Themis means "divine law" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the Greek verbtíthēmi (τίθημι), meaning "to put."[3]
To the ancient Greeks she was originally the organizer of the "communal affairs of humans, particularly assemblies."[4]Moses Finley remarked ofthemis, as the word was used byHomer in the 8th century BCE, to evoke the social order of the 10th- and 9th-centuryGreek 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 anomen, for example) with little of the idea of right.[5]
Finley adds, "There wasthemis—custom, tradition,folk-ways,mores, whatever we may call it, the enormous power of 'it is (or is not) done'."[6]
In theHymn to Apollo, Themis is referred to as "Ichnaea", meaning "Tracker".[7]
Some classical descriptions of Themis describe a sober-looking woman holding scales.[8] Themis is an earth goddess much like her mother, Gaia, and in some stories it is hard to tell the two apart.[9] Some classical depictions of Themis show her holding a sword.[10]
When Themis is disregarded,Nemesis brings just and wrathful retribution; thus Themis shared the small temple atRhamnous with Nemesis.[11] Themis is not wrathful; when a distraughtHera returned toOlympus after quarrelling with Zeus, Themis, "of the lovely cheeks," was the first to offer her a cup.[12]
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 thedeme). Judges were often referred to as"themistopóloi" (the servants of Themis). Such was also the basis for order upon Olympus. EvenHera addressed her as "Lady Themis".[13]
Themis occurred inHesiod'sTheogony as the first recorded appearance ofJustice 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 ofZeus and Themis. Dike executed the law of judgments and sentencing and, together with her mother Themis, she carried out the final decisions of Moirai.[14]
InHesiod'sTheogony, Themis is one of the twelve Titan children ofGaia (Earth) andUranus (Sky).[17] She is the second wife of her nephewZeus, by whom she is the mother of theHorae (Seasons), listed asEunomia (Law),Dike (Justice),Eirene (Peace), and theMoirai (Fates), listed asClotho,Lachesis andAtropos.[18] Similarly to Hesiod's account, theOrphic Hymn to Themis calls her the daughter of Gaia and Uranus,[19] and theOrphic Hymn to theSeasons calls her the mother, by Zeus, of the Horae.[20]
Themis built theOracle at Delphi and was herselforacular.[25] According to another legend, Themis received the Oracle at Delphi fromGaia and later gave it toPhoebe, who gave it to her grandsonApollo as a birthday gift.[26] According toEphorus, Themis helped Apollo find the oracle, with the intent of helping mankind.[27] Some examples of Themis's visions; In the story ofDryope inOvid'sMetamorphoses, Themis warns the gods of an oncomingcivil war in Thebes.[28] In another tale she warnsZeus andPoseidon to not marryThetis because her son will be more powerful than his father.[29] According to Ovid, it was Themis rather than Zeus who toldDeucalion to throw the bones of "his Mother" over his shoulder to create a new race of humankind after the deluge.[30] Also according to Ovid, Themis prophesied that a son of Zeus will steal golden apples from the orchard ofAtlas.[31]
InHomer'sIliad she is tasked with calling the gods to council on Olympus by Zeus.[32]
Themis was present atDelos to witness thebirth of Apollo, and nursed him with nectar andambrosia.[33] In hisDe astronomia,Hyginus lists Themis, in addition to the nymphAmalthea, as the foster-mother and nurse of the young Zeus.[34] In a fragment ofPindar, Themis was brought from the springs ofOceanus by theMoirai (in this version not her daughters) toOlympus, where she became the first wife of Zeus (rather than the second), and by him the mother of theHorae.[35]
According to the lostCypria byStasinus of Cyprus, Themis and Zeus together plotted the start of the Trojan War.[36] According toQuintus Smyrnaeus, when the gods defied the orders of Zeus and started fighting each other after the creation of theTrojan Horse, Themis stopped them by warning them of Zeus's wrath.[37]
In theOrphic "Rhapsodic Theogony", or Rhapsodies, (first century BC/AD)[38]Nyx (Night) prophesied that Themis would remain a virgin untilRhea gave birth to a child ofCronus.[39]
Themis also played a role inEros, the young god of love, growing up; according toPorphyry, his motherAphrodite 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 another love god,Anteros (meaning "counter-love"), and Eros grew whenever he was near him. But every time Anteros was away, Eros shrank back to his previous, small form.[40]
When four Cretan men (Aegolius,Celeus,Cerberus andLaius) broke into the sacred cavern inCrete where Rhea had given birth to Zeus in order to steal some of the honey produced there by the sacred bees, Themis and her daughters the Fates convinced Zeus against killing them inside the holy cave, as they considered it impious for anyone to die in the cave, so instead he turned all four into different birds.[41]
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,[42] in Athens nearby to theAcropolis,[43] a temple inRhamnous beside one ofNemesis,[44] and a Temple of Themis Ikhnaia inPhthiotis, Thessalia.[45]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 theMoirai (Moirae, Fates) [her daughters], while the third is of Zeus Agoraios (of the Market.)[46]
Themis also had an altar in Olympia: "On what is called the Stomion (Mouth) the altar to Themis has been built."[47] 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."[48]
The temple of Themis in Athens is found west of the theater of Dionysus.[49] Themis's temple in Dodona istetrastylepronaos in antis with acella, an entrance on the northside and outside was a large altar. The temple columns in Dodona wereIonic made out of local sandstone.[50]
^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.ISBN978-0-520-93158-9.
^Hesiod,Theogony133–138; 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 byApollodorus, who includes her in his list of Titans (Apollodorus,1.3.1).
^West, pp. 73, 266; Proclus,Commentary on Plato's Timaeus 30 a (I 396, 29 Diehl) [= Orphicfr. 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, pp. 73, 266, 267).
^Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as inHesiod,Theogony371–374, in theHomeric Hymn to Hermes (4),99–100, Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.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.
Hyginus, Gaius Julius,Fabulae inApollodorus'Library and Hyginus'Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007.ISBN978-0-87220-821-6.
