Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

518 Themis [ch.
ancient is enshrined, the Moon is addressed not only as Moira, but
as Dike.
and again,
ao-rpacri Ka>p.d£ovcra Alkt) koi vrjpara Motpajf,
KXco#a> koi An^eair rj8' "Arpo-rros el rpiKapave,
...(TV yap 8v(rahvKTOS 'Avdytcr)
Motpd r i'(pvs...AiKri crv,
and in the prooemium of Parmenides 1 the Ways of Day and
Night are closed by mighty doors, and of these
Dike Avenging keeps the keys that fit them.
In Homer the Gates of Heaven are turned on their hinges by
the Horai. The Ways, the Paths, the Goings of Day and Night
could never have been guarded by Themis.
We have yet to note another distinction between Themis and
Dike. Iamblichus in his Life of Pythagoras 2 makes an instructive
statement as to their relative positions.
' Men,' he says, 'knowing that all places alike have need of justice, fable that
Themis occupies the same position in the realm of Zeus as Dike in that of
Ploutnn and as Law occupies in cities, so that he who does not act aright with
respect to what is ordained should seem to be thereby committing injustice
at one and the same time against the whole universe.'
Iamblichus 3 seems to have discerned, if rather dimly and con-
fusedly, the real state of the case. Human custom and law, Nomas,
was a fact of this actual world. Themis in Heaven and Dike in
Hades were fictions, mythological projections. He gives no hint
why Themis should be in Heaven, Dike in Hades. An enquiry
into the cause will repay us. But first we must establish the fact.
Themis is constantly associated with Zeus ; she hangs about
1 Diels, F.V.S. p. 114, v. 11
evda nvXai Xuktos re teal "H/xaros elai xeXevdwv
avrai 5' aldepiai TrXrjurai fjLeydXot