AstrAeA
Publié le 17/01/2022
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(asTria; Starry night) Greek The
virgin goddess of justice and fairness; daughter of
Zeus and Themis, who was also a goddess of justice.
When her father brought the gods to Earth to
dwell among mankind, Astraea often walked through
towns and cities, smiling at people, helping them to
treat each other well. After Zeus, frustrated with how
poorly people treated the gods and themselves, took
the gods back up to the heavens, Astraea lingered
behind, always hopeful.
Eventually, though, as people became more evil
and meaner to each other and stopped listening to her,
Astraea, too, rose up to the heavens where she sat at
her mother's right hand, still watching mankind, still
trying to help them be just and fair. Some sources say
Zeus transformed Astraea into the constellation Virgo,
with the famous scales she always carried placed next
to her in the sky as the constellation Libra.
Some modern experts equate Astraea with Dike,
the personification of justice, while others see these
as two separate beings in Greek literature and history.
Also, a few writers from the classical period
say that Astraea was the daughter of the Titans
Astraeus and Eos.