PRAXIDIKE

PRAXIDIKE was the goddess or personified spirit (daimona) of exacting justice. She and her two daughters--Arete (Virtue) and Homonoia (Concord)--together formed a divine triad known as the Praxidikai.

In the Orphic Hymns Praxidike is equated with Persephone, Soter with Zeus, and the Praxidikai with the goddess Erinyes. She was probably also connected with the daimona Poine (Retribution).

PARENTS

Perhaps a daughter of ZEUS, though nowhere stated

OFFSPRING

KTESIOS, HOMONOIA, ARETE (by Soter) (Suidas s.v. Praxidike)

ENCYCLOPEDIA

PRAXI′DICE (Praxidikê), i. e. the goddess who carries out the objects of justice, or watches that justice is done to men. When Menelaus arrived in Laconia, on his return from Troy, he set up a statue of Praxidice near Gytheium, not far from the spot where Paris, in carrying off Helen, had founded a sanctuary of Aphrodite Migonitis (Paus. iii. 22. § 2). Near Haliartus, in Boeotia, we meet with the worship of Praxidicae, in the plural (ix. 33. § 2), who were called daughters of Ogyges, and their names are Alalcomenia, Thelxinoea, and Auilis (ix. 33. § 4; Suid. s. v.; Steph. Byz. s. v. Tremilê). Their images consisted merely of heads, and their sacrifices only of the heads of animals. With the Orphic poets Praxidice seems to be a surname of Persephone. (Orph. Argon. 31, Hymn. 28. 5.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Orphic Hymn 29 to Persephone (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) :
"Hymn to Phersephone (Persephone) . . . Zeus' holy offspring, of a beauteous mien, Praxidike (avenging Goddess), subterranean queen. The Eumenides' [Erinyes'] source, fair-haired, whose frame proceeds from Zeus' ineffable and secret seeds."

Suidas s.v. Praxidike (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th A.D.) :
"Praxidike (Exacter of Justice) : A deity whose head alone is venerated. Mnaseas [Greek C2nd B.C.] in his treatise On Europe says that Soter (Saviour) and his sister Praxidike (Exacter of Justice) had a son Ktesios (Ctesius, Household) and daughters Homonoia (Concord) and Arete (Virtue), who were called Praxidikai (Exacters of Penalties) after their mother."

SOURCES

GREEK

• The Orphic Hymns - Greek Hymns C3rd B.C. - C2nd A.D.

BYZANTINE

• Suidas, The Suda - Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.