Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Dysnomia () is the

personification Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person, often as an embodiment or incarnation. In the arts, many things are commonly personified, including: places, especially cities, National personification, countries, an ...

of lawlessness. According to Hesiod's ''

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 ...

'', Dysnomia was the offspring of Eris (Strife), with no father mentioned. Like all of the children of Eris given by Hesiod, Dysnomia is a personified abstraction, allegorizing the meaning of their name, and representing one of the many harmful things which might be thought to result from discord and strife, with no other identity. Hesiod associates Dysnomia with Ate ecklessness He names both as offspring of Eris, on the same line (230) of his ''Theogony'', and says that the two are "much like one another".

Solon

The

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

statesman

Solon Solon (; ; BC) was an Archaic Greece#Athens, archaic History of Athens, Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. ...

contrasted Dysnomia with Eunomia, the personification of the ideal government: Solon makes Dysnomia the cause of the "countless" evils besetting Athens: greed, the injustice of the city's leaders, the slavery of the poor, and civil war.

Legacy

In 2005, Dysnomia was chosen as the name for the moon of the dwarf planet Eris.IAU Circular 8747
- Official publication of the

IAU The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

reporting the naming of Eris and Dysnomia

Notes

References

* Caldwell, Richard, ''Hesiod's Theogony'', Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987).
Internet Archive
* Doyle, Richard E., ''Atē, Its Use and Meaning : A Study in the Greek Poetic Tradition from Homer to Euripides'', New York,

Fordham University Press The Fordham University Press is a publishing house, a division of Fordham University, that publishes primarily in the humanities and the social sciences. Fordham University Press was established in 1907 and is headquartered at the university's Li ...

, 1984.
Internet Archive
* Gantz, Timothy, ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2). * Gerber, Douglas E., ''A Companion to the Greek Lyric Poets'', BRILL, 1997. . * Hard, Robin, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology"'', Psychology Press, 2004,
Google Books
* Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, ''

A Greek-English Lexicon A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...

'', revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie,

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

Oxford, 1940
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Most, G.W., ''Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia,'' Edited and translated by Glenn W. Most,

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. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts,

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

, 2018.
Online version at Harvard University Press
* Rose, Herbert Jennings, and B. C. Dietrich
s.v. Ate
published online 22 December 2015, in the
Oxford Classical Dictionary
', edited by Tim Whitmarsh, digital ed, New York, Oxford University Press. . * Siewert, Peter
s.v. Nomos
i
''Brill’s New Pauly Online''
Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and, Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry, published online: 2006. *

in ''Greek Elegiac Poetry: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC'', edited and translated by Douglas E. Gerber,

No. 258, Cambridge, Massachusetts,

, 1999. {{ISBN, 978-0-674-99582-6
Online version at Harvard University Press
Personifications in Greek mythology Children of Eris (mythology) Eris (dwarf planet)