What Justice Truly Means – Judging Properly with the 13 Symbols of Lady Justice Chasing Gods

Most people think of justice as something external; a situation is either just or unjust, fair or unfair. But justice is also about the way you judge. How you judge the outside world is a reflection of how just you are as a person.

 

To judge with justice is believed to be one of the top virtues, by philosophers, writers and artists of the ancient world. From Ancient Egypt to Ancient Greece and Rome, Justice has been personified by a goddess who not only belongs to the highest ranks of gods but whose symbolism is even sought by them. You could imagine what justice must have meant to men. This goddess I’m talking about is Lady Justice.

You have probably seen her but may not have paid too much attention; she could be a statue, an emblem or figurine to represent justice in the legal system worldwide. She holds a scale, a sword and at times she wears a blindfold. She has several other symbols, each of which bears powerful lessons. We’ll go through each of Lady Justices’ symbols to understand what it takes to judge with justice. We’ll also see how the evolution of her symbols reflect how we have developed our understanding of justice over time. But first, let’s go through…

 

The History of Lady Justice

 

Ancient Egypt – Ma’at

As of today, the oldest representation of judgement and justice is the balance scale found in ancient Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian mythological art.

In the Ancient Egyptian Book of Death, which dates back to ~2400 BCE, the scale depicts the judgment of men’s soul after death. Ancient Egyptians believed that the soul is eternal and that after death, it receives a fate based on the integrity of its recently lived life.

The image shows the heart of the dead being weighed on a scale against an ostrich’s feather. This feather belongs to the goddess Ma’at.

 

Weighing of the heart from the Papyrus of Ani

 

Ma’at is the goddess of cosmic order and social order. But that’s roughly speaking. What she truly represents is untranslatable (kind of like the Yin Yang); still, it would include truth, balance, order, harmony, law, justice, and morality –  in the world of humans, of deities and the universe.

That’s pretty astronomical – so much that all other deities wanted their names associated with hers, including Pharaohs and Kings.

 

Ancient Greece – Themis & Dike

Fast Forward  ~ 1500 years, Ancient Greece had a goddess named Themis whose representation is also untranslatable but overall covers divine order, law and justice.

Themis is a Titaness; Titans are the generation of gods that existed prior to the Olympian gods, which most people are familiar with today. Themis ensured that Zeus, the king of the Olympian gods, was well nursed. She also became one of his wives, and his counsellor,  and assisted him in creating the world. Zeus carries out the action, but not before Themis’ advice (there is a larger thing at play behind the scenes).

Themis, having been one of the Delphic oracles, is also a prophetic goddess. In later renditions, Themis caries a balance scale, a sword and at times she wears a crown.

With Zeus, Themis had a daughter named Dike,