Concept in Definition ABC

The one that occupies us in this review It is not a concept in such common and current use, as it can be used to refer to the actions of distributing and assigning. Even legendarily, it is associated with the idea of ​​a Justice equitable.

Distribute and allocate fairly

Where the term was widely popular and where the reference that would later be assigned arises is in Ancient Greece, where Nemesis called one of the most important goddesses of Olympus since she had in her hands and represented certainly relevant issues such as retributive justice, revenge and fortune.

To be more precise, Nemesis, acted in those cases in which an order or command was not respected and then applied a punishment to those who had not obeyed something in a timely manner.

Greek goddess who represented retributive justice and who was in charge of guaranteeing a fair distribution of fortune

She exercised concrete revenge against those acts that were considered morally reprehensible, and could also be read as a way of doing justice.

Nemesis also had the purpose of ensuring the Balance in the universe preventing some from receiving too much fortune to the detriment of others. So in those cases in which this happened, she was capable of causing them to lose those assets.

This goddess was in charge of giving each one what was due and of course in that distribution she tried to be the most fair and when there was a injustice it was her duty to prevent it, even making the decision to take away from the one she had received more than was due.

In the classical Greek world, the order had a maximum relevance, and by case, any question that threatened the she herself had to be rearranged, while that return to order and the path that things had to follow to maintain it depended on this goddess.

And in the love she also knew how to have a particular intervention when a person was unhappy because of the damage of her partner, she takes care to avenge that situation.

As we can see, a very wide field of action for this Goddess who, due to her relevance, was not subject to the rest of the gods and who was born from the union of darkness and night.

The Greek goddess Nemesis is not as well known as others, but her task in the world of gods and humans was no less important than that of other gods as we have already noted. This is so since she Nemesis punished human beings who did not follow or did not respect the design of the gods but at the same time she herself was located above the gods of Olympus and could be considered a goddess higher.

Iconographic representation

Although she was represented as a beautiful goddess, she also tended to represent her in images, sculptures and other artistic works with a somewhat gloomy aspect to emphasize the fact that in her power was the divine justice.

Her attributes were a crown, a veil that covered her face, a flower of narcissus, in her hand she carried an apple tree branch and in the other hand a wheel.

Synonym of enemy or opposite

On the other hand, the concept is often used as a synonym for enemy, adversary or opposite.
Meanwhile, this use comes from the desire that a person may have to take revenge on the one who caused him serious damage, on an enemy, in the same way that the goddess Nemesis did.

From this goddess and from this last sense then comes the use that we give to the term today in our language.

Nemesis is normally understood as that which is directly opposed to oneself. Thus, a person's nemesis can be described as his most important and intimate enemy, the one who knows the person with integrity and knows what his weaknesses and miseries are. The idea of ​​nemesis is very present in the iconography of comics and heroes in general, since despite being the same very powerful, they always present some important enemy that can have the power to easily defeat them by knowing their weaknesses of him.

Themes in Nemesis