator]]s, ''venatores'' and ''bestiarii'' were personally or professionally dedicated to her cult. Rather, she seems to have represented a kind of "Imperial [[Fortuna]]" who dispensed Imperial retribution on the one hand, and Imperially subsidized gifts on the other; both were functions of the popular gladiatorial [[Ludi]] held in Roman arenas.<ref>Nemesis, her devotees and her place in the Roman world are fully discussed, with examples, in Hornum, Michael B., ''Nemesis, the Roman state and the games'', Brill, 1993.</ref> She is shown on a few examples of Imperial coinage as ''Nemesis-Pax'', mainly under [[Claudius]] and [[Hadrian]]. In the third century AD, there is evidence of the belief in an all-powerful ''Nemesis-Fortuna''. She was worshipped by a society called Hadrian's freedmen. [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] includes her in a digression on Justice following his description of the death of Gallus Caesar.<ref name="auto"/> ==See also== * (''Goddesses of Justice''): [[Astraea (mythology)|Astraea]], [[Dike (mythology)|Dike]], [[Themis]], [[Prudentia]] * (''Goddesses of Injustice''): [[Adikia]] * (''Aspects of Justice''): (see also: [[Triple deity]]/[[Triple Goddess (neopaganism)]]) ** (''Justice'') [[Themis]]/[[Dike (mythology)|Dike]]/[[Justitia]] ([[Lady Justice]]), [[Raguel (angel)|Raguel (the Angel of Justice)]] ** (''Retribution'') Nemesis/Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia/[[Adrestia|Adrasteia/Adrestia]]/[[Invidia]] ** (''Redemption'') [[Eleos]]/[[Soteria (mythology)|Soteria]]/[[Clementia]], [[Zadkiel]]/[[Zachariel]] (the Angel of Mercy) * [[Sekhmet]] * [[Kali]] ==Notes== {{notelist}} {{Reflist}} ==References== * {{EB1911|wstitle=Nemesis|volume=19|page=369}} * [http://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Nemesis/nemesis.html GreekMythology.com – Nemesis] * [http://classroom.synonym.com/important-nemesis-greek-mythology-13936.html Important Facts on Nemesis in Greek Mythology] {{Greek mythology (deities)}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Nemesis}} [[Category:Greek goddesses]] [[Category:Oceanids]] [[Category:Vengeance goddesses]] [[Category:Justice goddesses]] [[Category:Divine women of Zeus]] [[Category:Children of Zeus]] [[Category:Personifications in Greek mythology]]'