Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

Nemesis

273

the personification of distributive rather than retributive fate,
connecting the name with nemo, T assign1.' In so doing he revived
an etymology already current in Graeco-Roman times2. There are,
however, grave objections to any such abstract interpretation. The
cult of abstractions was comparatively late. The cult of Nemesis
was comparatively early. Thus at Rhamnous it was flourishing in
the fifth century B.C.3, and at Smyrna in the sixth4. Moreover, the
attributes of the goddess at Rhamnous and her twin statues at
Smyrna do not suggest a transparent personification of the sort
required by these hypotheses. There is more to be said for
O. Gruppe's view that Nemesis was an earth-goddess, essentially
'wroth' (nemesizomai) with those who annually oppressed her, but
willing at the same time to give them oracles5. Nevertheless this
explanation too has its weak spot. We must not derive Nemesis
from nemesizomai, but nemesizomai from nemesis. Thus Nemesis
will not mean 'wroth,' but 'wrath.' In short, we are once more
involved in the difficulty of supposing that Nemesis was a personi-
fication.

In seeking an escape from this impasse we should, I think, start
from the analogy of Lachesis. As Ldchesis was a goddess of the
lot {lachezn, 'to get by lot,' lachos, 'lot'), so Nemesis was a goddess
of the greenwood (nemo, T pasture,' nemos, 'glade')—a patroness of
animal and vegetable life. As such she would correspond with
Nemetona, a Diana-like deity of the Celts (Celtic nemeton, 'sacred
wood')6. Indeed, she would be the Greek counterpart of the Italian
Diana Nemorensis (Nemus, 'the Glade'). This is no merely specu-
lative philological equation, but a fact borne out by a comparison
of cult with cult. Diana Nemorensis as a woodland goddess had

1 H. Usener Gbtternamen Bonn 1896 p. 371.

2 Aristot. de mundo 7. 401b 12 f. lS.kp.eaLV 5e anb rrjs e/cdury 5Lauep.r]aews, Cornut. theol.
13 p. 13, 17 f. Lang NeyUecris de airb rrjs vepL-qoetos irpoarjybpevraL—Sicupei y&p to €7rij3dX\ov

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3 Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. i24ff.

4 lb. iii. 121 ff.

5 Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. pp. 45 n. 8, 1086 n. 2, cp. 45 n. 9.

6 On Nemetona see M. Ihm in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 166 f., A. Holder Alt-celtischer
Sprachschatz Leipzig 1904 ii. 713. She is compared with Diana by A. Bacmeister
Keltische Briefe ed. O. Keller Strassburg 1874 p. 47.

The word nemeton appears in place-names such as Augustonemetum, ^.pvvifxerov,
Medionemetum, etc. See Holder op. cit. ii. 712, who cites also from the Cartulaire de
QuimperU a. 1031 silva quae vocatur Nemet. Hence the Old Irish netned, 'sacred grove,
sanctuary,' the Old Frankish nimid, 'sacred place in the wood,' and other related words
(Holder loc. cit., L. Meyer Handb. d. gr. Etytn. iv. 275 ff., Prellwitz Etytn. W'drterb. d.
Gr. Spr.2 p. 309, Walde Lat. etytn. W'drterb. p. 409 f., M. Schonfeld W'drterbuch der
altgermanischen Personen- und Vdlkernamen Heidelberg 1911 p. 171 s.vv. ' Nemetes,'
' Nemetiales').

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