Chapter 1: The Early Gods
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♦ Olympia, Archaeological Museum B1687: bronze shield-band relief with the birth of Athena
E. Kunze, Archaische Schildbänder, Olympische Forschungen 2 (1950), Beilage 6 top
♦ Paris, Musée du Louvre: Attic black-figure tripod pyxis by C Painter with birth of Athena
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
Hesiod, Theogony 901-11
Next he married bright Themis who bore the Horae （Hours）, and Eunomia （Order）, Dikë （Justice）, and blooming Eirene （Peace）, who mind the works of mortal men, and the Moerae （Fates） to whom wise Zeus gave the greatest honor, Clotho, and Lachesis, and Atropos who give mortal men evil and good to have. And Eurynome, the daughter of Ocean, beautiful in form, bore him three fair-cheeked Charites （Graces）, Aglaea, and Euphrosyne, and lovely Thaleia, from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves the limbs: and beautiful is their glance beneath their brows. Greek Text
Homer, Iliad 15.87-91
She [Hera] on her part let be the others, but took the cup from Themis, of the fair cheeks, for she ran first to meet her, and spake, and addressed her with winged words: “Hera, wherefore art thou come? Thou art as one distraught. In good sooth the son of Cronos hath affrighted thee, he thine own husband.” Greek Text
Homer, Iliad 20.4-6
But Zeus bade Themis summon the gods to the place of gathering from the brow of many-ribbed Olympus; and she sped everywhither, and bade them come to the house of Zeus. Greek Text
Homer, Odyssey 2.68-69
I pray you by Olympian Zeus, and by Themis who looses and gathers the assemblies of men. Greek Text
Homeric Hymn to Apollo 3.123-25
Now Leto did not give Apollo, bearer of the golden blade, her breast; but Themis duly poured nectar and ambrosia with her divine hands: and Leto was glad. Greek Text
Homeric Hymn to Apollo 3.94
And there were with her all the chiefest of the goddesses, Dione and Rhea and Ichnaea and Themis and loud-moaning Amphitrite. Greek Text
Homeric Hymn to Zeus 23.2-3
[Zeus] who whispers words of wisdom to Themis as she sits leaning towards him. Greek Text
Pindar fr 30 SM – Pindarus 2, pp. 8-9, ed. B. Snell and H. Maehler. Leipzig 1975.
Pindar, Isthmian 8.30-45
But the immortal minds of the gods did not accomplish that marriage for them, when they heard the divine prophecies. Wise Themis spoke in their midst and said that it was fated that the sea-goddess should bear a princely son, stronger than his father, who would wield another weapon in his hand more powerful than the thunderbolt or the irresistible trident, if she lay with Zeus or one of his brothers. “No, cease from this. Let her accept a mortal’s bed, and see her son die in battle, a son who is like Ares in the strength of his hands and like lightning in the swift prime of his feet. My counsel is to bestow this god-granted honor of marriage on Peleus son of Aeacus, who is said to be the most pious man living on the plain of Iolcus. Let the message be sent at once to Cheiron’s immortal cave, right away, and let the daughter of Nereus never again place the leaves of strife in our hands. On the evening of the full moon let her loosen the lovely bridle of her virginity for that hero.” Greek Text
Aischylos, Prometheus Desmotes (Prometheus Bound) 209-10
Often my mother Themis, or Earth （though one form, she had many names）, had foretold to me the way in which the future was fated to come to pass. Greek Text
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Artistic sources edited by Frances Van Keuren, Prof. Emerita, Lamar Dodd School of Art, Univ. of Georgia, March 2018
Literary sources edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, July 2020
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