NEMESIS (Lat.. from (:k, NI/AGYLS, from nonein, to distribute). A goddess of fate. who apportions to men their deserts. In Homer Nemesis does not appear as a person, though the word is used as 'a common noun in the sense of 'righteous anger.' in another early (pie. the Cypria, Nemesis was a goddess beloved by Zeus, whom she sought to escape by transform ing herself into various anima Is. Finally. the god approached her as a swan, and she brought forth an egg, which was found and kept by Leda, till in fullness of time ITelen, the cause of the Trojan War, was born. Nemesis was worshiped at Smyrna, in lonia, where there seem to have been two goddesses of the same name, and espe cially at IIhainnus in Attica, where were two temples, an old one and a large new one erected in the period following the Persian wars. It eontained a famous statue of the goddess by Agoracritos. the pupil of Phidias, of which the
head is in the British According to Ilesiod, Nemesis was the daughter of destructive night. She is the avenger of wrong. punishing especially vaunting pride, and in general any overstepping of the bounds of due moderation. Those who forget to humble themselves before the gods or who offend against the eternal laws are likely to fall under her power. In Alexandrian poetry Nemesis is frequently invoked to punish a cold or fickle loved one. In art Nemesis appears as a dignified youthful figure, bearing frequently a measuring-rod or an apply-branch in one hand, and commonly drawing forward the upper seam of her tunic. in later art she is frequently winged, with a wheel at her feet, or a griffin at her side, or holding a bridle.