The Goddess Nemesis, the Greek Goddess of Fate and Retribution: Mythology, History and Archaeology
Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Names of Goddess Nemesis
3. The Lineage of Goddess Nemesis
4. Portrayals of Goddess Nemesis
5. Stories related to Goddess Nemesis
6. Goddess Nemesis in Roman Mythology
7. Hymns to Goddess Nemesis
8. Goddess Nemesis as a political figure
9. Temples dedicated to Goddess Nemesis
10. Altar dedications made to Goddess Nemesis
11. Festivals dedicated to Goddess Nemesis
12. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Goddess Nemesis was the Greek goddess of divine indignation and retribution against evil deeds and underserved good fortune. She was the personification of the resentment aroused in both gods and mortals by those who committed crimes with impunity, or who enjoyed underserved luck.
Goddess Nemesis directed human affairs in such a way as to maintain equilibrium. Happiness and unhappiness were measured out by her, care being taken that happiness was not too frequent or too excessive. If this happened, Goddess Nemesis could bring about losses and suffering.
As the goddess who checked extravagant favours through 'Tyche' (fate or fortune), she was regarded as an avenging or punishing deity. Individuals favoured by fortune who failed to give proper dues to the gods, became too full of himself and boasted of his abundant riches, or refused to improve the lot of his fellow humans by sharing his luck would face the retribution of Goddess Nemesis, who would intervene to bring that person back to reality by humiliating him and causing his downfall.
Nemesis was the Greeks' conscience, for as the goddess of retribution, she personified moral reverence for the natural order of things and provided a deterrent to wrongful action.
Nemesis was a feared and revered goddess. She represented divine justice, vengeance and karma. She pursued the wicked, bringing to them what they deserved. Despite her hard aspects, she was a bringer of balance and of lessons needed to be learned. She helped uphold the balance of the universe; the sense of right and wrong. Through her lessons, those who have wronged may learn the errors of their ways. She was said by some to be a fierce figure, of pure revenge, but she did not enact vengeance out of anger, rather she did it out of disciplining so that men may learn the full range of lessons life teaches so they may become complete individuals. She was often considered to be the 'hit-woman' of the gods, and in essence this is exactly what she was.
2. The Names of Goddess Nemesis
Her name was derived from the Greek words 'nemesis' and 'nemo', meaning dispenser of dues, and can be variously translated from the Greek as 'she who distributes or deals out', 'due enactment' or 'divine vengeance'.
The word was derived from the root 'nem/nom', which means distribution or apportionment. The verb 'nemein' means to apportion, distribute or graze. The related words 'nomos' (with accents on first and second o's respectively) mean pasture or law. The verb 'nemeson' means to begrudge. While the original meaning of Nemesis was 'allotment' or 'apportionment', it came to mean the feeling provoked by the violation of the rules of fairness.
Nemesis was also known as Adrasteia, which in Greek means 'inescapable'. It is said that this name was taken either from the king, Adrastos. An alternative mythology has it that this name came from the ancient Adrastos who suffered divine wrath for his boasts against the Thebans He had established a shrine to Goddess Nemesis, who in certain parts of Greece then acquired the name Adrasteia.
She was also sometimes called Rhamnusia or Rhamnusis, in honour of her sanctuary at Rhamnos.
Later, the Romans often used the Greek name for her, but sometimes called her Invidia (Jealousy) or Rivalitas (Jealous Rivalry).
3. The Lineage of Goddess Nemesis
In Greek mythology Goddess Nemesis is most commonly described as the daughter of Nyx and Erebus. Her mother, Nyx, was goddess of the night. Nyx was spawned from the primordial chaos, along with Erebus, Her brother. Phanus, a sun god, is suggested to also be her father in some myths. With Erebus, Nyx is said to have mothered Aether (the upper air) and Hemera (day). It is also said that on her own she gave birth to Moros (doom), Hesperides, Thanatos (death), Themis (morals), Hypnos (sleep), Apate (deceit), the fates and Nemesis. Because of the nature of her mother, Nemesis also developed the name, 'daughter of night'.
Nyx resided in 'Tartarus', the hell of the underworld, which is buried both deep below it and also forms part of it. Nyx left 'Tartarus' and went out into the world each day and went back as Hemera (day) returned. Erebus represented the gloomy darkness of 'Tartarus'.
The Greek epic poem 'Theogony' by Hesiod (8th or 7th century B.C.) refers to Nemesis being the daughter of Nyx as follows:
And Night bore hateful Doom and black Fate and Death, and she bore Sleep and the tribe of Dreams. And again the goddess murky Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame and painful Woe, and the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bore the Destinies and the ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos, who give men at their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions of men and gods: and these goddesses never cease from their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty. Also deadly Night bore Nemesis (indignation) to afflict mortal men, and after her, Deceit and Friendship and hateful Age and hard-hearted Strife.
This is re-enforced by other sources; Pausanias's 'Description of Greece' a Greek travelogue written in the 2nd century, by Pseudo-Hyginus, a Roman mythographer of the 2nd century and also by Cicero, the Roman rhetorician in 'De Natura Deorum' written in the 1st century, who refers to Invidentia [Nemesis] as being one of the children of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night).
There are other mythologies surrounding the parentage of Nemesis. Pausanias in his 'Description of Greece' cites that some people believed that Nemesis's father was Okeanos, the primeval river-ocean that encircled the world, and that in Smyrna they
...believe in two Nemeses instead of one, saying their mother is Nyx, while the Athenians say that the father of the goddess in Rhamnos is Okeanos.
A further description of Nemesis's parentage from a fragment of a Greek epic of the 7th or 6th century B.C. by Stasinus of Cyprus or Hegesias of Aegina states that Nemesis was the daughter of Zeus, stating the following,
Nemesis tried to escaped him [Zeus] and liked not to lie in love with her father Zeus the son of Kronos.
However, the most common depiction of Goddess Nemesis's parentage is as the daughter of Nyx, the goddess of the night.
In some early myths, Goddess Nemesis was attributed to having mothered Helen of Troy. From the fifth century, this attribution passed onto Leda and then returned again to Nemesis. In the myth's earliest forms it was Goddess Nemesis who pursued the sacred king Zeus at various seasonal times, each time changing forms into those of various animals, until she caught him as a mouse with a grain of wheat at the summer solstice and devoured him.
With the coming of the Hellenic patriarchal mythology, Nemesis became the one fleeing from a lustful Zeus, changing shapes in an effort to escape him. He finally captured her, she in the form of a goose, he as a swan and he raped her at Rhamnous in Attica. She laid an egg that was suckled by Leda, who raised the child Helen. This story was one that prevailed throughout the Attica region of Greece.
The Greek epic by Stasinus or Hegesias of the 7th or 6th century B.C. described the myth as follows,
Rich-haired Nemesis gave birth to her [Helene] when she had been joined in love with Zeus the king of the gods by harsh violence. For Nemesis tried to escape him and liked not to lie in love with her father Zeus, the son of Kronos; for shame and indignation vexed her heart: therefore she fled him over the land and fruitless dark sea. But Zeus ever pursued and longed in his heart to catch her. Now she took the form of a fish and sped over the waves of the loud-roaring sea, and now over Okeanos' stream and the further bounds of Earth, and now she sped over the furrowed land, always turning into such dread creatures as the dry land nurtures, that she might escape him.
The Greek mythographer, Pseudo-Appollodorus in his 'Biblotheca' of the 2nd century described the conception of Helen as follows,
But some say that Helen was a daughter of Nemesis and Zeus; for that she, flying from the arms of Zeus, changed herself into a goose, but Zeus in his turn took the likeness of a swan and so enjoyed her; and as the fruit of their loves she laid an egg, and a certain shepherd found it in the groves and brought and gave it to Leda; and she put it in a chest and kept it; and when Helen was hatched in due time, Leda brought her up as her own daughter.
Variant forms of this tale are repeated by Pausanias in his 'Description of Greece' of the 2nd century and also by Pseudo-Hyginus in 'Astronomica' also from the 2nd century.
An alternative myth about the offspring of Nemesis comes from Bacchylides, a Greek Lyric poet from the 5th century B.C., who relates that Telkhines, Aktaios, Megalesios, Ormenos and Lykos were the children of Nemesis and Tartaros.
4. Portrayals of Goddess Nemesis
In early representations of Goddess Nemesis she is portrayed without wings, but later she is usually shown as a winged goddess.
One of the most important descriptions of Goddess Nemesis was made in Pausanias's 'Description of Greece', a 2nd century travelogue in which he described a statue of Goddess Nemesis made out of a block of marble brought by the Persians when they landed at Marathon, which they intended to use for their victory monument,
Of this marble Pheidia made a statue of Nemesis, and on the head of the Goddess is a crown with deer and small images of Nike (Victory). In her left hand she holds an apple branch, in her right hand a cup on which are wrought Aithiopanas [Ethiopians]....Neither this nor any other ancient statue of Nemesis has wings but later artists, convinced that the goddess manifests herself most as a consequence of love, give wings to Nemesis as they do to Eros.
Her crown or diadem is often decorated with winged figures called 'victories' that symbolise the many times Goddess Nemesis has had her retribution and show her aspect as an avenging Goddess. The deer on her crown is thought to indicate that Goddess Nemesis belonged to the earthbound group of deities. The apple branch, also a symbol of the earth, supports this interpretation and represents health and long life or immortality.
No explanation is given of the depiction of the Ethiopians on this statue but it has been suggested that they are shown on the cup that Goddess Nemesis is holding because of the mythology that Nemesis was daughter of Okeanus, the river ocean and the Ethiopians were said to dwell near the river ocean. It is also argued that because Ethiopia was such a long distance from Greece this symbolised Goddess Nemesis's far reaching powers.
The pedestal of this statue was described as portraying the story of Goddess Nemesis being mother of Helene, as related above, and shows Helene being led to Nemesis by Leda.
There was a common symbolism that was depicted on most of the portrayals of Goddess Nemesis in statues and on vases. Most often she is shown as a winged Goddess though, as has been mentioned above, earlier representations show her without wings. Statues and images depict Nemesis as holding an apple-branch, rein, lash sword, or balance. Other symbols and attributes were like those of 'Tyche' (fate): a wheel and a ship's rudder.
Unlike the symbol for patriarchal justice, Goddess Nemesis was not pictured with her eyes covered, but instead with them wide open, often including a third eye and those in the back of her head. This symbolised that she was the one that saw all, that nothing could escape her.
Goddess Nemesis was one of the few goddesses seen to carry a sword, a steering wheel or whip, all of which were usually masculine in influence. The fact that Nemesis carried a sword is significant, as few gods or goddesses were seen to carry one as it was a highly respected symbol of power. It was a highly esteemed way to die, by the sword. The sword was double-edged, highlighting the darkness and light, harm and good within her symbolism.
Goddess Nemesis's pose on images of her reflect the symbolism of her powers and often show her right arm extended suggesting that an exchange is taking place. Goddess Nemesis offers righteousness in her right hand but keeps retribution by her side at her left hand.
She is sometimes pictured as riding in a chariot drawn by Griffins, these animals were very solar in nature, again reflecting the masculine and symbolising the integration of dark and light.
The colour most associated with Nemesis was indigo.
5. Stories related to Goddess Nemesis
The story of Narcissus
A famous example of the retribution of Nemesis is the story of Narcissus. This man was the beautiful son of the River Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was so handsome that all women who beheld him at once fell in love with him but he rejected them. The vain Narcissus, however, only had eyes for himself and rebuffed all admirers. One such admirer was the nymph Echo, who saw Narcissus and at once fell in love with him. But the beautiful youth couldn't be bothered with the smitten one, who was so distraught over his rejection that she withdrew into a lonely spot and faded until all that was left was the plaintive echo of her voice.
Nemesis saw this and heard the rejected girl's prayers for vengeance. Goddess Nemesis punished Narcissus by making him fall in love with his own reflection. The vain Narcissus was condemned to spend the rest of his days admiring his own reflection in the waters of a pool. He was unable to satisfy his own desires and wasted away. Eventually Narcissus died and was transformed into the flower that bears his name.
Story of Artemis and Aura
Nonnus's 'Dionysiaca' recounts another story about the Goddess Nemesis. This tale related to Aura, the virgin companion of the Goddess Artemis who mocked her, declaring her virgin form to be far superior to Artemis's. In her anger Artemis sought retribution from Goddess Nemesis.
Artemis took herself to Nemesis, and found her on the heights of Tauros in the clouds. A wheel turned itself round before the queen's feet, signifying that she rolls all the proud from on high to the ground with her avenging wheel of justice, she the all vanquishing deity who turns the path of life. Round her throne flew a bird of vengeance, a Griffin flying with wings, or balancing himself on four feet, to go before the flying goddess and show that she traverses the four separate quarters of the world. High-crested men she bridles with her bit which none can shake off and she punishes the haughty with the whip of misery, like a self-rolling wheel.
When the goddess saw Artemis's pallid face, she knew that she was offended and questioned her in friendly words: 'Your looks, Archeress proclaim your anger. Artemis, what impious son of Earth persecutes you? .....If some woman is persecuting you as one did your mother Leto, I will be the avenger of the offended Archeress.'
The maiden interrupted and said to the goddess who saves men from evil '....it is that sour virgin Aura, the daughter of Lelantos, who mocks me and offends me with rude sharp words. But how can I tell you all she said? I am ashamed to describe her insults to my body and her abuse of my breasts. I am insulted by Aura, the champion of chastity. I pray you, let me see Aura's body transformed into immoveable stone.'
The goddess replied 'Chaste daughter of Leto, I will not use my sickle to make the maid stone for I am myself born of the same ancient race of the Titanes, but I will grant you this, Archeress. Aura, the maid of the hunt has reproached your virginity, and she shall be a virgin no longer. You shall see her in the bed of a mountain stream weeping fountains of tears for her maiden girdle.'
In this way Nemesis consoled her and Artemis entered her cart with its team of four prickets and left the mountain. With equal speed Nemesis pursued her enemy, Aura. She harnessed racing Griffins under her bridle, flying swiftly through the air in her chariot, until she brought the four footed birds to the peak of Sipylos. Then she approached haughty Aura. She flicked the proud neck of the hapless girl with her snaky whip, and struck her with the round wheel of justice. She let the whip with its vipers curl round the maiden's girdle and prepared another love for her before returning to snow-beaten Tauros. And Eros drove Dionysos mad for the girl with the delicious wound of his arrow, and in this way her virginity was taken.
6. Goddess Nemesis in Roman mythology
Goddess Nemesis, under the guise of her Roman name, Invidia, was worshipped at Rome by victorious generals, and in imperial times was the patroness of gladiators and of the venatores, who fought in the arena with wild beasts, and was one of the tutelary deities of the drilling-ground (Nemesis campestris). Invidia was sometimes, but rarely, seen on imperial coining, mainly under Claudius and Hadria. In the 3rd century there is evidence of the belief in an all powerful Nemesis-Fortuna. She was worshipped by a society called Hadrian's freedman.
Nemesis in the guise of the Roman goddess of envy, Invidia, was sometimes shown in a very different way from Greek mythology. A story in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a Roman epic of the 1st century B.C. to 1st century A.D portrays her as a jealous hag living in a filthy shack eating snake flesh.
Athene was angry with the daughters of Kerops for betraying her trust by spying upon the Infant Eirhthionis, the story continues,
Athene sought the filthy slimy shack where Invidia dwelt deep in a dreary dale, a gruesome sunless hovel, filled with frost, its stagnant air unstirred by any breeze, for ever lacking warmth of cheerful fire, for ever wrapped in gloom. Reaching the place Athene paused at the threshold, as she could not pass beneath the roof, and struck on the door with her spear's point. The door flew wide and there she saw foul Invidia eating viper's flesh, food fit for spite, and turned her eyes away. Slowly the creature rose, leaving the snakes half-eaten, and approached with dragging steps, and when she saw the goddess' fair face and gleaming mails, she scowled and groaned in grief. Her cheeks are sallow, her whole body shrunk, her eyes askew and squinting; black decay befouls her teeth, her bosom is green with bile and venom coats her tongue. She never smiles save when she relishes the sight of woe; sleep never soothes her, night by night awake with worry, as she sees against her will successes won and sickens at the sight.
Athene, filled with loathing, forced a few curt words: 'I desire that you inject your pestilence in Aglauros, one of Cecrops' daughters.' That said, she soared, launched from her down thrust spear, and sped to heaven. With a sidelong glance the creature saw her fly and muttered briefly; then she took her staff, entwined with thorns, and, wrapped in a black cloud, went forth and in her progress trampled down the flowery meads, withered the grass, and slashed the tree-tops, and with filthy breath defiled peoples and towns and homes, until at last, into the room of Cecrops' child she went and did as she was bid. On the girl's breast she laid her withering hand and filled her heart with thorny briars and breathed a baleful blight of poison, black as pitch inside her lungs.
7. Hymns to Goddess Nemesis
There is a Hymn to Goddess Nemesis, known as Orphic Hymn 61 from a collection of Greek hymns from 3rd century B.C. to 2nd century A.D.
Orphic Hymn 61: Hymn to Nemesis
Thee, Nemesis, I call, almighty queen, by whom the deeds of mortal life are seen;
eternal, much revered, of boundless sight, alone rejoicing in the just and right;
changing the counsels of the human breast for ever various, roiling without rest.
To every mortal is thy influence known, and men beneath thy righteous bondage groan;
for every thought within the mind concealed is to thy sight perspicuously revealed.
The soul unwilling reason to obey, by lawless passion rule, thine eyes survey.
All to see, hear and rule, O power divine, whose nature equity contains, is thine.
Come, blessed, holy Goddess, hear my prayer, and make thy mystics' life thy constant care;
give aid benignant in the needful hour, and strength abundant to the reasoning power;
and far avert the dire, unfriendly race of counsels impious, arrogant, and base.
Hymn to Nemesis – Mesomedes
Mesomedes of Crete, a Greek lyric poet wrote a 'Hymn to Nemesis'. He lived during the 2nd century and was a freedman and court musician to the emperor Hadrian (117-138). The hymn to Nemesis is one of only four which preserve the ancient notation written over the text. Prior to the discovery of the Seikilos epitaph in the late 19th century the hymns of Mesomedes were the only surviving written music from the ancient world.
Winged Nemesis, turner of the scales of life,
blue-eyed goddess, daughter of justice,
who, with your unbending bridle,
dominate the vain arrogance of men and,
loathing man's fatal vanity, obliterate black envy;
beneath your wheel unstable and leaving no imprint,
the fate of men is tossed; you who come unnoticed,
in an instant, to subdue the insolent head.
You measure life with your hand,
and with frowning brow, hold the yoke.
We glorify you, Nemesis, immortal goddess,
Victory of the unfurled wings, powerful, infallible,
who shares the altar of justice and, furious at human pride,
casts man into the abyss of Tarturus
8. Goddess Nemesis as political figure
There was a political aspect to the figure of Goddess Nemesis; that she was also used as an avenger of political enemies, notably the Persian invaders. The cult statue by the Greek sculptor Pheidia described above was made out of a block of Parian marble brought to Marathon by the Persians, who had planned to use it in the construction of their anticipated victory monument. A statue of Goddess Nemesis was sculpted out of this block of marble about sixty years after the battle of Marathon and after the defeat of the Persians. The creation of the statue, and also the temple to Nemesis at Rhamnous, coincided with the emergence of Athenian retribution against enemies past and present at the outset of the Peloponnesian War. By the fifth century BC Goddess Nemesis had also come to represent retribution warranted by righteous indignation against political or military enemies, such as the punishment the Persians received at the hands of the Greeks at Marathon.
Also, Goddess Nemesis's depiction as Helen of Troy's mother has a political dimension. Many Greek writers used the tale of Helen, and the whole story of the Trojan wars, as teaching a moral lesson. The Trojan myth was a symbol of victory over the Persians and in the context of the story of Helen, Nemesis is the avenger of political as well as personal indignation. The base of the cult statue of Nemesis at Rhamnous described by Pausania illustrated part of this myth. One of the central scenes depicted Leda bringing Helen to Nemesis at or after the Trojan War.
A related story, also with a political purpose, is shown on a vase of the Heimarmene Painter c.430-420 B.C., now in Berlin. On this Goddess Nemesis is shown in a scene in which Peitho consoles and persuades Helen, who is seated in Aphrodite's lap, moments before her abduction by Paris. Goddess Nemesis stands at the far left alongside another figure, perhaps Eukleia, pointing an accusing finger at Helen, Paris and their persuaders. She simultaneously points to Helen's Destiny, embodied in the figure of Heimarmene. The role of Nemesis depicted on the vase is clearly allegorical and political.
9. Temples dedicated to Goddess Nemesis
The main sanctuary to Nemesis is at Rhamnous in Attica, which is said to have been built between 438 and 431 B.C. The architect was the so-called Theseum architect.
Rhamnous is in a remote part of Attica about 39 kilometres north east of Athens and 12.4 kilometres north-north-east of Marathon overlooking the Euboean Strait. Rhamnous was strategically significant enough to be fortified and receive an Athenian garrison of ephedes (young men). The site was known in antiquity for its sanctuary of Nemesis, whose temple here was the most important one dedicated to her in ancient Greece.
The sanctuary of Nemesis was built on a platform with a terrace wall. The temple was built in hexistyle with twelve columns on its flanks. From the centres of the opposite collonnades it measured 9.186 x 20.610 metres.
The cult of Nemesis at Rhamnous came to a formal end with the decree of the Byzantine emperor Arcadius in 382 that instructed any surviving polytheist temples in the countryside be destroyed.
Pausanias's 'Description of Greece', a 2nd century Greek travelogue describes the sanctuary at Rhamnos and a myth associated with it as follows:
A little way inland [from Rhamnos, Attica] is a sanctuary of Nemesis, the most implacable deity to men of violence. It is thought that the wrath of this goddess fell also upon the foreigners [the Persian army] who landed at Marathon. For thinking in their pride that nothing stood in the way of their taking Athens, they were bringing a piece of Parian marble to make a trophy, convinced that their task was already finished. Of this marble Pheidia made a statue of Nemesis...
There was a temple to Nemesis at Adrasteia in Anatolia, now in Turkey. Strabo, a Greek geographer of 1st century described the foundation of this sanctuary in the following way,
This country was called Adrasteia and Plain of Adrasteia...according to Kallisthenes, among others, Adrasteia was named after King Adrastos, who was the first to found a temple of Nemesis. Now the
city is situated between Priapos and Parion....Here, however, there is [now] no temple of Adrasteia, nor yet of Nemesis, to be seen, although there is a temple of Adrasteia near Kyzikos. Antimakhos [Greek poet 5th-4th century B.C.] says as follows: 'There is a great goddess Nemesis, who has obtained as her portion all these things from the Blessed. Adrestos was the first to build an altar to her beside the stream of the Alsepos River, where she is worshipped under the name of Adresteia.'
Another one of the sites of the cult of Goddess Nemesis was said to be located in Smyrna. Pausanias also described how a sanctuary to the cult of Nemesis in Smyrna in Anatolia came to be established in the following way,
Alexandros [the Great] was hunting on Mount Pagos [near Smyrna], and that after the hunt was over he came to a sanctuary of the Nemesis, and found there a spring and a plane-tree in front of the sanctuary, growing over the water. While he slept under the plane-tree it is said that the Nemesis appeared and bade him found a city there and remove into it the Smyranians from the old city...
There is also a temple to Goddess Nemesis at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa in Rumania. This was the capital of the Roman district of Dacia in the south-western part of the Hateg region of Rumania. The settlement was probably established in the 2nd century. Inside the walls of the city there was a temple dedicated to the Goddess Nemesis.
Goddess Nemesis was adored by the gladiators and this shrine to her is near the east gate of the amphitheatre. The temple was discovered between 1891 and1893, when the amphitheatre was partially uncovered. At the northern side the temple is connected to the gladiator school.
There is also a shrine to Goddess Nemesis just outside the main entrance of the amphitheatre at the Roman site at Carleon in Wales.
There is a curious curse associated with an object found near this shrine. During excavations of Carleon's amphitheatre in 1926, a strange lead tablet was discovered in the debris of the northern half of the arena. It bore the inscription,
Lady Nemesis, I give thee a cloak and a pair of boots stolen from me and you can obtain them by seeing that the thief is killed in the arena, or let him redeem them by getting well wounded
This curious inscription must mean that he is invoking the aid of Goddess Nemesis to arrange for the death or injury of the theft of his possessions. There is nothing known of the writer of this curious inscription, but he was presumably a gladiator or soldier.
10. Altar Dedications to Goddess Nemesis
There are two altars with dedications in Greek to the Goddess Nemesis at the archaeological site of Tauric Chersonesos at Sevastopol.
A small white marble altar was discovered in 1964 in the area of the ancient theatre and is dated to the 2nd half of the 2nd century. It bears the inscription:
"Good fortune! Basileides son of Kalos (dedicated) to the Goddess Nemesis"
A second altar of local limestone with a Latin inscription found in 1957 during the excavation of the ancient theatre is dated 2nd or 3rd century and bears the inscription:
"To Goddess Nemesis the Protector. Titus Flavius Celsinus, beneficiarius of consularis of the Eleventh Claudian legion, set up this vow for the salvation of himself and children."
A beneficarius was not an ordinary soldier but was the name given to a privileged caste of soldiers who were commanders of military posts.
The proximity of both these dedications to the theatre suggests the strong link between Goddess Nemesis and gladiators.
There was a small altar found at the amphitheatre in Chester dedicated to Goddess Nemesis. This altar bears the dedication,
Dedicated to the Goddess Nemesis by Sextus Marcianus, after a dream
There is a dedication altar to Nemesis at the amphitheatre at Leptis Magna at an ancient Roman city in Libya off the north African coast dating from around the 2nd century B.C.
11. Festivals dedicated to Goddess Nemesis
Sophocles in 'Electra' refers to a festival called Nemeseia or the Festival of Nemesis that was held in Athens on 23rd August. Because of this celebration, Goddess Nemesis is associated with the August full moon, which is commonly called 'The Corn Moon'. Its object was to avert the nemesis of the dead, who were supposed to have the power of punishing the living, if their cult had in any way been neglected.
12. Conclusion
Goddess Nemesis was the Greek Goddess of fate and retribution. She was often portrayed as a winged Goddess sometimes accompanied by Griffins. She was both an avenging Goddess distributing retribution for pride and arrogance but she also ensured balance by ensuring that lessons could be learnt. Through the disciplining of men she was able to make them learn the errors of their waves and make them more complete individuals and devoted servants.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Names of Goddess Nemesis
3. The Lineage of Goddess Nemesis
4. Portrayals of Goddess Nemesis
5. Stories related to Goddess Nemesis
6. Goddess Nemesis in Roman Mythology
7. Hymns to Goddess Nemesis
8. Goddess Nemesis as a political figure
9. Temples dedicated to Goddess Nemesis
10. Altar dedications made to Goddess Nemesis
11. Festivals dedicated to Goddess Nemesis
12. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Goddess Nemesis was the Greek goddess of divine indignation and retribution against evil deeds and underserved good fortune. She was the personification of the resentment aroused in both gods and mortals by those who committed crimes with impunity, or who enjoyed underserved luck.
Goddess Nemesis directed human affairs in such a way as to maintain equilibrium. Happiness and unhappiness were measured out by her, care being taken that happiness was not too frequent or too excessive. If this happened, Goddess Nemesis could bring about losses and suffering.
As the goddess who checked extravagant favours through 'Tyche' (fate or fortune), she was regarded as an avenging or punishing deity. Individuals favoured by fortune who failed to give proper dues to the gods, became too full of himself and boasted of his abundant riches, or refused to improve the lot of his fellow humans by sharing his luck would face the retribution of Goddess Nemesis, who would intervene to bring that person back to reality by humiliating him and causing his downfall.
Nemesis was the Greeks' conscience, for as the goddess of retribution, she personified moral reverence for the natural order of things and provided a deterrent to wrongful action.
Nemesis was a feared and revered goddess. She represented divine justice, vengeance and karma. She pursued the wicked, bringing to them what they deserved. Despite her hard aspects, she was a bringer of balance and of lessons needed to be learned. She helped uphold the balance of the universe; the sense of right and wrong. Through her lessons, those who have wronged may learn the errors of their ways. She was said by some to be a fierce figure, of pure revenge, but she did not enact vengeance out of anger, rather she did it out of disciplining so that men may learn the full range of lessons life teaches so they may become complete individuals. She was often considered to be the 'hit-woman' of the gods, and in essence this is exactly what she was.
2. The Names of Goddess Nemesis
Her name was derived from the Greek words 'nemesis' and 'nemo', meaning dispenser of dues, and can be variously translated from the Greek as 'she who distributes or deals out', 'due enactment' or 'divine vengeance'.
The word was derived from the root 'nem/nom', which means distribution or apportionment. The verb 'nemein' means to apportion, distribute or graze. The related words 'nomos' (with accents on first and second o's respectively) mean pasture or law. The verb 'nemeson' means to begrudge. While the original meaning of Nemesis was 'allotment' or 'apportionment', it came to mean the feeling provoked by the violation of the rules of fairness.
Nemesis was also known as Adrasteia, which in Greek means 'inescapable'. It is said that this name was taken either from the king, Adrastos. An alternative mythology has it that this name came from the ancient Adrastos who suffered divine wrath for his boasts against the Thebans He had established a shrine to Goddess Nemesis, who in certain parts of Greece then acquired the name Adrasteia.
She was also sometimes called Rhamnusia or Rhamnusis, in honour of her sanctuary at Rhamnos.
Later, the Romans often used the Greek name for her, but sometimes called her Invidia (Jealousy) or Rivalitas (Jealous Rivalry).
3. The Lineage of Goddess Nemesis
In Greek mythology Goddess Nemesis is most commonly described as the daughter of Nyx and Erebus. Her mother, Nyx, was goddess of the night. Nyx was spawned from the primordial chaos, along with Erebus, Her brother. Phanus, a sun god, is suggested to also be her father in some myths. With Erebus, Nyx is said to have mothered Aether (the upper air) and Hemera (day). It is also said that on her own she gave birth to Moros (doom), Hesperides, Thanatos (death), Themis (morals), Hypnos (sleep), Apate (deceit), the fates and Nemesis. Because of the nature of her mother, Nemesis also developed the name, 'daughter of night'.
Nyx resided in 'Tartarus', the hell of the underworld, which is buried both deep below it and also forms part of it. Nyx left 'Tartarus' and went out into the world each day and went back as Hemera (day) returned. Erebus represented the gloomy darkness of 'Tartarus'.
The Greek epic poem 'Theogony' by Hesiod (8th or 7th century B.C.) refers to Nemesis being the daughter of Nyx as follows:
And Night bore hateful Doom and black Fate and Death, and she bore Sleep and the tribe of Dreams. And again the goddess murky Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame and painful Woe, and the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bore the Destinies and the ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos, who give men at their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions of men and gods: and these goddesses never cease from their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty. Also deadly Night bore Nemesis (indignation) to afflict mortal men, and after her, Deceit and Friendship and hateful Age and hard-hearted Strife.
This is re-enforced by other sources; Pausanias's 'Description of Greece' a Greek travelogue written in the 2nd century, by Pseudo-Hyginus, a Roman mythographer of the 2nd century and also by Cicero, the Roman rhetorician in 'De Natura Deorum' written in the 1st century, who refers to Invidentia [Nemesis] as being one of the children of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night).
There are other mythologies surrounding the parentage of Nemesis. Pausanias in his 'Description of Greece' cites that some people believed that Nemesis's father was Okeanos, the primeval river-ocean that encircled the world, and that in Smyrna they
...believe in two Nemeses instead of one, saying their mother is Nyx, while the Athenians say that the father of the goddess in Rhamnos is Okeanos.
A further description of Nemesis's parentage from a fragment of a Greek epic of the 7th or 6th century B.C. by Stasinus of Cyprus or Hegesias of Aegina states that Nemesis was the daughter of Zeus, stating the following,
Nemesis tried to escaped him [Zeus] and liked not to lie in love with her father Zeus the son of Kronos.
However, the most common depiction of Goddess Nemesis's parentage is as the daughter of Nyx, the goddess of the night.
In some early myths, Goddess Nemesis was attributed to having mothered Helen of Troy. From the fifth century, this attribution passed onto Leda and then returned again to Nemesis. In the myth's earliest forms it was Goddess Nemesis who pursued the sacred king Zeus at various seasonal times, each time changing forms into those of various animals, until she caught him as a mouse with a grain of wheat at the summer solstice and devoured him.
With the coming of the Hellenic patriarchal mythology, Nemesis became the one fleeing from a lustful Zeus, changing shapes in an effort to escape him. He finally captured her, she in the form of a goose, he as a swan and he raped her at Rhamnous in Attica. She laid an egg that was suckled by Leda, who raised the child Helen. This story was one that prevailed throughout the Attica region of Greece.
The Greek epic by Stasinus or Hegesias of the 7th or 6th century B.C. described the myth as follows,
Rich-haired Nemesis gave birth to her [Helene] when she had been joined in love with Zeus the king of the gods by harsh violence. For Nemesis tried to escape him and liked not to lie in love with her father Zeus, the son of Kronos; for shame and indignation vexed her heart: therefore she fled him over the land and fruitless dark sea. But Zeus ever pursued and longed in his heart to catch her. Now she took the form of a fish and sped over the waves of the loud-roaring sea, and now over Okeanos' stream and the further bounds of Earth, and now she sped over the furrowed land, always turning into such dread creatures as the dry land nurtures, that she might escape him.
The Greek mythographer, Pseudo-Appollodorus in his 'Biblotheca' of the 2nd century described the conception of Helen as follows,
But some say that Helen was a daughter of Nemesis and Zeus; for that she, flying from the arms of Zeus, changed herself into a goose, but Zeus in his turn took the likeness of a swan and so enjoyed her; and as the fruit of their loves she laid an egg, and a certain shepherd found it in the groves and brought and gave it to Leda; and she put it in a chest and kept it; and when Helen was hatched in due time, Leda brought her up as her own daughter.
Variant forms of this tale are repeated by Pausanias in his 'Description of Greece' of the 2nd century and also by Pseudo-Hyginus in 'Astronomica' also from the 2nd century.
An alternative myth about the offspring of Nemesis comes from Bacchylides, a Greek Lyric poet from the 5th century B.C., who relates that Telkhines, Aktaios, Megalesios, Ormenos and Lykos were the children of Nemesis and Tartaros.
4. Portrayals of Goddess Nemesis
In early representations of Goddess Nemesis she is portrayed without wings, but later she is usually shown as a winged goddess.
One of the most important descriptions of Goddess Nemesis was made in Pausanias's 'Description of Greece', a 2nd century travelogue in which he described a statue of Goddess Nemesis made out of a block of marble brought by the Persians when they landed at Marathon, which they intended to use for their victory monument,
Of this marble Pheidia made a statue of Nemesis, and on the head of the Goddess is a crown with deer and small images of Nike (Victory). In her left hand she holds an apple branch, in her right hand a cup on which are wrought Aithiopanas [Ethiopians]....Neither this nor any other ancient statue of Nemesis has wings but later artists, convinced that the goddess manifests herself most as a consequence of love, give wings to Nemesis as they do to Eros.
Her crown or diadem is often decorated with winged figures called 'victories' that symbolise the many times Goddess Nemesis has had her retribution and show her aspect as an avenging Goddess. The deer on her crown is thought to indicate that Goddess Nemesis belonged to the earthbound group of deities. The apple branch, also a symbol of the earth, supports this interpretation and represents health and long life or immortality.
No explanation is given of the depiction of the Ethiopians on this statue but it has been suggested that they are shown on the cup that Goddess Nemesis is holding because of the mythology that Nemesis was daughter of Okeanus, the river ocean and the Ethiopians were said to dwell near the river ocean. It is also argued that because Ethiopia was such a long distance from Greece this symbolised Goddess Nemesis's far reaching powers.
The pedestal of this statue was described as portraying the story of Goddess Nemesis being mother of Helene, as related above, and shows Helene being led to Nemesis by Leda.
There was a common symbolism that was depicted on most of the portrayals of Goddess Nemesis in statues and on vases. Most often she is shown as a winged Goddess though, as has been mentioned above, earlier representations show her without wings. Statues and images depict Nemesis as holding an apple-branch, rein, lash sword, or balance. Other symbols and attributes were like those of 'Tyche' (fate): a wheel and a ship's rudder.
Unlike the symbol for patriarchal justice, Goddess Nemesis was not pictured with her eyes covered, but instead with them wide open, often including a third eye and those in the back of her head. This symbolised that she was the one that saw all, that nothing could escape her.
Goddess Nemesis was one of the few goddesses seen to carry a sword, a steering wheel or whip, all of which were usually masculine in influence. The fact that Nemesis carried a sword is significant, as few gods or goddesses were seen to carry one as it was a highly respected symbol of power. It was a highly esteemed way to die, by the sword. The sword was double-edged, highlighting the darkness and light, harm and good within her symbolism.
Goddess Nemesis's pose on images of her reflect the symbolism of her powers and often show her right arm extended suggesting that an exchange is taking place. Goddess Nemesis offers righteousness in her right hand but keeps retribution by her side at her left hand.
She is sometimes pictured as riding in a chariot drawn by Griffins, these animals were very solar in nature, again reflecting the masculine and symbolising the integration of dark and light.
The colour most associated with Nemesis was indigo.
5. Stories related to Goddess Nemesis
The story of Narcissus
A famous example of the retribution of Nemesis is the story of Narcissus. This man was the beautiful son of the River Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was so handsome that all women who beheld him at once fell in love with him but he rejected them. The vain Narcissus, however, only had eyes for himself and rebuffed all admirers. One such admirer was the nymph Echo, who saw Narcissus and at once fell in love with him. But the beautiful youth couldn't be bothered with the smitten one, who was so distraught over his rejection that she withdrew into a lonely spot and faded until all that was left was the plaintive echo of her voice.
Nemesis saw this and heard the rejected girl's prayers for vengeance. Goddess Nemesis punished Narcissus by making him fall in love with his own reflection. The vain Narcissus was condemned to spend the rest of his days admiring his own reflection in the waters of a pool. He was unable to satisfy his own desires and wasted away. Eventually Narcissus died and was transformed into the flower that bears his name.
Story of Artemis and Aura
Nonnus's 'Dionysiaca' recounts another story about the Goddess Nemesis. This tale related to Aura, the virgin companion of the Goddess Artemis who mocked her, declaring her virgin form to be far superior to Artemis's. In her anger Artemis sought retribution from Goddess Nemesis.
Artemis took herself to Nemesis, and found her on the heights of Tauros in the clouds. A wheel turned itself round before the queen's feet, signifying that she rolls all the proud from on high to the ground with her avenging wheel of justice, she the all vanquishing deity who turns the path of life. Round her throne flew a bird of vengeance, a Griffin flying with wings, or balancing himself on four feet, to go before the flying goddess and show that she traverses the four separate quarters of the world. High-crested men she bridles with her bit which none can shake off and she punishes the haughty with the whip of misery, like a self-rolling wheel.
When the goddess saw Artemis's pallid face, she knew that she was offended and questioned her in friendly words: 'Your looks, Archeress proclaim your anger. Artemis, what impious son of Earth persecutes you? .....If some woman is persecuting you as one did your mother Leto, I will be the avenger of the offended Archeress.'
The maiden interrupted and said to the goddess who saves men from evil '....it is that sour virgin Aura, the daughter of Lelantos, who mocks me and offends me with rude sharp words. But how can I tell you all she said? I am ashamed to describe her insults to my body and her abuse of my breasts. I am insulted by Aura, the champion of chastity. I pray you, let me see Aura's body transformed into immoveable stone.'
The goddess replied 'Chaste daughter of Leto, I will not use my sickle to make the maid stone for I am myself born of the same ancient race of the Titanes, but I will grant you this, Archeress. Aura, the maid of the hunt has reproached your virginity, and she shall be a virgin no longer. You shall see her in the bed of a mountain stream weeping fountains of tears for her maiden girdle.'
In this way Nemesis consoled her and Artemis entered her cart with its team of four prickets and left the mountain. With equal speed Nemesis pursued her enemy, Aura. She harnessed racing Griffins under her bridle, flying swiftly through the air in her chariot, until she brought the four footed birds to the peak of Sipylos. Then she approached haughty Aura. She flicked the proud neck of the hapless girl with her snaky whip, and struck her with the round wheel of justice. She let the whip with its vipers curl round the maiden's girdle and prepared another love for her before returning to snow-beaten Tauros. And Eros drove Dionysos mad for the girl with the delicious wound of his arrow, and in this way her virginity was taken.
6. Goddess Nemesis in Roman mythology
Goddess Nemesis, under the guise of her Roman name, Invidia, was worshipped at Rome by victorious generals, and in imperial times was the patroness of gladiators and of the venatores, who fought in the arena with wild beasts, and was one of the tutelary deities of the drilling-ground (Nemesis campestris). Invidia was sometimes, but rarely, seen on imperial coining, mainly under Claudius and Hadria. In the 3rd century there is evidence of the belief in an all powerful Nemesis-Fortuna. She was worshipped by a society called Hadrian's freedman.
Nemesis in the guise of the Roman goddess of envy, Invidia, was sometimes shown in a very different way from Greek mythology. A story in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a Roman epic of the 1st century B.C. to 1st century A.D portrays her as a jealous hag living in a filthy shack eating snake flesh.
Athene was angry with the daughters of Kerops for betraying her trust by spying upon the Infant Eirhthionis, the story continues,
Athene sought the filthy slimy shack where Invidia dwelt deep in a dreary dale, a gruesome sunless hovel, filled with frost, its stagnant air unstirred by any breeze, for ever lacking warmth of cheerful fire, for ever wrapped in gloom. Reaching the place Athene paused at the threshold, as she could not pass beneath the roof, and struck on the door with her spear's point. The door flew wide and there she saw foul Invidia eating viper's flesh, food fit for spite, and turned her eyes away. Slowly the creature rose, leaving the snakes half-eaten, and approached with dragging steps, and when she saw the goddess' fair face and gleaming mails, she scowled and groaned in grief. Her cheeks are sallow, her whole body shrunk, her eyes askew and squinting; black decay befouls her teeth, her bosom is green with bile and venom coats her tongue. She never smiles save when she relishes the sight of woe; sleep never soothes her, night by night awake with worry, as she sees against her will successes won and sickens at the sight.
Athene, filled with loathing, forced a few curt words: 'I desire that you inject your pestilence in Aglauros, one of Cecrops' daughters.' That said, she soared, launched from her down thrust spear, and sped to heaven. With a sidelong glance the creature saw her fly and muttered briefly; then she took her staff, entwined with thorns, and, wrapped in a black cloud, went forth and in her progress trampled down the flowery meads, withered the grass, and slashed the tree-tops, and with filthy breath defiled peoples and towns and homes, until at last, into the room of Cecrops' child she went and did as she was bid. On the girl's breast she laid her withering hand and filled her heart with thorny briars and breathed a baleful blight of poison, black as pitch inside her lungs.
7. Hymns to Goddess Nemesis
There is a Hymn to Goddess Nemesis, known as Orphic Hymn 61 from a collection of Greek hymns from 3rd century B.C. to 2nd century A.D.
Orphic Hymn 61: Hymn to Nemesis
Thee, Nemesis, I call, almighty queen, by whom the deeds of mortal life are seen;
eternal, much revered, of boundless sight, alone rejoicing in the just and right;
changing the counsels of the human breast for ever various, roiling without rest.
To every mortal is thy influence known, and men beneath thy righteous bondage groan;
for every thought within the mind concealed is to thy sight perspicuously revealed.
The soul unwilling reason to obey, by lawless passion rule, thine eyes survey.
All to see, hear and rule, O power divine, whose nature equity contains, is thine.
Come, blessed, holy Goddess, hear my prayer, and make thy mystics' life thy constant care;
give aid benignant in the needful hour, and strength abundant to the reasoning power;
and far avert the dire, unfriendly race of counsels impious, arrogant, and base.
Hymn to Nemesis – Mesomedes
Mesomedes of Crete, a Greek lyric poet wrote a 'Hymn to Nemesis'. He lived during the 2nd century and was a freedman and court musician to the emperor Hadrian (117-138). The hymn to Nemesis is one of only four which preserve the ancient notation written over the text. Prior to the discovery of the Seikilos epitaph in the late 19th century the hymns of Mesomedes were the only surviving written music from the ancient world.
Winged Nemesis, turner of the scales of life,
blue-eyed goddess, daughter of justice,
who, with your unbending bridle,
dominate the vain arrogance of men and,
loathing man's fatal vanity, obliterate black envy;
beneath your wheel unstable and leaving no imprint,
the fate of men is tossed; you who come unnoticed,
in an instant, to subdue the insolent head.
You measure life with your hand,
and with frowning brow, hold the yoke.
We glorify you, Nemesis, immortal goddess,
Victory of the unfurled wings, powerful, infallible,
who shares the altar of justice and, furious at human pride,
casts man into the abyss of Tarturus
8. Goddess Nemesis as political figure
There was a political aspect to the figure of Goddess Nemesis; that she was also used as an avenger of political enemies, notably the Persian invaders. The cult statue by the Greek sculptor Pheidia described above was made out of a block of Parian marble brought to Marathon by the Persians, who had planned to use it in the construction of their anticipated victory monument. A statue of Goddess Nemesis was sculpted out of this block of marble about sixty years after the battle of Marathon and after the defeat of the Persians. The creation of the statue, and also the temple to Nemesis at Rhamnous, coincided with the emergence of Athenian retribution against enemies past and present at the outset of the Peloponnesian War. By the fifth century BC Goddess Nemesis had also come to represent retribution warranted by righteous indignation against political or military enemies, such as the punishment the Persians received at the hands of the Greeks at Marathon.
Also, Goddess Nemesis's depiction as Helen of Troy's mother has a political dimension. Many Greek writers used the tale of Helen, and the whole story of the Trojan wars, as teaching a moral lesson. The Trojan myth was a symbol of victory over the Persians and in the context of the story of Helen, Nemesis is the avenger of political as well as personal indignation. The base of the cult statue of Nemesis at Rhamnous described by Pausania illustrated part of this myth. One of the central scenes depicted Leda bringing Helen to Nemesis at or after the Trojan War.
A related story, also with a political purpose, is shown on a vase of the Heimarmene Painter c.430-420 B.C., now in Berlin. On this Goddess Nemesis is shown in a scene in which Peitho consoles and persuades Helen, who is seated in Aphrodite's lap, moments before her abduction by Paris. Goddess Nemesis stands at the far left alongside another figure, perhaps Eukleia, pointing an accusing finger at Helen, Paris and their persuaders. She simultaneously points to Helen's Destiny, embodied in the figure of Heimarmene. The role of Nemesis depicted on the vase is clearly allegorical and political.
9. Temples dedicated to Goddess Nemesis
The main sanctuary to Nemesis is at Rhamnous in Attica, which is said to have been built between 438 and 431 B.C. The architect was the so-called Theseum architect.
Rhamnous is in a remote part of Attica about 39 kilometres north east of Athens and 12.4 kilometres north-north-east of Marathon overlooking the Euboean Strait. Rhamnous was strategically significant enough to be fortified and receive an Athenian garrison of ephedes (young men). The site was known in antiquity for its sanctuary of Nemesis, whose temple here was the most important one dedicated to her in ancient Greece.
The sanctuary of Nemesis was built on a platform with a terrace wall. The temple was built in hexistyle with twelve columns on its flanks. From the centres of the opposite collonnades it measured 9.186 x 20.610 metres.
The cult of Nemesis at Rhamnous came to a formal end with the decree of the Byzantine emperor Arcadius in 382 that instructed any surviving polytheist temples in the countryside be destroyed.
Pausanias's 'Description of Greece', a 2nd century Greek travelogue describes the sanctuary at Rhamnos and a myth associated with it as follows:
A little way inland [from Rhamnos, Attica] is a sanctuary of Nemesis, the most implacable deity to men of violence. It is thought that the wrath of this goddess fell also upon the foreigners [the Persian army] who landed at Marathon. For thinking in their pride that nothing stood in the way of their taking Athens, they were bringing a piece of Parian marble to make a trophy, convinced that their task was already finished. Of this marble Pheidia made a statue of Nemesis...
There was a temple to Nemesis at Adrasteia in Anatolia, now in Turkey. Strabo, a Greek geographer of 1st century described the foundation of this sanctuary in the following way,
This country was called Adrasteia and Plain of Adrasteia...according to Kallisthenes, among others, Adrasteia was named after King Adrastos, who was the first to found a temple of Nemesis. Now the
city is situated between Priapos and Parion....Here, however, there is [now] no temple of Adrasteia, nor yet of Nemesis, to be seen, although there is a temple of Adrasteia near Kyzikos. Antimakhos [Greek poet 5th-4th century B.C.] says as follows: 'There is a great goddess Nemesis, who has obtained as her portion all these things from the Blessed. Adrestos was the first to build an altar to her beside the stream of the Alsepos River, where she is worshipped under the name of Adresteia.'
Another one of the sites of the cult of Goddess Nemesis was said to be located in Smyrna. Pausanias also described how a sanctuary to the cult of Nemesis in Smyrna in Anatolia came to be established in the following way,
Alexandros [the Great] was hunting on Mount Pagos [near Smyrna], and that after the hunt was over he came to a sanctuary of the Nemesis, and found there a spring and a plane-tree in front of the sanctuary, growing over the water. While he slept under the plane-tree it is said that the Nemesis appeared and bade him found a city there and remove into it the Smyranians from the old city...
There is also a temple to Goddess Nemesis at Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa in Rumania. This was the capital of the Roman district of Dacia in the south-western part of the Hateg region of Rumania. The settlement was probably established in the 2nd century. Inside the walls of the city there was a temple dedicated to the Goddess Nemesis.
Goddess Nemesis was adored by the gladiators and this shrine to her is near the east gate of the amphitheatre. The temple was discovered between 1891 and1893, when the amphitheatre was partially uncovered. At the northern side the temple is connected to the gladiator school.
There is also a shrine to Goddess Nemesis just outside the main entrance of the amphitheatre at the Roman site at Carleon in Wales.
There is a curious curse associated with an object found near this shrine. During excavations of Carleon's amphitheatre in 1926, a strange lead tablet was discovered in the debris of the northern half of the arena. It bore the inscription,
Lady Nemesis, I give thee a cloak and a pair of boots stolen from me and you can obtain them by seeing that the thief is killed in the arena, or let him redeem them by getting well wounded
This curious inscription must mean that he is invoking the aid of Goddess Nemesis to arrange for the death or injury of the theft of his possessions. There is nothing known of the writer of this curious inscription, but he was presumably a gladiator or soldier.
10. Altar Dedications to Goddess Nemesis
There are two altars with dedications in Greek to the Goddess Nemesis at the archaeological site of Tauric Chersonesos at Sevastopol.
A small white marble altar was discovered in 1964 in the area of the ancient theatre and is dated to the 2nd half of the 2nd century. It bears the inscription:
"Good fortune! Basileides son of Kalos (dedicated) to the Goddess Nemesis"
A second altar of local limestone with a Latin inscription found in 1957 during the excavation of the ancient theatre is dated 2nd or 3rd century and bears the inscription:
"To Goddess Nemesis the Protector. Titus Flavius Celsinus, beneficiarius of consularis of the Eleventh Claudian legion, set up this vow for the salvation of himself and children."
A beneficarius was not an ordinary soldier but was the name given to a privileged caste of soldiers who were commanders of military posts.
The proximity of both these dedications to the theatre suggests the strong link between Goddess Nemesis and gladiators.
There was a small altar found at the amphitheatre in Chester dedicated to Goddess Nemesis. This altar bears the dedication,
Dedicated to the Goddess Nemesis by Sextus Marcianus, after a dream
There is a dedication altar to Nemesis at the amphitheatre at Leptis Magna at an ancient Roman city in Libya off the north African coast dating from around the 2nd century B.C.
11. Festivals dedicated to Goddess Nemesis
Sophocles in 'Electra' refers to a festival called Nemeseia or the Festival of Nemesis that was held in Athens on 23rd August. Because of this celebration, Goddess Nemesis is associated with the August full moon, which is commonly called 'The Corn Moon'. Its object was to avert the nemesis of the dead, who were supposed to have the power of punishing the living, if their cult had in any way been neglected.
12. Conclusion
Goddess Nemesis was the Greek Goddess of fate and retribution. She was often portrayed as a winged Goddess sometimes accompanied by Griffins. She was both an avenging Goddess distributing retribution for pride and arrogance but she also ensured balance by ensuring that lessons could be learnt. Through the disciplining of men she was able to make them learn the errors of their waves and make them more complete individuals and devoted servants.