Nemesis (mythology)

Nemesis (Greek Νέμεσις " allocation ( of the fee ends ) " ) in Greek mythology, the goddess of " righteous anger ". It has made them also to revenge deity.

Her companion is the goddess Aido ( "Shame "). Nemesis punished especially human hubris (see also hubris ) and the disregard of Themis, the divine law and morality.

Nemesis means in today's parlance often a compensatory, retributive justice or eternal opponent.

Myth

She is a daughter of Nyx ( "Night" ), either born only of this or the daughter of Nyx and Erebus of, or daughter of Oceanus.

Zeus mated with Nemesis in the form of a swan, after she had initially fled from shame and righteous anger against his snares. On their flight across the sea they turned into a fish, reached the edge of the earth, and finally into a duck or goose, with Zeus as a swan Helena begat the sake of which was eventually passed the Trojan War.

In another version of the story to the Nemesis Zeus Aphrodite plays by itself as an eagle on the swan crashes, which can " escape " in the lap of Nemesis. In both stories, the egg is brought to Leda, Helena rears - although it is not itself the mother of Helen. Swan and Eagle were to the corresponding constellations.

After Bacchylides Nemesis is Tartarus with the mother of Telchines of Rhodes.

In Ovid's Metamorphoses, she punishes Narcissus because he has the nymph Echo and other ruined by his relentlessness.

Their attributes are manifold. Among other things, she holds a branch of the apple tree in the hand and is accompanied by a griffin. As the Erinys can they be called in the majority ( Nemeseis ). Two Nemeseis were worshiped in Smyrna, which the Great published by the local sanctuary Alexander in a dream when he exhausted from the hunt was asleep under a plane tree and they called him on the reestablishment of the city of Smyrna, where was their oldest place of worship. The oracle of Apollo at Claros confirmed the order.

In Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound Nemesis also means Adrasteia ( " the Unentfliehbare " ), in Ovid's Metamorphoses Rhamnusia. According to their sanctuary with the famous cult image in Rhamnous

The fact that in contrast to the modern understanding of the goddess Nemesis is more than avenger Judge, makes the Orphic hymn "To Nemesis " clear:

I 'll call you, Nemesis! Highest! Divine Wielding Queen! All-seeing, you over look The much -born mortal life. Eternal, Holy, Your joy Alone are the righteous. But You hate speech Glast, The iridescent, always shaky, The people shy away to the oppressive yoke Your neck bent. All people think you know, And never be you withdraw the soul Haughty and proud In the blurry barrage of words. In everything you look into it, All listening, all the difference. Yours is the human court. [ ... ]

597470
de