CHAPTER ONE NEMESIS PRIOR TO THE ROMAN IMPERIAL PERIOD

TIIE ORIGINS AND MEANING OF NEMESIS

The word "ve~e(J'lc;" is related to the Greek root "ve~w", meaning to allot or distribute. The term "nemesis" and related words used to convey the idea of moral blame or indignation already appear in Homer (!lias B223, B296, I 156, I 410, Z335, Z350, N122; Odyssea B 223, B 296, 1410), where the concept is used variously as an attribute of gods with regard to the divine/human relationship, and of men with regard to interhuman affairs. No personification appears to be involved here. The earliest literary references to an actual goddess Nemesis occur in Hesiod where she, along with Aidos, is said to have forsaken the realm of interhuman relations at the onset of the Iron Age (Opera et Dies 197), and where she is seen as the daughter of Nyx (Theogonia 223). The other early source for the goddess is found in fragments of the Cypria, which contained a myth popular in later writers (Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 8.334c and Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.127). In the Cypria Nemesis appears with a vivid personality, and is pursued by Zeus who impregnates her with the Dioscuri and Helen (Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 8.334c; frag. 158.29). This story is later associated by the fifth century comedy writer Cratinus (Nemesis) with the locale of Rhamnous in Attica where a famous sanctuary of Nemesis existed in Classical times. The original nature of the goddess has been disputed. Some scholars see Nemesis from the very start as a "personification" of the idea of moral indignation, expressed by the earliest use of the term in Homer and the weakly personified concept in Hesiod (Herter 1935,2350). Other scholars (Farnell 1896, 488-91, 495-96; Coman 1931, 21-32; Dietrich 1965, 157- 59, 164-68) have seen her as a concrete divine figure of chthonic character responsible for life and death, having a distinctive mythology and cult in Attica, and who becomes associated with the particular moral quality of "nemesis" by the time of the Epics because of some event which supplies a moral aspect to the goddess' character. Alternatively, it is suggested that if she was already called Nemesis, the "moral indignation" concept would have been incorporated into her character as the meaning of the word "nemesis" narrowed from a hypothetical earlier concept of distribution or lot in life to that specifically of retribution (FamellI896, 488-91, 495-96). NEMESIS PRIOR TO THE ROMAN IMPERIAL PERIOD 7

In support of the theory of Nemesis' chthonic origin there has been adduced a close connection of Nemesis with those supposedly typical embodiments of the power of life and death as manifest in nature, Artemis and Cybele. Artemis is given the epithet Oupis in the Hymn to Artemis by Callimachus (204), and in the dedication from the Triopeion of Herodes Atticus at Rome Nemesis is called "Rhamnousian Oupis" (Appendix Two, no. 153), Solinus (Memorabilia 66.9) terms the "Phidiaca Nemesis" of Pomponius Mela (De Chorographia 2.3.46) "Phidiaca Diana", and Commodianus (Instructiones 1.18) speaks of the cult image of the devotees of Nemesis as Diana (Von Premerstein 1894,407). In addition, Nemesis and Diana are connected in inscriptions of the Roman era (Appendix Two, nos. 8, 55, 64, 114) (Coman 1931, 21), Nemesis is associated with Adrasteia already in the fifth century B.C. by Antimachus (52-53) and Adrasteia is associated with Artemis (Demetrius Scepsius in the Suida, Adrasteia) and Cybele (Coman 1931,22-24), and deer appear on the crown of the Nemesis cult statue at Rhamnous (pausanias, Graecae descriptio 1.33.3) (Farnell 1896, 488-91, 495-96). The early connection of Nemesis with Helen in the Cypria has been also adduced as support for the chthonic hypothesis because of the supposed original associations of Helen with a vegetation goddess (Dietrich 1965, 159). The derivation of the Moirai and Erinyes from earth daimones by Dietrich (1965, 172) is used to bolster the Nemesis connection because of the similarity in roles of these deities with that of Nemesis. Further chthonic connections are perceived in the association of Nemesis with Themis at Rhamnous, Nemesis' parentage in Hesiod, Nemesis' connections with the dead in fifth century Tragedy (Aeschylus, Hektoros Lutra fragment in Stobaeus, Florilegium 125.7; Sophocles, Elektra 792), Demosthenes' orations (Orationes 41.11.7-8), and funerary monuments of the Roman period (Appendix Two, nos. 88, 109, 155, 163,237, 247) (Farnell 1896, 488-91,495-96; Coman 1931,30-33; Dietrich 1965, 166-68). Still further support has been found in citations of Nemesis' birth from Demeter (Scholia in Euripidem: Rhesus 342) or Erebus (Hyginus, Fabularum Liber 1) (Dietrich 1965, 165). This position remains largely speculative. Alternate explanations can be found well within the meaning of indignation and its effects for all of the supposed chthonic or fertility aspects of the conjectured Ur-Nemesis. The use of Oupis as an epithet of Nemesis probably reflects, at most, the assimilation of the two goddesses in the Roman Imperial period, a merging which is found primarily in the arena and can be seen as stemming less from Nemesis' origins than from a logical association in a context where both goddesses are active (for Artemis: Tertullian, De Spectacu/is XII; see Chapter Three).