Astraea
| Astraea | |
|---|---|
Goddess of justice, the constellation Virgo | |
 An 1886 bas-relief figure of Astraea in the Old Supreme Court Chamber at the Vermont State House. | |
| Abode | Earth (formerly) Sky (currently) |
| Symbols | Corn, scales of justice |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | |
| Siblings | Anemoi, Horae, Planetae, Pudicitia |
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Astraea, also spelled Astrea or Astria (Ancient Greek: Ἀστραῖα, romanized: Astraîa, lit. 'starry, star-like'[1]), is a daughter of Astraeus and Eos. She is the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity, and precision. She is closely associated with the Greek goddess of justice, Dike, the daughter of Zeus and Themis. Astraea is not to be confused with Asteria, the goddess of the stars and the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe.
In Greek myth, Astraea lived together with humans on earth during the Golden Age, when people were virtuous and no evil existed in the world. But as the human race became progressively crueler and more corrupt, Astraea decided to abandon humanity forever and live among the stars as the constellation Virgo. The main belt asteroid 5 Astraea is named after her, and her name was also suggested for the planet Uranus.[2][3]
Etymology
[edit]The goddess's name "Astraea" (spelled in Ancient Greek Ἀστραῖα) is derived from the Greek word ἀστήρ (astḗr) meaning "star".[4] The word ἀστήρ in turn is inherited from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ster- (“star”), from *h₂eh₁s-, meaning "to burn".[5] Asteria's name thus shares an etymology with the name of Astraeus, who is her father in some versions, and cousin Asteria.
Family
[edit]When identified with the justice goddess Dike, Astraea is made the daughter of Zeus and Themis, or otherwise she is the daughter of Astraeus and Eos-Aurora, goddess of the dawn.[6][7] Juvenal calls Astraea the sister of Pudicitia (the Roman goddess of chastity), and that the two sisters withdrew from the mortal world together.[8] When relating this tale, ancient authors tend to alternate between referring to her as Dike or Astraea. As Dike, she is also called Iustitia, the name of the Roman goddess of justice and counterpart to Dike.
Mythology
[edit]Astraea, the celestial virgin, was traditionally said to be the last of the immortals to live together with humans during the Golden Age, the first of the old Greek religion's five Ages of Man until the coming of the harsh Iron Age, when the world fell into disarray and people only coveted gold, while family and friends would no longer trust each other.[9]
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The myth of Astraea has been variously attributed to eighth-century BC Greek poet Hesiod, who in his surviving works prophesies that since mankind has deteriorated so much in morality and virtue during his era (that is the Fifth Age, or Iron Age) that the goddesses Nemesis and Aidos, who embody divine retribution and humility respectively, will abandon the earth once and for all and return back to Mount Olympus by the end of it, forsaking men and leaving them to deal with the hardships and evils on their own.[10]
Later authors, starting first with Aratus writting over four hundred years after Hesiod, expanded on the tale. According to the later myths, at the beginning of time Justice (Dike) or Astraea the daughter of Astraeus used to live and mingle with men and women on earth, an immortal among mortals. During this Golden Age there was no strife, war and battle or detestation between people as Justice urged them all to be kind to each other and spread feelings of virtue and honour among them.[11] In this pre-seafaring era, humans only ploughed their rich fields while Justice supplied them with all they could want or need.[12]
As the Golden Age ended and the Silver one arrived, the goddess found herself dissatisfied as people were less virtuous than before and started yearning for the older times. She no longed spoke with gentle words to them and took to the hills and then the mountains.[13] She used threats and shame on them, but failed to motivate them to become better people. Then Bronze Age rolled in which introduced war and hatred, corruption, people consuming the oxen they previously only used to plough the fields and the vanishment of honour and love.[6][14] Finally the disillusioned Dike-Astraea decided to abandon humanity for good and take her place among the stars as the constellation Virgo,[15] also known as the Maiden, with the star Spica as her corn.[7][16]
According to Nonnus, Astraea as the starry nurse of the universe once took under her care and nurished Beroe, the daughter of Aphrodite. She nursed the infant on her breast and fashioned a necklace out of Spica for her.[17]
The first-century BC Roman poet Virgil wrote that Astraea was destined one day to come back to Earth, bringing with her the return of the utopian Golden Age of which she was the ambassador.[18][19]
In literature
[edit]
Astraea's hoped-for return was referred to in a phrase from Virgil's Eclogue 4: "Iam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia Regna" (Astraea returns, returns old Saturn's reign).[20]
During the European Renaissance, Astraea became associated with the general spirit of renewal of culture occurring at that time, particularly in England, where she became poetically identified in literature[21] with the figure of Queen Elizabeth I as the virgin Queen reigning over a new Golden Age. In Spain, she was often identified with the rule of Philip IV. The French author Honoré d'Urfé wrote a very popular serial novel called L'Astrée, whose titular heroine is named after Astraea, which was published serially between 1607 and 1627 with each installment very much anticipated by the aristocratic public at the time; Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Confessions (p. 160 Penguin Classics) notes it as one of the novels read with his father and says it "was the one that recurred most frequently to my mind". A spectacle play by the Count of Villamediana and thirteen dramas by Pedro Calderón de la Barca introduce a character named Astraea to highlight the political and astrological concerns.[22] In the Russian Empire, Astraea was identified first with Empress Elizabeth of Russia, then with Empress Catherine the Great of Russia.
The English epic poet Edmund Spenser further embellished this myth at the opening of Book V of The Faerie Queene (1596), where he claims that Astraea left behind "her groome | An yron man" called Talus. William Shakespeare refers to Astraea in Titus Andronicus, and also in Henry VI, Part 1. In his most famous play, Life Is a Dream, Calderón has a character named Rosaura (an anagram for "dawns") take on the name of Astraea at Court. This may be a laudatory political allusion to the dawn of a new Golden Age under Philip IV/Segismundo.
Astraea is also referenced in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, in Book IV between lines 990 and 1000. When Satan is discovered in the Garden of Eden and brought before the Angel Gabriel, the two are on the verge of war.
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The British writer Aphra Behn used "Astrea" as one of her code-names while working as a spy for King Charles II.[23] She subsequently used the name "Astrea" to identify the speaker in many of her poems, and was herself referred to as "The Incomparable Astrea".[24]
"Astræa" is also the title of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson.[25]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ "Astraea". Zeno.org (in German). Retrieved 11 April 2018.
- ^ Gallentine, Jay (November 2009). Ambassadors from Earth: Pioneering Explorations with Unmanned Spacecraft. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-2220-5.
- ^ Gingerich, O. (1958). "The Naming of Uranus and Neptune, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflets, Vol. 8, No. 352, p.9". Leaflet of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 8 (352): 9. Bibcode:1958ASPL....8....9G. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
- ^ Liddell & Scott 1940, s.v. ἀστήρ.
- ^ Beekes 2009, pp. 156–57.
- ^ a b Bell 1991, s.v Astraea.
- ^ a b Smith 1873, s.v Astraea.
- ^ Juvenal, Satires 6.10–20
- ^ Sung, HyunSook. "아스트라이아". terms.naver.com (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2021-03-21. Retrieved 2021-06-20.
- ^ Hesiod, Works and Days 174-201
- ^ Grimal 1987, p. 64.
- ^ Aratus, Phaenomena 96-136
- ^ Eratosthenes, Catasterismi 9
- ^ Hyginus, De Astronomica 2.25.1
- ^ March 2014, p. 494.
- ^ Ovid 2005, 1.149.
- ^ Nonnus 41.212–230
- ^ De Armas, Frederick (January 1986). "The Return of Astraea: An Astral-Imperial Myth in Calderón by Frederick A. de Armas, Louisiana State University". Spanish Literature. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
- ^ Graf, Fritz (October 1, 2006). "Astraea". In Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth (eds.). Brill's New Pauly. Columbus, OH: Brill Reference Online. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e204630. ISSN 1574-9347. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
- ^ "Lewis & Short: Virgo". Perseus Latin Word Study Tool. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
- ^ cf. Frances Yates, Astraea : The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century.
- ^ cf. Frederick A. de Armas, The Return of Astraea: An Astral-Imperial Myth in Calderon.
- ^ "Aphra Behn". About Education. October 17, 2015. Archived from the original on 8 November 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- ^ Stiebel, Arlene. "Biography: Aphra Behn". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- ^ Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1847). Poems. Retrieved 24 September 2010.
Bibliography
[edit]- Aratus of Soli, Phaenomena in Callimachus, Lycophron, Aratus. Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron: Alexandra. Aratus: Phaenomena, with an English translation by A. W. Mair, G. R. Mair. Loeb Classical Library 129. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921. Online text at Topos Text.
- Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009). Lucien van Beek (ed.). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. 1. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Publications. ISBN 978-90-04-17420-7. ISSN 1574-3586.
- Bell, Robert E. (1991). Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. ABC-Clio. ISBN 9780874365818.
- Eratosthenes, Catasterismi, with a Latin translation, Vandenhoeck et Ruprecht: 1795. Bavarian State Library. Text available at the Internet Archive.
- Grimal, Pierre (1987). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-13209-0.
- Hesiod, Works and Days in 'The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Works and Days. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version available online on the Perseus Digital Library.
- Hyginus, Astronomica from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Juvenal, Satires with an English translation by G. G. Ramsay. London, London Heinemann. 1920. Online version available at Internet Archive.
- Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Online version at Perseus.tufts project.
- March, Jennifer R. (May 31, 2014). Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-78297-635-6.
- Nonnus, Dionysiaca; translated by Rouse, W H D, III Books XXXVI-XLVIII. Loeb Classical Library No. 346, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940. Internet Archive.
- Ovid (2005). The Metamorphoses. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics. ISBN 978-1-59308-276-5.
- Smith, William (1873). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London, UK: John Murray, printed by Spottiswoode and Co. Online version at the Perseus.tufts library.
External links
[edit]
- ASTRAEA on the Theoi Project.
Media related to Astraea at Wikimedia Commons
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