Zeus pursued Nemesis through many shape-changes until he coupled with her as a swan. Nemesis laid an egg from which Helen of Troy hatched, raised by Leda as her own.
⚠ The dominant tradition (Euripides, most later sources) names Leda as Helen's mother. The Nemesis version appears in the Cypria and is recorded by pseudo-Apollodorus as an alternate genealogy.
Nyx bore Nemesis without a father. As goddess of retribution, Nemesis ensures the proud are humbled and justice is served — extending her mother's dark authority into the moral realm.
Artemis appealed to Nemesis to punish Aura for boasting that her body was more virginal than the goddess's own. Nemesis orchestrated Aura's downfall through Eros, ensuring the proud huntress lost the very purity she had flaunted.
In the variant tradition where Nemesis laid Helen's egg, Leda found and kept the egg, raising Helen as her own daughter at Sparta.
Nemesis punished Narcissus for his cruel rejection of all who loved him by leading him to a pool where he fell hopelessly in love with his own reflection and wasted away.
We use cookies to understand how you use our site and improve your experience. Learn more