Themis means "divine law" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the Greek verb títhēmi (
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 of themis, as the word was used by
Homer in the 8th century BCE, to evoke the social order of the 10th- and 9th-century
Greek 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 an
omen, for example) with little of the idea of right.[5]
Finley adds, "There was themis—custom, tradition,
folk-ways, mores, whatever we may call it, the enormous power of 'it is (or is not) done.'"[6]
In the Hymn to Apollo, Themis is referred to as "
Ichnaea", meaning "Tracker".[7]
Description
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 at
Rhamnous with Nemesis.[11] Themis is not wrathful; when a distraught
Hera returned to
Olympus 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 the
deme). Judges were often referred to as "themistopóloi" (the servants of Themis). Such was also the basis for order upon Olympus. Even
Hera addressed her as "Lady Themis".[13]
Hesiod
Themis occurred in
Hesiod's Theogony as the first recorded appearance of Justice 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 of
Zeus 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]
Aeschylus
In the play Prometheus Bound, traditionally attributed to
Aeschylus, it is said by Prometheus that Themis is called many names, including
Gaia.[15]
Family
In
Hesiod's Theogony, Themis is one of the twelve Titan children of
Gaia (Earth) and
Uranus (Sky).[16] She is the second wife of her nephew
Zeus, by whom she is the mother of the
Horae (Seasons), listed as
Eunomia (Law),
Dike (Justice),
Eirene (Peace), and the
Moirai (Fates), listed as
Clotho,
Lachesis and
Atropos.[17] Similarly to Hesiod's account, the Orphic Hymn to Themis calls her the daughter of Gaia and Uranus,[18] and the Orphic Hymn to the
Seasons calls her the mother, by Zeus, of the Horae.[19]
Themis built the
Oracle at Delphi and was herself
oracular.[24] According to another legend, Themis received the Oracle at Delphi from
Gaia and later gave it to
Phoebe, who gave it to her grandson
Apollo as a birthday gift.[25] According to
Ephorus, Themis helped Apollo find the oracle, with the intent of helping mankind.[26] Some examples of Themis' visions; In the story of
Dryope in
Ovid's Metamorphoses, Themis warns the gods of an oncoming
civil war in Thebes.[27] In another tale she warns
Zeus and
Poseidon to not marry
Thetis because her son will be more powerful than his father.[28] According to Ovid, it was Themis rather than Zeus who told
Deucalion to throw the bones of "
his Mother" over his shoulder to create a new race of humankind after the deluge.[29] Also according to Ovid, Themis prophesied that a son of Zeus will steal golden apples from the orchard of
Atlas.[30]
In
Homer's Iliad she is tasked with calling the gods to council on Olympus by Zeus.[31]
Themis was present at
Delos to witness the
birth of Apollo, and nursed him with nectar and
ambrosia.[32] In his De Astronomica,
Hyginus lists Themis, in addition to the nymph
Amalthea, as the foster-mother and nurse of the young Zeus.[33] In a fragment of
Pindar, Themis was brought from the springs of
Oceanus by the
Moirai (in this version not her daughters) to
Olympus, where she became the first wife of Zeus (rather than the second), and by him the mother of the
Horae.[34]
According to the lost Cypria by
Stasinus of Cyprus, Themis and Zeus together plotted the start of the Trojan War.[35] According to
Quintus Smyrnaeus, when the gods defied the orders of Zeus and started fighting each other after the creation of the
Trojan Horse, Themis stopped them by warning them of Zeus's wrath.[36]
In the
Orphic "Rhapsodic Theogony", or Rhapsodies, (first century BC/AD)[37]Nyx (Night) prophesied that Themis would remain a virgin until
Rhea gave birth to a child of
Cronus.[38]
Themis also played a role in
Eros, the young god of love, growing up; according to
Porphyry, his mother
Aphrodite 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.[39]
When four Cretan men (
Aegolius,
Celeus,
Cerberus and
Laius) broke into the sacred cavern in
Crete 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.[40]
Cult
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,[41] in Athens nearby to the
Acropolis,[42] a temple in
Rhamnous beside one of
Nemesis,[43] and a Temple of Themis Ikhnaia in
Phthiotis, Thessalia.[44]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 the
Moirai (Moirae, Fates) [her daughters], while the third is of Zeus Agoraios (of the Market.)[45]
Themis also had an altar in Olympia: "On what is called the Stomion (Mouth) the altar to Themis has been built."[46] 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."[47]
The temple of Themis in Athens is found west of the theater of Dionysus.[48] Themis' temple in Dodona is
tetrastylepronaos in antis with a
cella, an entrance on the northside and outside was a large altar. The temple columns in Dodona were
Ionic made out of local sandstone.[49]
Modern depictions and dedications
Themis in modern-day depictions is often called "
Lady Justice"[50] and statues can be found outside many courthouses.
In 2022, the
building hosting the main courtroom of the Court of Justice of the European Union's
General Court was renamed The Themis Building.[51]
^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 by
Apollodorus, 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) [= Orphic
fr. 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 in
Hesiod, Theogony371–374, in the Homeric 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 in Apollodorus' 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.