In Greek mythology, Dysnomia (Ancient Greek: Δυσνομία, lit. 'Lawlessness, Bad Government, Anarchy') is the personification of lawlessness. According to Hesiod's Theogony, 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 . 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 statesman Solon contrasted Dysnomia with Eunomia, the personification of the ideal government:
This is what my heart bids me teach the Athenians, that Lawlessness brings the city countless ills, but Lawfulness reveals all that is orderly and fitting, and often places fetters round the unjust.
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.
Notes
- 'Dysnomia' is variously translated as 'Lawlessness' (Most, p. 21; Hard, p. 31), 'Bad Government' (Gantz, p. 10), or 'Anarchy' (Caldwell, p. 42 on 212–232); compare LSJ s.v. δυσνομία.
- Hesiod, Theogony 226 (Caldwell, p. 43).
- Hard, p. 31; Gantz, p. 10.
- Hesiod, Theogony 230. The phrase "much like one another" might apply to all the previously listed children of Eris, however according to Doyle, p. 25, the usual interpretation is that the phrase applies just to Dysnomia and Ate.
- Siewert, s.v. Nomos.
- Solon fr. 4.30–33 Gerber.
- Gerber, p. 115.
- IAU Circular 8747 - Official publication of the IAU reporting the naming of Eris and Dysnomia
References
- Caldwell, Richard, Hesiod's Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Company (June 1, 1987). ISBN 978-0-941051-00-2. 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, 1984. ISBN 0-8232-1062-6. Internet Archive.
- Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
- Gerber, Douglas E., A Companion to the Greek Lyric Poets, BRILL, 1997. ISBN 9789004099449.
- Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
- Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie, Clarendon Press 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 No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-0-674-99720-2. 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. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
- Siewert, Peter, s.v. Nomos, in 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.
- Solon in Greek Elegiac Poetry: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC, edited and translated by Douglas E. Gerber, Loeb Classical Library No. 258, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-674-99582-6. Online version at Harvard University Press.