Themis in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Themis

19 passages from 11 ancient authors that tell of Themis, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Themis was one of the Titans, daughter of Uranus and Gaea. She was the human-like representation of the natural and moral order. The name derives from... For the story in one place, read our article on Themis.

Hesiod (1)

Hesiod, Theogony 900–929tZeus's marriages and children; the birth of Athena (900-929)Zeus marries Themis (the Hours and the Fates), Eurynome (the Graces), Demeter (Persephone), Mnemosyne (the Muses), Leto (Apollo and Artemis) and lastly Hera, whose children are Hebe, Ares and Eileithyia. Zeus bears Athena from his own head, and Hera bears Hephaestus without Zeus. The section recounts again how Zeus swallowed Metis, who conceived Athena, and how she was born by the river Trito.

Homer (2)

Homer, Iliad 15.78–142Hera on Olympus; Athena stops AresHera goes to the gods on Olympus and tells them that Zeus will not be moved. Ares, hearing that his son Ascalaphus has been killed, prepares to go down in armour to avenge him, and Athena takes the helmet and spear from him and rebukes him. Athena makes him sit down again on his throne.
Homer, The Homeric Hymns 3.85–178Hymn 3 to Apollo (2): the birth of Apollo on DelosOnce Leto has sworn her oath, Delos is glad. After nine days and nights of labour, the goddesses bring Eileithyia, and Apollo is born, washed, and fed with nectar; he declares that the lyre, the bow and prophecy will be his. The Delian part of the hymn closes with the festival of the Ionians on Delos and the song of the Delian maidens.

Pindar (1)

Pindar, Isthmian Odes 8.1–70Isthmian 8: for Cleandros — Thetis and the AeacidaePindar calls on the youths to sing at the door of Telesarchus for Cleandros of Aegina, pancratium victor, and says that the relief from war's dread may be healed by freedom. He tells how Zeus and Poseidon strove to wed Thetis until Themis declared that she must bear a son greater than his father, so that she was given to Peleus. He ends by praising Cleandros' kinsman, the boxer Nicocles, who won the crown of Dorian celery at the Isthmus.

Aeschylus (1)

Aeschylus, Eumenides 1–93Prologue: the Priestess at Delphi and Apollo's promiseThe Priestess of Apollo at Delphi prays to the gods who held the oracle before Apollo and then goes in to the shrine. She comes out terrified, having seen a man at the altar with bloody hands and sword, surrounded by sleeping women with snakes in their hair. Apollo tells Orestes that he will not abandon him, tells him that the Furies are asleep, and sends him to the city of Athena with Hermes as his escort.

Euripides (1)

Euripides, Medea 131–212Parodos: the women of Corinth hear Medea's criesThe Chorus of Corinthian women hear Medea's cries from the house and ask the Nurse what is wrong. Medea, still inside, calls on Themis and Zeus as guardians of oaths and prays for the ruin of Jason and his bride. The Chorus asks the Nurse to bring her out, and the Nurse goes in to try, while the Chorus hears Medea invoke Themis again.

Diodorus Siculus (1)

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 5.64.1–5.67.5Early Crete: the Dactyls, the Curetes and the TitansThe Cretans claim that the Eteocretans were native to the island, and that the Idaean Dactyls discovered fire and the working of metals. They tell of the Curetes and of the Titans near Cnosus under Cronus' rule, whose age is described with lines of Hesiod, and of Hyperion's observation of the heavens.

Ovid (3)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.313–415Deucalion and PyrrhaThe flood drowns beasts and men, and starvation takes those it spares. Only Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, who have always worshipped the gods, are saved when their boat comes to rest on Parnassus. Zeus (Jupiter) calms the waters, and the two, alone in the silent world, seek the oracle of Themis, who tells them to throw behind them the bones of their great mother. They understand that she means the stones of the earth, and the stones they throw turn into men and women.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.322–412Dryope and IolausIole tells of her sister Dryope, who plucked a lotus blossom, not knowing that it was the nymph Lotis, and who began to turn into a tree. Dryope was turned into a lotus as her husband and father looked on, and begged them to let her child play in the shade. Iolaus, Heracles' nephew, grown old, is made young again by Hebe, and Themis prophesies the coming of other prodigies.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.413–571Byblis and CaunusThemis' prophecy ends, and Byblis, a girl of Miletus, falls in love with her twin brother Caunus, and at first tries to deceive herself that it is only sisterly love. She dreams of him, and debates with herself whether she should write to him, and in the end writes a letter confessing her love. As she gives the tablets to a servant, they slip from her hands and fall.

Pausanias (4)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.5.1–13From Daulis to Delphi: the Phocicum, the Cleft Way and the early oracle and temples of ApolloPausanias describes the Phocicum, where the Phocian deputies meet, and the Cleft Way where Oedipus killed his father. He recounts the different traditions about the early oracle of Delphi and its first prophetesses, from Earth and Themis to Phemonoe, Boeo and Olen. He then gives the successive temples of Apollo: laurel, wax and feathers, bronze, the stone temple of Trophonius and Agamedes, and the present one built by the Amphictyons.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.22.1–8Athens: Propylaea, Wingless Victory and the picture gallery of the AcropolisBelow the Acropolis are the temple of Themis, the barrow of Hippolytus with the Troezenian version of Phaedra’s love, and shrines of Vulgar Aphrodite, Earth and Green Demeter. Pausanias describes the single approach, the white marble Propylaea and the temple of Wingless Victory, where Aegeus is said to have thrown himself down. In the chamber of pictures he lists Polygnotus’ paintings of Diomede, Ulysses, Orestes and Polyxena, a portrait of Musaeus, and Hermes and the Graces by Socrates.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.17.1–11Olympia: the Heraeum’s images and the Chest of Cypselus, first fieldPausanias lists the images in the temple of Hera, among them Zeus and Hera, the Seasons, Themis, the Hesperides and works by Praxiteles, and then describes the cedar Chest of Cypselus, in which the infant Cypselus was hidden. He explains the inscriptions in boustrophedon and describes the first field of its reliefs, the chariot race of Pelops and Oenomaus, the house of Amphiaraus and the funeral games of Pelias.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.25.1–10Thebes: tomb of Menoeceus, Dirce, Pindar's house and the CabiriPausanias describes the tomb of Menoeceus with its pomegranate-tree, the pillar marking the single combat of Oedipus' sons and the place called the Dragging of Antigone. He notes the river Dirce, Pindar's house and the sanctuary of Mother Dindymene, and the sanctuaries of Themis, the Fates, Zeus of the Market and Hercules Nose-docker. He ends with the grove and sanctuary of the Cabiri, giving the Theban account of their rites and of the punishment of those who profaned them.

Quintus Smyrnaeus (1)

Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy (Posthomerica) 12.117–213Epeius builds the Wooden HorseEpeius tells the Argives his dream, and Ida's pines are cut and hauled to the Hellespont, where in three days he builds the Wooden Horse and Athena makes it a marvel. While Zeus is away at the Ocean, the gods take sides and fight beside the Xanthus until he returns in anger. Themis warns them to stop fighting for the sake of mortals.

Nonnus of Panopolis (2)

Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 31.70–131Book 31: Megaira is lent to Hera; Iris goes to find SleepPersephone agrees and gives Hera the Fury Megaira, whom Hera angers further by showing her the dead Indians. Megaira waits in a Caucasian cave in the form of an owl until Zeus sleeps. Hera sends Iris to ask Sleep to put Zeus to sleep for a day, and Iris finds him near Orchomenos.
Nonnus of Panopolis, Dionysiaca 41.119–211Book 41: Eros is born at Beroe; the birth of BeroeMeadows and vines burst up around Aphrodite, and she gives birth to Eros, who leaps at once to her breast. The poet hails Beroe as nurse of cities and says she is also called Amymone. In a younger story Aphrodite bears her to Adonis with Hermes and Themis attending, the beasts rejoice, and Aphrodite foresees that a boar will bring Adonis' death.

Orpheus (attributed) (2)

Orpheus (attributed), Orphic Hymns 77–82Hymns 77-82: Mnemosyne, Aurora, Themis, the North, West and South WindsMnemosyne, the consort of Zeus and source of the Muses, is invoked to wake the memory of the initiate, and Aurora as the goddess whose rising ray leads on the day. Themis is hailed as the illustrious child of heaven. The last three hymns address the winds: Boreas, whose wintry blasts tear the air, Zephyrus of the west, who gives rest to weary labour, and Notus of the south, who drives the rain clouds.
Orpheus (attributed), Orphic Hymns 42–46Hymns 42-46: Mises, the Seasons, Semele, Dionysius Bassareus, Liknitus BacchusMises, here called Thesmophorus, is invoked as a spermatic god of many names who bears a leafy rod, and the Seasons as the daughters of Jove and Themis who bring justice and peace. Semele is addressed as the Cadmean mother of Bacchus. The group closes with Dionysius Bassareus, the bull-faced son of the thunder, and Liknitan Bacchus, bearer of the vine.