ancient Greek religion Religious practices in ancient Greece encompassed a collection of beliefs, rituals, and Greek mythology, mythology, in the form of both popular public religion and Cult (religious practice), cult practices. The application of the modern concept ...

and

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

, Astraea (; ), also spelled Astrea or Astria, is a daughter of

Astraeus In Greek mythology, Astraeus () or Astraios () is the son of Crius and Eurybia, and the consort of Eos. He is said to be the father of the winds. Etymology His name "Astraeus" (Ancient Greek , translit. ''Astraîos'') is derived from the G ...

and

Eos In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Eos (; Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic Greek, Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic Greek, Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric Greek, Doric ''Āṓs'') is the go ...

. 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 Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

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 idealistic 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 Virgo may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Virgo (film), a 1970 Egyptian film * Virgo (character), several Marvel Comics characters * Virgo Asmita, a character in the manga ''Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas'' * ''Virgo'' (album), by Virgo Four, ...

. The main belt

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

5 Astraea is named after her, and her name was also suggested for the planet

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

Etymology

The goddess's name "Astraea" (spelled in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

') is derived from the Greek word (''astḗr'') meaning "star". The word in turn is inherited from the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

root ' (“star”), from ', meaning "to burn". Astraea's name thus shares an etymology with the name of

, who is her father in some versions, and cousin Asteria.

Family and attributes

When identified with the justice goddess Dike, Astraea is made the daughter of

and Themis, or otherwise she is the daughter of

and

Aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

, goddess of the dawn.

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ; 55–128), was a Roman poet. He is the author of the '' Satires'', a collection of satirical poems. The details of Juvenal's life are unclear, but references in his works to people f ...

calls Astraea the sister of

Pudicitia Pudicitia ("modesty" or "sexual virtue") was a central concept in Sexuality in ancient Rome, ancient Roman sexual ethics. The word is derived from the more general ''pudor'', the sense of shame that regulated an individual's behavior as sociall ...

(the Roman goddess of chastity and equivalent to Greek Aidos), and that the two sisters withdrew from the mortal world together. When relating this tale, ancient authors tend to alternate between referring to her as ''Dike'' or ''Astraea''. As Dike, she is also called

Iustitia Lady Justice () is an Allegory, allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems. Her attributes are Weighing scale, scales, a sword and sometimes a blindfold. She often appears as a pair with Prudentia. Lady Justice originat ...

, the name of the Roman goddess of justice and counterpart to Dike. Astraea was represented holding a pair of scales, symbol of justice and impartiality.

Mythology

The Golden Age

Astraea, the celestial virgin who presided over justice, modesty and good faith, was traditionally said to be the last of the immortals to live together with humans during the

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...

, the first of the old Greek religion's five

Ages of Man The Ages of Man are the historical stages of human existence according to Greek mythology and its subsequent interpretatio romana, Roman interpretation. Both Hesiod and Ovid offered accounts of the successive ages of humanity, which tend to pr ...

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. The myth of Astraea has been variously attributed to eighth-century BC Greek poet

Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ...

, who in his surviving works prophesied that since mankind had deteriorated so much in morality and virtue during his era (that is the Fifth Age, or Iron Age) the goddesses

Nemesis In ancient Greek religion and myth, Nemesis (; ) also called Rhamnousia (or Rhamnusia; ), was the goddess who personified retribution for the sin of hubris: arrogance before the gods. Etymology The name ''Nemesis'' is derived from the Greek ...

and Aidos, who embodied divine retribution and humility respectively, would finally abandon the earth once and for all and return to

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (, , ) is an extensive massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, between the regional units of Larissa (regional unit), Larissa and Pieria (regional ...

by the end of it, forsaking men and leaving them to deal with the hardships and evils on their own. Later authors, starting first with

Aratus Aratus (; ; c. 315/310 240 BC) was a Greek didactic poet. His major extant work is his hexameter poem ''Phenomena'' (, ''Phainómena'', "Appearances"; ), the first half of which is a verse setting of a lost work of the same name by Eudoxus of Cn ...

writing 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

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. In this pre-seafaring era, humans only ploughed their rich fields while Justice supplied them with all they could ever want or need. 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. She used threats and shame on them, but failed to motivate them to become better people. Then the Bronze and Iron Ages 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. They began to sail the seas after cutting down trees to build ships, divided the free land between them and dug up the earth in search for wealth such as iron and gold. Finally the disillusioned Dike-Astraea decided to abandon humanity for good and take her place among the stars as the constellation

, also known as the Maiden, with the star Spica as the ear of corn she holds. To a smaller extend, Astraea was also envisioned as the goddess who watched over mortals and then reported their wrongdoings back to Zeus. Valerius Flaccus wrote that the harsh weather and storms of November were associated with Zeus' vengeance against mankind on behalf of Astraea. According to Nonnus, Astraea as the starry nurse of the universe once took under her care and nurished Beroe, the daughter of

Aphrodite Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...

. She nursed the infant on her breast and fashioned a necklace out of Spica for her.

Virgil

The first-century BC Roman poet

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

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, and the reign of Saturnus, a Roman fertility god associated with the Greek

Cronus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Cronus, Cronos, or Kronos ( or ; ) was the leader and youngest of the Titans, the children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Sky). He overthrew his father and ruled dur ...

, but who nevertheless had an independent origin and worship in the Italic peninsula, lauded as the fallen god-king who introduced agriculture and helped humans develop civilization. The prophecy of Astraea's hoped-for return is found in the fourth book of his ''

Eclogues The ''Eclogues'' (; , ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. Background Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by o ...

'': Virgil used the pre-existing myth of Astraea within a political frame in order to hail the dawning Augustan rule, signaling the return of harmony and lack of war, conflict and suffering; he adds that Astraea's return will be accompanied by the arrival of a child who will also kick off Augustus' new golden age. What is the identity of the child that would escort Astraea is the subject of much debate; it has been speculated that Virgil meant the son of Gaius Asinius Pollio, the consul to whom the poem was dedicated; or the marriage of

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...

and

Octavia the Younger Octavia the Younger (; 69 BC – 11 BC) was the elder sister of the first Roman emperor, Augustus (known also as Octavian), the half-sister of Octavia the Elder, and the fourth wife of Mark Antony. She was also the great-grandmother of the Emp ...

, Augustus' sister; or even

Alexander Helios Alexander Helios (; late 40 BC – unknown, but possibly between 29 and 25 BC) was a Ptolemaic prince and son of Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of the Ptolemaic dynasty and Roman triumvir Mark Antony. Alexander's fraternal twin sister was Cleopatra ...

, the son of

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

and Mark Antony.

Conflation with Dike

Astraea was conflated and often treated as interchangeable with Dike, one of the

Horae In Greek mythology, the Horae (), Horai () or Hours (, ) were the goddesses of the seasons and the natural portions of time. Etymology The term ''hora'' comes from the Proto-Indo-European ("year"). Function The Horae were originally the ...

(daughters of Zeus and Themis) and goddess of justice, who was also given the same story of living with mortals during the early years of humanity before abandoning them to become the Virgo after their wickedness and lawlessness became too unbearable for her. Dike's fiercer form was Nemesis, the goddess who is set to depart from the earth in Hesiod's prophecy. Salvatore Rosa 005

Judging from the preserved Greek and Roman corpus and art, there is no indication that this goddess was ever properly called ''Astraea'' before

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

in the early first century AD, with writers preceding him preferring ''Dike'' ("justice") or simply ''the Maiden'' to refer to her. It seems that the notion of using Astraea as her name proper was prompted from Aratus writing that Astraeus was the star-maiden's father.

Legacy of Astraea

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 with the figure of

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...

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 Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher (''philosophes, philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment through ...

in his '' Confessions'' (p. 160

Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint (trade name), imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Korean language, Korean amon ...

) 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 Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (17 January 160025 May 1681) (, ; ) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer. He is known as one of the most distinguished Spanish Baroque literature, poets and ...

introduce a character named Astraea to highlight the political and astrological concerns. In the Russian Empire, Astraea was identified first with Empress

Elizabeth of Russia Elizabeth or Elizaveta Petrovna (; ) was Empress of Russia from 1741 until her death in 1762. She remains one of the most popular List of Russian rulers, Russian monarchs because of her decision not to execute a single person during her reign, ...

, then with Empress

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

of Russia. The English epic poet

Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; – 13 January 1599 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the House of Tudor, Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is re ...

further embellished this myth at the opening of Book V of ''

The Faerie Queene ''The Faerie Queene'' is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books IIII were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IVVI. ''The Faerie Queene'' is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 sta ...

'' (1596), where he claims that Astraea left behind "" called Talus.

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

refers to Astraea in ''

Titus Andronicus ''The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus'', often shortened to ''Titus Andronicus'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first t ...

'', 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 John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...

's epic poem ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...

'', 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. The British writer Aphra Behn used "Astrea" as one of her code-names while working as a spy for King Charles II. She subsequently used the name "Astrea" to identify the speaker in many of her poems, and was herself referred to as "The Incomparable Astrea". Astraea was represented on a allegorical engraving by John Norman published in 1784, just a few years after the American declaration of independence, in which she appears to decide on where on earth she will make her residence while Nature is about to play the lyre, Fame blows her trumpet and Liberty presents a medal to

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

. " Astræa" is also the title of a poem by

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

. The planned British replacement A21/Mk7 nuclear warhead will be named Astraea.

Genealogy

References

Bibliography

Primary sources

* 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.
*

Eratosthenes Eratosthenes of Cyrene (; ; – ) was an Ancient Greek polymath: a Greek mathematics, mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theory, music theorist. He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of A ...

, '' Catasterismi'', with a Latin translation, Vandenhoeck et Ruprecht: 1795. Bavarian State Library
Text available at the Internet Archive.
*

, ''

Theogony The ''Theogony'' () is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogy, genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Homeric Greek, epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1,022 lines. It is one ...

'', in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
*

, ''

Works and Days ''Works and Days'' ()The ''Works and Days'' is sometimes called by the Latin translation of the title, ''Opera et Dies''. Common abbreviations are ''WD'' and ''Op'' for ''Opera''. is a didactic poem written by ancient Greek poet Hesiod around ...

'' 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.
*

, '' Satires'' with an English translation by G. G. Ramsay. London, London Heinemann. 1920
Online version available at Internet Archive.
* Nonnus, '' Dionysiaca''; translated by Rouse, W H D, III Books XXXVI-XLVIII.

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...

No. 346, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940
Internet Archive
* * Valerius Flaccus, ''Argonautica'' translated into English by J. H. Mozley. Loeb Classical Library 286. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934. *

, ''

'', with an English translation by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1895
Online text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

Secondary sources

* * * * * * * * * * *
Online version at Perseus.tufts project.
* * * * *
Online version at the Perseus.tufts library.
* * *

External links

* {{Authority control Justice goddesses Children of Zeus Greek virgin goddesses Stellar goddesses Children of Eos Virgo in astrology Peace goddesses Abundance goddesses

Etymology

Family and attributes

Mythology

The Golden Age

Virgil

Conflation with Dike

Legacy of Astraea

Genealogy

See also

References

Bibliography

Primary sources

Secondary sources

External links