| Dike | |
|---|---|
Goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order and fair judgement | |
| Member of TheHorae | |
 | |
| Abode | Mount Olympus |
| Symbol | Scales / Balance |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Zeus andThemis |
| Siblings | Horae,Eirene,Eunomia,Moirai andseveral paternal half-siblings |
InGreek mythology,Dike orDice,[1] (/ˈdaɪkiː/ or/ˈdaɪsiː/;[2]Ancient Greek:Δίκη,romanized: Díkē,lit. 'justice, custom') sometimes also calledDicaeosyne (Ancient Greek:Δικαιοσύνη,romanized: Dikaiosúnē,lit. 'righteousness, justice'), is the goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order and fair judgement as a transcendent universal ideal or based on immemorial custom, in the sense of socially enforcednorms andconventional rules. According toHesiod (Theogony, l. 901), she was fathered byZeus upon his second consort,Themis. She and her mother are both personifications of justice. She is depicted as a young, slender woman carrying abalance scale and wearing alaurel wreath. The constellationLibra (the Scales) was anciently thought to represent her distinctive symbol.
She is often associated withAstraea, the goddess of innocence and purity.Astraea is also one of herepithets, referring to her appearance in the nearby constellationVirgo which is said to represent Astraea. This reflects her symbolic association with Astraea, who, too, has a similariconography.
The sculptures of theTemple of Zeus at Olympia have as their unifying iconographical conception thedikē of Zeus,[3] and in poetry she is often the attendant (πάρεδρος,paredros) of Zeus.[4] In the philosophical climate of late 5th century Athens,dikē could beanthropomorphised[5] as a goddess ofmoraljustice.[6] She was one of the three second-generationHorae, along withEunomia (Order) andEirene (Peace):
For there dwells Order with her sister Justice, firm foundation for cities,
and Peace, steward of wealth for men, who was raised with them—
the golden daughters of wise-counseling Themis.
She ruled over human justice, while her motherThemis ruled over divine justice.[7] Her opposite wasadikia ("injustice"); in reliefs on the archaicChest of Cypselus preserved at Olympia,[8] an attractive depictionDikē throttled an ugly depiction ofAdikia and beat her with a stick.
The later art ofrhetoric treated the personification of abstract concepts as an artistic device, which devolved into theallegorizing thatLate Antiquity bequeathed topatristic literature. In a furthereuhemerist interpretation, Dikē was born a mortal andZeus placed her on Earth to keep mankind just. He quickly learned this was impossible and placed her next to him onMount Olympus.
One of her epithets wasAstraea, referring to her appearance as the constellationVirgo. According to Aratus's account of the constellation's origin, Dike lived upon Earth during theGolden andSilver ages, when there were no wars or diseases, men raised fine crops and did not yet know how to sail.[9] They grew greedy, however, and Dike was sickened. She proclaimed:
Behold what manner of race the fathers of the Golden Age left behind them! Far meaner than themselves! but you will breed a viler progeny! Verily wars and cruel bloodshed shall be unto men and grievous woe shall be laid upon them.
— Aratus,Phaenomena 123
Dike left Earth for the sky, from which, as the constellation, she watched the despicable human race. After her departure, the human race declined into theBronze Age, when diseases arose and humanity learned how to sail.
Another myth presents Dike as the avenger ofMeletus, driven to suicide due to the rejection and torment he suffered at the hands of the youthTimagoras. Dike did not allow Timagoras to gloat after his suitor's fate, and as if compelled by divine forces, he threw himself from the same rock as Meletus and died.[10]
The consensus of most biblical scholars[11] is that theActs of the Apostles contains a reference to Dike in itsfinal chapter. InActs 27 and 28, theApostle Paul is conducted toward Rome under guard after having appealed his legal case toCaesar.[12] After getting caught in a storm, having their boat ran aground, and narrowly escaping death while making it to shore,[13] they discover they have landed onMalta, where they are cared for by the local populace.[14] While helping to fuel the fire, Paul is bitten by snake, and the locals conclude, "No doubt this man is a murderer! Although he has escaped from the sea, Justice herself has not allowed him to live!" (NET).[15][16] Ben Witherington III writes of this incident,
Pliny the Elder indicates it was a common belief, even among the educated, that all snakes were poisonous and that they were often agents of divine vengeance. This comports with what follows, where they are indeed depicted as "religious" in a primitive sense and see the snake as an agent of Justice. Perhaps the Maltans were familiar with some of the stories we now find in theGreek Anthology, for example, about a shipwrecked sailor who escapes storm at sea only to be bitten by a viper and die.[17]
It was common belief of the time that the sea was a place where the gods could exact vengeance, and the snakebite was likely perceived as Dike pursuing Paul after surviving the shipwreck.[18]
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote