Dike

Dike was the Greek goddess of justice, a daughter of Zeus and Themis and one of the Horae, the Hours. Hesiod describes her as the maiden who sits beside Zeus and reports men’s unjust judgments to him. In the poet Aratus she lived among humans in the Golden Age, left the earth when the Bronze Age began, and became the constellation Virgo.

Dike’s Family

Hesiod makes Dike a daughter of Zeus. After his earlier marriages Zeus married bright Themis, who bore the Horae: Eunomia (Order), Dike (Justice) and blooming Eirene (Peace), who watch over the works of mortal men. The same marriage produced the Moirai, the Fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos (Theogony 901–906). Hyginus, who discusses the constellation Virgo, writes that Hesiod calls the maiden the daughter of Jupiter and Themis (Astronomica 2.25). Aratus is unsure of her father; in his poem the Maiden is either a daughter of Astraeus, the old father of the stars, or the child of some other father (Phaenomena 96–99), and Hyginus reports that Aratus makes her the daughter of Astraeus and Aurora, the dawn goddess Eos.

Dike in Hesiod

In the Works and Days Hesiod calls her “the maiden Dike, born of Zeus, glorious and revered among the gods who hold Olympus.” When a man wrongs her by crooked talk, she sits at once beside her father Zeus, son of Cronus, and tells him of the unjust mind of men, so that the people may pay for the recklessness of kings who bend justice aside with crooked words (Works and Days 256–262). When bribe-eating men drag her about and give crooked judgments, she follows the city and the dwellings of the people weeping, wrapped in mist and bringing evil to those who have driven her out and not dealt straight (Works and Days 220–224). Hesiod urges his brother Perses to listen to Dike and not to feed hubris, because in the end Dike prevails over Hubris (Works and Days 213–218).

Dike and the Ages of Man

Aratus tells a different story of Dike. In the Phaenomena a tale is current among men that the Maiden once lived on earth and met people face to face, taking her seat among men and women alike though she was immortal. Men called her Justice. She gathered the elders in the market-place or the wide streets and urged on them fairer judgments. In that age men knew nothing of strife or war, the sea was far from them, and the oxen and the plough and Justice herself supplied all their needs. She lived on earth as long as the earth nourished the Golden Race (Phaenomena 100–114).

With the Silver Race she mingled less. She came alone from the hills at evening and spoke to no one kindly, and when she had gathered the people on the great hills she rebuked them for their wickedness and said she would never again show her face to them. She foretold that the race that followed would be worse than their fathers, and that war and bloodshed would come (Phaenomena 115–128). When the Bronze Race arrived, who were the first to forge the sword and to eat the plough ox, Justice hated that race and flew up to the sky. She took her seat where the Maiden, Virgo, is still visible at night near Bootes (Phaenomena 129–136). Hyginus tells this version: she was called Justitia for her care and fairness, and when the bronze race of men was born she could bear it no longer and flew up to the stars (Astronomica 2.25).

Hesiod’s Works and Days has a related account of the decline of humanity, but it makes Aidos (Shame) and Nemesis, not Dike, leave the earth for Olympus when the Iron Age comes, wrapped in white robes (Works and Days 197–200).

Dike as Virgo

Ancient writers did not all agree that Virgo was Dike. Hyginus says that some called the constellation Fortuna, some Ceres, and some Erigone, daughter of Icarius; still others made her a daughter of Apollo and Chrysothemis, who was set among the stars because she died young (Astronomica 2.25).

Dike Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 901–906; Hesiod, Works and Days 197–200, 213–224 and 256–262; Aratus, Phaenomena 96–136; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.25.

See Also: Zeus, Themis, Horae, Ages of Man, Eunomia, Eirene, Moirai, Astraeus