Nemesis

Nemesis. Marble of the centuryIIa. C.

In Greek mythology, Nemesis (Νέμεσις / Némesis), called Ramnusia - “the goddess of Ramnunte” - in the sanctuary that has in that city of Attica, is the goddess of retributive justice, solidarity, revenge, balance and fortune. She punished those who did not obey those people with the right to command them and, above all, the children who did not obey their parents. She received the secret vows and oaths of her love and avenged unhappy or unfortunate lovers for her lover's perjury or infidelity.

Its Roman equivalent, almost in everything, was Envy, although in the usual language in Spanish and other Romance languages, today the word Nemesis or nemesis is used with the meaning of someone who is the architect of revenge insofar as it is the retributive justice.

Genealogy

Nemesis has been described as the daughter of Oceanus (by Pausanias) or Zeus. For her part, Hesiod believes her daughter of the night (Nix).

Offspring

The Cyprian Songs speak of the union of Zeus and Nemesis, to give birth to Helen, which expresses the idea of celestial anger. Nemesis was persecuted by the sky god, and to get rid of him she took the forms of sea monsters and various land animals. She finally transformed into a goose. Zeus transmuted into a swan managed to reach her and, as a result of this union, the goddess laid an egg that was collected by some shepherds and delivered by them to Leda, who took care of it for her. This is one of the versions of the origin of Helen of Troy.

Signs of identity

She is a primordial deity, so she is not subject to the dictates of the Olympian gods. She punishes above all excess. Her sanctions are usually intended to make it clear to mortals that, due to their human condition, they cannot be excessively lucky nor should they upset the universal balance with their actions, whether good or bad. A clear example is found in Croesus, who, being too happy, was dragged by Nemesis to an expedition against Cyrus that caused his ruin.

She is also considered to be the Greek goddess who measured the happiness and misery of mortals, to whom she used to cause cruel losses when they had been excessively favored by Fortune. With this character the first Greek writers present her to us, and she was later considered as the Furies, that is, as the goddess who punished crimes. The irresistible power of Nemesis is expressed by her association with Adrastea, an Asian divinity that was confused with her, until this name is one of her epithets. Nemesis is one of the attributes of the supreme god, and she was, in union with Adrastea, the instrument of divine wrath.

Iconography

She is represented with a crown and sometimes with a veil that covers her head; she usually carries an apple branch in one hand and a wheel in the other. Nemesis's head is seen crowned on Greek monuments and sometimes a deer's antler protrudes from it to indicate the readiness with which she gives each one what is due to him. The Etruscans put a diadem of precious stones on it. The daffodil flower also adorned his crown as a symbol of a proud young man in love with his own beauty. The artists of antiquity used to represent her with wings to express the promptness with which she attended to all his functions and armed with torches, swords and snakes as instruments of his revenge.

Worship

The origin of the cult of Nemesis must be found in the fear felt by the Greeks of divine wrath. Hesiod presents Aidos and Nemesis outraged by the spectacle of human perversity, fleeing from Earth, wrapped in white veils; so that, for him, Nemesis is nothing more than a personification of moral sentiment, disapproving of all violence and all excess. The first temple and the first altars that Nemesis had were in Ramnonte, located in the Attica region. For a long time the cult of him did not leave there.

Considered by some to be the force or power of the Sun, her cult had spread throughout the land. She was revered by the Persians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians. Orpheus took her cult to Greece and Italy and placed her among his chief divinities under the Greek name of Nemesis. She had an altar in the Capitol where the warriors went to sacrifice before leaving for the fights and they offered her a machete or a blade.

Roman Nemesis

Pax-Nemesis was a strange association revered in the days of imperial Rome as the patron saint of gladiators, the venatores and one of the deities of farmlands (Nemesis campestris).

The goddess is minted only on imperial coins of the emperors Claudius and Hadrian. The poet Mesomedes wrote a hymn to Nemesis in the early second century, where he describes her thus:

Nemesis, balanced wing of life,

Dark face of the goddess, daughter of Justice,

let their so-called "diamantine breezes" slow down "the insolences of mortal frivols."

Ammianus Marcellinus also includes it in a dissertation on justice after his description of the death of Gaius Caesar.