Nemesis

Goddess of divine retribution for evil deeds or undeserved good fortune. Nemesis was the daughter of Nyx ("Night"). There was a strange myth that there were two goddesses named Nemesis, who were known together as the Nemeses, and both of them were daughters of Nyx.

She was the goddess of law and justice as well as divine retribution. Nemesis punished for either wicked deeds or undeserved good fortunes. So if the goddess Tyche gave good fortune to a person, Nemesis could easily take it away from the person if she saw that he or she didn't deserve it.

Some say that it was she, not Leda, who was the mother of Helen of Troy, according to Apollodorus' Library, Hyginus' Poetica Astronomia and Cypria (Epic Cycle). Aphrodite made Zeus fall in love with Nemesis, whom he pursued. Nemesis tried to escape from Zeus by changing herself first into a fish, then later into a goose. Zeus ravished her while he was in the form of a swan.

According to Hyginus, Zeus tried to gain what he desired through deception. With the help of Aphrodite who assumed the form of an eagle and Zeus in the form of a swan, the eagle (Aphrodite) chased the swan (Zeus). The bogus swan sought refuge within the arms and lap of the goddess Nemesis for protection against the eagle. While Nemesis slept with the swan in her arms, Zeus ravished the sleeping goddess, before he flew away.

In due time, Nemesis laid a blue and silver egg which was found in the forest by a shepherd or by Hermes, who gave the egg to Leda. When the egg hatched, Leda reared Helen as her own child. Zeus honoured the form of the swan by putting it among the constellations as the Swan or Cygnus.

In Greek arts, Nemesis was sometimes portrayed as a winged goddess carrying an apple bough in one hand and a wheel of fortune in the other hand. She was also seen in a chariot pulled by griffins instead of horses. Early writers and artists portrayed Nemesis as a beautiful, white-garbed, winged maiden, while later generations displayed her as an ugly, monstrous being.