WineOlive oilAn oath keptA wrong made rightFirst fruits
Invocation Approach
Tone
Clear and unhurried
Address
DikeJusticeDaughter of Zeus
Relationship
The verdict that is spoken out loud
Warning
She reports to zeus and she does not plead
Resonance
Judges witnesses those who must decide and say so
Symbols
ScalesSwordThe seasonsThe maiden with the stars
Mythology Summary
Dike is Justice, daughter of Zeus and Themis and one of the three Horae, the sisters who keep the seasons and the right order of things. Her particular work is the verdict: she is the one who reports to Zeus when a people have stopped judging rightly, and in Hesiod's telling that report is how a city earns its famine. She is not her mother, for Themis is the shape of what is fitting before any case is heard while Dike is the judgment once it is, and the Greeks kept the distinction. In later astronomy and Roman telling she becomes Astraea, the maiden who left the earth at the end of the golden age, and Justitia.
Modern Practice
Dike is called on when a decision has to be made and said out loud, in court, at a table, or in a household that has been avoiding the conversation. The practice is simple and difficult: hear the whole account, then give the verdict without softening it.