Quotes from Karl Kerényi

They were named:{274} Eunomia, "Lawful Order"; Dike, "Just Retribution"; and Eirene, "Peace". Such were the gifts that these goddesses, whom Zeus begat upon Themis, brought into the world.

But that is really the story of Dike. It was told of her{276} that she had already withdrawn into the mountains when mankind ceased to heed dike—which in our language means not only just retribution, but also justice generally. When still worse things thereupon followed, Dike forsook the earth, and can be seen in the sky as the constellation Virgo.

As Hephaistia she was associated with Hephaistos, and as Areia with the war-god Ares. As Ergane, goddess of handicrafts, she came close to the former of these gods, and as Alalkomene, "the Parrier", she came close to the latter. Of all the handicrafts she most loved and protected the art of smiths and metal-founders, likewise the women's crafts—spinning and weaving and woolwork.

I have already mentioned that even Zeus stood in sacred awe of the goddess Night.{39} According to the tales of the disciples of Orpheus, an account of which I shall postpone until later, Nyx was herself a threefold goddess.

As Karyatis she rejoiced in the dances of the girls of the nut-tree village of Karyai, those Karyatides who in their ecstatic round-dance carried on their heads baskets of live reeds, as if they were dancing plants.

The sea-goddesses were also oracular goddesses. The oldest of them, Tethys, had an oracular shrine amongst the Etruscans. Her granddaughters, the daughters of Nereus, could often—or so it was believed—rescue seamen in danger of shipwreck. It was they, too, who revealed to men the mysteries of Dionysos and of Persephone.

The four names of divinities that reached us from Samothrace—Axieros, Axiokersa, Axiokersos and Kadmilos—were said{210} to be identical with Demeter, Persephone, Hades and Hermes respectively.