Friday, as we all know by now, is Devi’s Day – and in light of some fortuitous events, I think it is an apt Friday for Nemesis ( Νεμεσις ) – The Inexorable, The Inescapable One, Adrasteia ( Αδραστεια )

This beautiful rendition of Her is by Yliade – and I have to say, I am quite a fan. Not least due to the fact that various of Her prominent iconographic elements are communicated via such an eye-catching composition (beautiful work on the bronze sword, too!).

We might quote a few lines of Nonnus’ Dionysiaca [XLVIII, 375-388, slightly annotated Rouse translation] via way of further evocative illustration:

In this passage, She is to be found “on the heights of [the] Tauros [mountains] in the clouds, where beside [the] neighbour[ing river] Cydnos She had ended the proudnecked boasting of Typhon’s threats.

A wheel turned itself round before the Queen’s [ἀνάσσης – Anassa] Feet, signifying that She rolls all the proud from on high to the ground with the Avenging Wheel of Justice [ποινήτορι (‘Poinitori’ – ‘Punishing’, although also with a ‘Restitution’ sense), κύκλῳ (‘Kyklo’ – Cycle, Wheel) , δίκης – our old friend, Dike, Justice, ref. PIE *Deyk … and Germanic ‘Teach’], She the all-vanquishing [πανδαμάτειρα – Pan-Damateira] Deity Who turns the path of life.

Round Her Throne flew a Bird of Vengeance [ὄρνις ἀλάοτωρ – ‘Ornis Alaotor’ ; ref. ‘Alastor’ .. more on this some other time], a Gryps [γρὺψ – Gryphon / Griffin .. Sharp-[Beak], effectively; the Sky-Sentinel Hounds of the Sky Father, also] flying with wings, or balancing himself on four feet, to go unbidden before the Flying Goddess and show that She Herself traverses the four separate Quarters of the World:

High-crested men She bridles with Her bit which none can shake off, such is the meaning of the image, and She rolls a haughty fellow about as it were with the whip of misery, like a self-rolling wheel.”

Now there is, of course, quite a lot more which we can, should, and most assuredly have written about Nemesis, Her Iconography & Her Theology, within comparative Indo-European spheres of reference. We shall not seek to repeat much, if any of that here.

Suffice to say that Divine (quite literally Cosmic – κόσμος in its archaic sense) Order is strongly correlated to the Goddess … and part and parcel of this should seem also to be the ‘Active Enforcement’ dimension (or, if you prefer, ‘Upholding’) , to be undertaken by Her (inter alia) likewise.

We might instantly think of Skaði as applies this Dread Sanction demonstration (done with serpents, no less, against the calumnious figure of Loki) – or, for that matter, Demeter Erinys / Demeter Melaina [‘Demeter the Furious / The Black’], elsewhere within the Hellenic canon. You already know certain of the Hindu Goddess-expressions of Whom I am ever-thinking.

Not least given that ‘Blue-Black’ colouration appears plausibly to be that which Mesomedes in his Hymn to Her had sought to describe via the ‘κυανῶπι’ encountered in its second line.

(To briefly expand upon this … Whilst occasionally rendered as ‘Dark-Eyed’, to my mind the situation of ὤψ (‘Ops’) as ‘Face’ / ‘Visage’ is rather more likely … both in light of those other typological exemplars aforementioned – Skadi, with Her ‘Shadowed’ theonymic, Demeter ‘Melaina’ and with similarly κυάνεον / ‘kuaneon’ (related to modern English ‘Cyan’) ‘veiling’ in Her Wrath and Visage, Demeter Erinys … and, of course, Kali Herself; but also due to the χαροπὰ in the eight line, building from Annis’ speculation, seeming to refer to a ‘Fierce’ / ‘Flaring’ Eye situation … χαροπός being ‘Amber’, per Maxwell-Stuart – who also, interestingly, notes the observation of one aptly named ‘Adamantius’ that “bloodshot eyes” might also be indicated when “fieriness of eye” is poetically extolled (and c.f. the iconographic saliency for exactly this feature in various wrathful Devi-Forms within the Hindu mythoi). Other suggestions for the pertinent term’s intended interpretation as applies Nemesis herein – including Annis’ own inclusion of “blue-grey, grey” as possibilities, are also encountered]

(We would also observe – or, rather, would be quite pointedly unable to observe – that Nemesis as ‘λήθουσα’ in the next line (line nine) should likewise perhaps concord with certain other ‘Unseen’ / ‘Veiled’ / (quite literally) ‘Hadean’ and ‘Dark’ hailings and reverent whispers as applies the Dread Deities of Order’s Inescapable Dominion)

Yet this has only been intended to be but a brief extolling … and so rather than continue in my habitual mytho-linguistic expanse, I shall bring things to a more aptly panegyric terminus.

And, because it makes for something of a change of pace from my more usual approach … a quite modern translation for the whole of Mesomedes’ Hymn into somewhat rhymed English verse, by one A.Z. Foreman.

” Nemesis, winged tilter of scales and lives,
Justice-spawned Goddess with steel-blue eyes!
You bridle vain men who roil in vain
Against Your adamantine rein.
Great hater of hubris and megalomania,
Obliterator of black resentment,
By Your trackless, churning, wracking wheel
Man’s glinting fortunes turn on earth.
You come in oblivion’s cloak to bend
The grandeur-deluded rebel neck,
With forearm measuring out lifetimes,
With brow frowning into the heart of man
And the yoke raised sovereign in Your hand.
Hail in the highest, O Justice-Queen

Nemesis, winged tilter of scales and lives,
Immortal Judge! I sing Your song,
Almighty Triumph on proud-spread wings,
Lieutenant of fairness, Requiter of wrongs.
Despise the lordly with all Your art
And lay them low in the Netherdark.”

We would differ from Foreman upon several scores within the above as applies interpretation of certain terms, etc. – but commend his evident enthusiasm to enable the ‘spirit’ of the Hymnal to shine through.

What else is there left to say?

Well, for now … only this:

‘ Νίκην τανυσίπτερον ὀμβρίμαν ‘ – reads the original Greek text’s fourth to final line.

‘Nikin Tanysipteron Ombriman’

Which we should choose to render (if I might be permitted my own slight inferential variation with views toward a more potent emanating as to both the Spirit of the Verse and the Spirit of the Day … )

‘Furiously potent Victory, Her Wings Unfurled [In Flight !]’

We Hail Her And Offer Thanks !

Jai Mata Di !