Themis was a Greek Titan most famous for embodying the concept of justice. Unlike the other Titans, she sided with the Olympians in their celestial war with her brethren. Today, her image survives as “Lady Justice,” wearing a chiton (a kind of tunic) and holding a set of balanced scales.
The Horae, daughters of Zeus and Themis, were goddesses associated with the seasons and with ordered cycles of time. According to the poet Hesiod, there were three Horae: Dike (“Justice”), Eunomia (“Good Order”), and Eirene (“Peace”).
The mountain nymphs, and Themis they adore, And from her oracles relief implore. The most upright of mortal men was he; The most sincere, and holy woman, she. When Jupiter, surveying Earth from high, Beheld it in a lake of water lie, That where so many millions lately liv’d, But two, the best of either sex, surviv’d;
But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.
Then Jove to Themis gives command, to call The gods to council in the starry hall: Swift o’er Olympus’ hundred hills she flies, And summons all the senate of the skies. These shining on, in long procession come To Jove’s eternal adamantine dome. Not one was absent, not a rural power That haunts the verdant gloom, or rosy bower;
TO THE SON OF CRONOS, MOST HIGH (1–4) I will sing of Zeus, chiefest among the gods and greatest, all-seeing, the lord of all, the fulfiller who whispers words of wisdom to Themis as she sits leaning towards him. Be gracious, all-seeing Son of Cronos, most excellent and great!