Dike

In ancient Greek culture, Dike or Dice[1] (/ˈdaɪkiː/ or /ˈdaɪsiː/; Greek: Δίκη, dikē, 'Custom')[2] is the goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order and fair judgement based on immemorial custom, in the sense of socially enforced norms and conventional rules. According to Hesiod (Theogony, l. 901), she was fathered by Zeus upon his second consort, Themis. She and her mother are both personifications of justice. She is depicted as a young, slender woman carrying a balance scale and wearing a laurel wreath. The constellation Libra (the Scales) was anciently thought to represent her distinctive symbol.

Dike and Adikia (justice and injustice), Personification

She is often associated with Astraea, the goddess of innocence and purity. Astraea is also one of her epithets, referring to her appearance in the nearby constellation Virgo which is said to represent Astraea. This reflects her symbolic association with Astraea, who, too, has a similar iconography.

Depiction

The sculptures of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia have as their unifying iconographical conception the dikē of Zeus,[3] and in poetry she is often the attendant (paredros) of Zeus.[4] In the philosophical climate of late 5th century Athens, dikē could be anthropomorphised[5] as a goddess of moral justice.[a] She was one of the three second-generation Horae, along with Eunomia ('order') and Eirene ('peace'):[6]

Eunomia and that unsullied fountain Dikē, her sister, sure support of cities; and Eirene of the same kin, who are the stewards of wealth for mankind — three glorious daughters of wise-counselled Themis."

She ruled over human justice, while her mother Themis ruled over divine justice. Her opposite was adikia ('injustice'); in reliefs on the archaic Chest of Cypselus preserved at Olympia,[b] a comely Dikē throttled an ugly Adikia and beat her with a stick.

The later art of rhetoric treated the personification of abstract concepts as an artistic device, which devolved into the allegorizing that Late Antiquity bequeathed to patristic literature. In a further euhemerist interpretation, Dikē was born a mortal and Zeus placed her on Earth to keep mankind just. He quickly learned this was impossible and placed her next to him on Mount Olympus.
Dike Astraea

One of her epithets was Astraea, referring to her appearance as the constellation Virgo. According to Aratus' account of the constellation's origin, Dike lived upon Earth during the Golden and Silver ages, when there were no wars or diseases, men raised fine crops and did not yet know how to sail.[8] 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 the Bronze Age, when diseases arose and humanity learned how to sail.
See also

Lady Justice

Notes

She is already given a genealogy, as daughter of Themis, in Hesiod, Theogony 901, and approaches the throne of Zeus with lamentation at human injustices in Works and Days, 239f, both poems ca. late seventh century BCE.

Minutely described by Pausanias in the later second century CE.[7]

References

Smith, William (1880). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: John Murray. p. 1002. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
Gardner, Dorsey (1887). Webster's Condensed Dictionary. George Routledge and Sons. p. 719. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
Hurwit, Jeffrey M (March 1987), "Narrative Resonance in the East Pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia", The Art Bulletin, 69 (1): 6–15.
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus, 1377; Plutarch, Life of Alexander 52; Orphic hymn 61. 2.
Burkert, Walter (1985), "The special character of Greek anthropomorphism", Greek Religion, Harvard University Press, III (4): 182–89.
Pindar,Thirteenth Olympian Ode, translated by Conway, 6 ff.
Pausanias, Description of Greece, v.18.2.

Aratus (1921). "Phaenomena". Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron. Aratus. Loeb Classical Library. 129. Mair, A. W. & G. R. (trans). London: William Heinemann. ll. 96–136.

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Ancient Greek deities by affiliation
Primordial
deities

Achlys Aether Aion/Chronos Ananke Chaos Erebus Eros/Phanes Gaia Hemera Nyx The Ourea Pontus/Thalassa Tartarus Uranus Fates
Atropos Clotho Lachesis

Titan
deities
Titanes (male)

Coeus Crius Cronus Hyperion Iapetus Oceanus

Titanides (female)

Dione Mnemosyne Phoebe Rhea Tethys Theia Themis

Children of Hyperion

Eos Helios Selene

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Asteria Leto

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Atlas Epimetheus Menoetius Prometheus

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Hypate Mese Nete Muses at Sicyon
Polymatheia

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Dike Eirene Eunomia

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Nereides

Amphitrite Arethusa Dynamene Galatea Galene Psamathe Thetis

Potamoi

Achelous Almo Alpheus Anapos Asopus Asterion Axius Caanthus Cebren Cephissus Clitumnus Enipeus Kladeos Meander Nilus Numicus Phyllis Peneus Rivers of the Underworld
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Echidna The Graeae
Deino Enyo Pemphredo The Gorgones
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The Harpiae
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Aetna Agdistis The Alseids Amphictyonis The Anthousai Aristaeus Attis The Auloniads Britomartis The Cabeiri Comus The Dryades
Erato The Hamadryades
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Adrasteia Echo Helice Iynx Nomia Oenone Pitys The Pegasides Priapus Rhapso Silenus Telete

Others

Alexiares and Anicetus Aphroditus Enyalius Palaestra

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Plato Eudoxus Philip of Opus Aristonymus Coriscus Erastus of Scepsis Demetrius of Amphipolis Euaeon of Lampsacus Heraclides Python of Aenus Hestiaeus of Perinthus Lastheneia of Mantinea Timolaus of Cyzicus Speusippus Axiothea of Phlius Heraclides Ponticus Menedemus of Pyrrha Xenocrates Crantor Polemon Crates of Athens

Hellenistic
Academic Skeptic
Middle

Arcesilaus Diocles of Cnidus Lacydes Telecles Evander Hegesinus

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Epicurus Polyaenus Metrodorus Batis Leontion Carneiscus Idomeneus Hermarchus Colotes Themista Leonteus Polystratus Dionysius of Lamptrai Basilides Philonides Diogenes of Tarsus Alcaeus and Philiscus Apollodorus Demetrius Lacon Zeno of Sidon Amafinius Rabirius Titus Albucius Phaedrus Philodemus Lucretius Patro Catius Siro Diogenes of Oenoanda

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Neoplatonist

Ammonius Saccas Plotinus Disciples Origen Amelius Porphyry Iamblichus Sopater Eustathius of Cappadocia Sosipatra Aedesius Dexippus Chrysanthius Theodorus of Asine Julian Sallustius Maximus of Ephesus Eusebius of Myndus Priscus of Epirus Antoninus Gregory of Nyssa Hypatia Augustine Macrobius Plutarch of Athens Hierius Asclepigenia Hierocles Syrianus Hermias Aedesia Proclus Ammonius Hermiae Asclepiodotus Hegias Zenodotus Marinus Agapius Isidore Damascius Simplicius Priscian

Neopythagorean

Nigidius Figulus Apollonius of Tyana Moderatus of Gades Nicomachus Alexicrates Anaxilaus Bolus of Mendes Cronius Damis Numenius of Apamea Secundus the Silent Quintus Sextius Sotion Theon of Smyrna

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Roman

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