Δίκης
of justice
Translated by Antonella Ippolito1 Jun 2005Vetting: high14 revisions
Translation
[Meaning] of righteousness, or of vengeance.1
"We shall come to obtain justice from men who are unholy and perjurers."2
"The ancients3 used to define justice as "direct" and "impartial" and "inflexible". And this [image] is celebrated by most [poets], but it is also a result of necessity, for this is the nature of the Just. Hesiod4 says, on the other hand, that justice is virgin and uncorrupted not only in other respects, but especially in regard to the intercourse of love: by this enigmatic representation, he means that we are not to cheat justice, neither if we are persuaded by other reasons, nor if we do so because we are led astray by love. Moreover, [the poet] says that she [the goddess] goes after "those who care for arrogance and wicked actions",5 to punish them. For those who respect her - he says - the Earth and even their own family burst with goods, and the sea supplies to them, and very lavishly, all of the things it brings forth and nurtures. I also hear that justice is sitting near to the very throne of Zeus6 and shares in all of his most noble purposes. And Homer7 celebrates her power as being great, and says that the god [sc. Zeus] grows angry against those who held her in little honour; she pours down [on them] violent rains and thrusts against them torrents flowing with the violence of winter; she destroys their cities and works and livestock. This is the vengeance those who attend the actions of arrogance and recklessness are punished with; [who chooses a] more proper [behaviour, conversely]... and such other things.
"We shall come to obtain justice from men who are unholy and perjurers."2
"The ancients3 used to define justice as "direct" and "impartial" and "inflexible". And this [image] is celebrated by most [poets], but it is also a result of necessity, for this is the nature of the Just. Hesiod4 says, on the other hand, that justice is virgin and uncorrupted not only in other respects, but especially in regard to the intercourse of love: by this enigmatic representation, he means that we are not to cheat justice, neither if we are persuaded by other reasons, nor if we do so because we are led astray by love. Moreover, [the poet] says that she [the goddess] goes after "those who care for arrogance and wicked actions",5 to punish them. For those who respect her - he says - the Earth and even their own family burst with goods, and the sea supplies to them, and very lavishly, all of the things it brings forth and nurtures. I also hear that justice is sitting near to the very throne of Zeus6 and shares in all of his most noble purposes. And Homer7 celebrates her power as being great, and says that the god [sc. Zeus] grows angry against those who held her in little honour; she pours down [on them] violent rains and thrusts against them torrents flowing with the violence of winter; she destroys their cities and works and livestock. This is the vengeance those who attend the actions of arrogance and recklessness are punished with; [who chooses a] more proper [behaviour, conversely]... and such other things.