Nemesis enacted divine retribution on Narcissus for his vanity. According to Eratosthenes in his Catasterismi, this version was presented by Cratinus. While asleep, Zeus raped her and in time she bore an egg which was transported to Leda by Hermes. Nemesis, pitying the poor swan, offered it refuge in her arms, and fell into a deep sleep. So he tasked Aphrodite to transform into an eagle and mock-chase him, while he transformed into a swan. In another variation, Zeus desired Nemesis, but could not persuade her to sleep with him.
Apollodorus speaks of a single transformation, into a goose, while Zeus turned into a swan to hunt her down and raped her, producing an egg that was given to the queen of Sparta Helen hatched from the egg, and was raised by Leda. She took several forms to escape Zeus, but he eventually captured her. Zeus fell in love with Nemesis, here possibly presented as his daughter, and pursued her, only for her to flee in shame.
According to its author, Stasinus of Cyprus, Helen was born from the rape of Nemesis by Zeus. This narrative is first found in the lost epic Cypria, the prelude of the Iliad. In some traditions, Nemesis is the mother of Helen of Troy, rather than the mortal queen Leda. By Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, 1808 Nemesis and Zeus Justice (Dike, on the left) and Divine Vengeance (Nemesis, right) are pursuing the criminal murderer. She was sometimes called Adrasteia, probably meaning "one from whom there is no escape" her epithet Erinys ("implacable") is specially applied to Demeter and the Phrygian mother goddess, Cybele. In the Greek tragedies Nemesis appears chiefly as the avenger of crime and the punisher of hubris, and as such is akin to Atë and the Erinyes. She is implacable justice: that of Zeus in the Olympian scheme of things, although it is clear she existed prior to him, as her images look similar to several other goddesses, such as Cybele, Rhea, Demeter, and Artemis. Nemesis appears in a still more concrete form in a fragment of the epic Cypria. Hesiod states: "Also deadly Nyx bore Nemesis an affliction to mortals subject to death" ( Theogony, 223, though perhaps an interpolated line). From the fourth century onward, Nemesis, as the just balancer of Fortune's chance, could be associated with Tyche.ĭivine retribution is a major theme in the Greek world view, providing the unifying theme of the tragedies of Sophocles and many other literary works. Gruppe (1906) and others connect the name with "to feel just resentment". Later, Nemesis came to suggest the resentment caused by any disturbance of this right proportion, the sense of justice that could not allow it to pass unpunished. The word nemesis originally meant the distributor of fortune, neither good nor bad, simply in due proportion to each according to what was deserved. Mythology Fortune and retribution Albrecht Dürer's engraving of Nemesis, c 1502 Ancient fresco from Pompeii depicting the abandoned Ariadne, Cupid, and probably Nemesis.
According to the Byzantine poet Tzetzes, Bacchylides had Nemesis as the mother of the Telchines by Tartarus. In several traditions, Nemesis was seen as the mother of Helen of Troy by Zeus, adopted and raised by Leda and Tyndareus. Some made her the daughter of Zeus by an unnamed mother. Nemesis has been described as the daughter of Oceanus, Erebus, or Zeus, but according to Hyginus she was a child of Erebus and Nyx. Family Īccording to Hesiod's Theogony, Nemesis was one of the children of Nyx alone. The name Nemesis is related to the Greek word νέμειν némein, meaning "to give what is due", from Proto-Indo-European * nem- "distribute". In ancient Greek religion, Nemesis, also called Rhamnousia or Rhamnusia ( Ancient Greek: Ῥαμνουσία, romanized: Rhamnousía, lit.'the goddess of Rhamnous' ), was the goddess who personifies retribution for the sin of hubris: arrogance before the gods.
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