Dike- Greek GodDeity"The Maiden"
Also known as: Dice, Dikē, Astraia, Δίκη, and Ἀστραία
Description
One of the Horae, daughter of Zeus and Themis. In Hesiod's telling, she sits beside her father on Olympus and reports the wrongdoing of mortals. When corrupt judges drag justice through the streets, she follows them wrapped in mist, weeping.
Mythology & Lore
The Maiden on Olympus
Dike was one of the Horae, daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Themis. In Hesiod's Works and Days, she sits beside her father on Olympus and watches the earth. When corrupt judges issue crooked verdicts, Dike follows them wrapped in mist, weeping. Ruin comes after. Zeus has set thirty thousand immortal watchers over mortals to report to her.
The Star Maiden
Under the name Astraea, Dike once walked the earth. Aratus tells how she lived among mortals in the Golden Age, spoke at their gatherings, and filled their tables with good things. When the Silver Race rose, she withdrew from the plains to the mountain heights and came down only at dusk to scold them. Then came the Bronze Race, who forged the first swords and ate the flesh of their plowing oxen. Dike could not stay. She flew to the heavens and became the constellation Virgo.
Dike and Adikia
On the Chest of Cypselus at Olympia, a relief shows a beautiful woman seizing an ugly woman and beating her with a staff. Pausanias identified them as Dike and Adikia. For Heraclitus, even the sun answered to Dike: it would not overstep its measures, he said, for the Erinyes, her helpers, would find it out.