N is for Nemesis

This is a challenge to post every day in April (except on Sundays) blogging thematically from A to Z. Go HERE for details. My A-Z theme this year is Greek Mythology inspired by the book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan that I recently read.  Please be aware that what I write is my interpretation of my findings and may not necessarily be accurate are straight quotes.

Also, "Featured Book" at the end of these posts are books I've reviewed in this book blog, coinciding with the letter of the day.

Nemesis, by Alfred Rethel (1837)

Nemesis:

• Also called Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia.
• Another name was Adrasteia, meaning "the inescapable".
• Related to the Greek word νέμειν [némein], meaning "to give what is due".
• She was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris (arrogance before the gods).
• Described as a daughter of Night, though some call her a daughter of Erebus or of Oceanus.
• Personified vengeful fate as a remorseless goddess: the goddess of revenge.
• Also found as personification of the moral reverence for law, of the natural fear of committing a culpable action, and hence of conscience, and for this reason she is mentioned along with Aidôs, i. e. Shame.
• A kind of fatal divinity, for she directs human affairs in such a manner as to restore the right proportions or equilibrium wherever it has been disturbed; she measures out happiness and unhappiness, and he who is blessed with too many or too frequent gifts of fortune, is visited by her with losses and sufferings, in order that he may become humble, and feel that there are bounds beyond which human happiness cannot proceed with safety. This notion arose from a belief that the gods were envious of excessive human happiness.

Sources:
Greek Myth Index
Wikipedia

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Featured Book:

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Rating: 5