Themis: Goddess of Justice from Greek Mythology

17/01/2021

     Themis is, in Greek Mythology, the Goddess of Justice and her image is very similar to the sign of the pound. She is the deity who represents the oaths and the law of men, check.

Themis in Greek Mythology:

     Themis in Greek Mythology, was a titanid, daughter of Uranus and Gaia. She was the guardian goddess of the oaths of men and the law, and it is customary to invoke her in judgments before magistrates. For this reason, she was sometimes regarded as the goddess of justice, a title actually attributed to Dice whose Roman equivalent is the goddess Justice.

     Themis wields the scale, with which she balances reason with judgment, and / or a cornucopia; but she is not represented holding a sword. Her name means "the one who is put, put".

     Her brothers are: Titans (Oceanus, Ceos, Crio, Hyperion, Iapetus, Cronus); and Titanides (Tethys, Teia, Phoebe, Reia, Mnemosyne).


Themis Mythology:

     As a child, he was handed over by Gaia to the care of Nyx, who had just generated Nemesis. Gaia's goal was to protect Themis from Uranus's madness. But Nix was tired, as she had ceaselessly fathered her children. Then Nix delivers her daughter Nemesis, and the niece Themis to the care of his eldest daughters, the moiras (Cloto, Laquésis and Atropos).

     Moiras create the two infant goddesses and teach them everything about the cosmic and natural order of things; and the importance of ensuring balance. Moiras are the goddesses of destiny, both for men and for gods and their decisions cannot be transgressed by anyone. From this creation, we saw the origin of the similarities of the two beautiful and powerful goddesses created as sisters: Themis, the goddess of justice, and Nemesis, the goddess of retribution.

     There is a wrong version, according to which the Moiras were daughters of Themis. What may have generated such a misunderstanding was possibly to confuse them with the hours (cycles present in nature, seasons, climate, vegetation, etc.), which also act on the cyclical energies of nature, as well as Moiras (life's vital cycles, being born , grow, etc.). Themis, in Greek mythology, is the goddess of oaths, the mother of Dice, goddess of justice, the protector of the oppressed.

     Zeus first wife was Métis who, after placing her in his womb, Zeus married Themis. Zeus was the son of Cronos and Reia, brothers of Themis.

     He sat beside his throne, as she was his advisor. She considered mythology to be the personification of divine order and law, ratified by custom and law.

     Zeus and Themis were the parents of the hours, of Eunomia, Dice, Irene; in a version considered to be erroneous, they are also attributed to the three moiras (Cloto, Láquesis and Atropos), normally considered as previous to Themis).


Zeus and Themis:

     Themis was Zeus second wife, after Métis and before Hera. It is she who tempered Zeus's power with great wisdom and with her deep respect for natural laws. Being a titanid, its roots are instinctive and pre-Olympic and extends ahead to include a cosmic view of the final and essential operations of the entire universe.

     In addition to being a wife and counselor, Themis is also a mentor to Zeus. In a myth she appears as a baby Zeus wet nurse, teaching him to respect justice. In the marriage of Zeus and Themis we see two forces, one solar and the other lunar, working together with few conflicts to be observed.

     Zeus was the all-powerful, absolute king, an archetypal pattern that governs collective consciousness, which both creates and maintains a collectivity. But it is Themis, who, moving within various other archetypal patterns, destabilizes Zeus' absolutism and certainties. It moved in the opposite direction, never failing to include as much as possible. Themis therefore had a softening effect.

     However, the marriage of the two was not in total sweet harmony, because although wisdom passed between them, the dictates of one and the other, always had a very high price, because nothing has a definitive solution.

     In the image of Zeus consulting Themis, we can accept a good deal of exchange. Zeus is the one who rules and decides, while Themis assumes a softer attitude and gives his relativizing touch that comes from broader perspectives.

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