Statue of Fortuna Nemesis, Roman, 2nd-3rd century CE, Aquincum Museum, Budapest. Photo: Szilas via W

Statue of Fortuna Nemesis, Roman, 2nd-3rd century CE, Aquincum Museum, Budapest. Photo: Szilas via Wikimedia Commons (X). Public Domain.Hymn to Nemesis by Mesomedes of Crete, 2nd century CEWinged 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 brows, hold the yoke. Hail, blest immortal goddess, winged Nemesis, turning the scales of life, imperishable and holy goddess Nemesis; Victory of unfurled wings, powerful, infallible, who shares the altar of justice and, furious at human pride, casts man into the abyss of Tartarus.Translation by D. Yeld, reprinted in Michael B. Hornum, Nemesis, the Roman State & the Games (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993), p. 116. (X)Nemesis is the goddess of indignation, retribution, and just punishment. She is the personification of resentment against those who commit crimes with apparent impunity, especially the crime of hubris, arrogance before the gods. In Athenian law, hubris included not only crimes of impiety, but also sexual assault. Aristotle made the connection clear:Similarly, he who insults another also slights him; for insult consists in causing injury or annoyance whereby the sufferer is disgraced, not to obtain any other advantage for oneself besides the performance of the act, but for one’s own pleasure; for retaliation is not insult, but punishment. The cause of the pleasure felt by those who insult is the idea that, in ill-treating others, they are more fully showing superiority. That is why the young and the wealthy are given to insults; for they think that, in committing them, they are showing their superiority. Rhetoric, 1378b (X) -- source link

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