Dysnomia (deity) explained

In Greek mythology, Dysnomia (grc|Δυσνομία||Lawlessness, Bad Government, Anarchy)^[1] is the personification of lawlessness. According to Hesiod's Theogony, Dysnomia was the offspring of Eris (Strife), with no father mentioned.^[2] 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.^[3]

Hesiod associates Dysnomia with Ate [Recklessness]. 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".^[4]

Solon

The Athenian statesman Solon contrasted Dysnomia with Eunomia, the personification of the ideal government:^[5] 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.^[6]

Legacy

In 2005, Dysnomia was chosen as the name for the moon of the dwarf planet Eris.^[7]

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, 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, 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. . 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, 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. . Online version at Harvard University Press.

Notes and References

1. '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.
2. [Hesiod]
3. Hard, p. 31; Gantz, p. 10.
4. [Hesiod]
5. Siewert, s.v. Nomos.
6. Gerber, p. 115.
7. http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/08700/08747.html IAU Circular 8747