Justice is a Lady
by:
Melissa Montecillo-Acorda
LADY JUSTICE confounds us.
It is not in the least bit ironic that the most sought-after lady should also be distinctly mysterious. Speculation on her true origin has endured for centuries.
It is said that the modern image of Justice is a conflation of various images and iconography over a period of time.
In antiquity, she is Ma'at, the daughter of the sun god, Ra, revered by the ancient Egyptians and was often depicted as carrying a sword with an ostrich feather in her hair to symbolize truth and justice. The term ‘magistrate’ is derived from Ma'at because she assisted Osiris in the judgment of the dead by weighing their hearts. 1
She is also perceived as the Greek goddess Themis, one of the Titans, pre-Hellenic nature deities born to Uranos (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). Themis is the mother of the Moirai and the Horai [Dike (Justice), Eirene (Peace), and Eunomia (Lawful Government)] and the organizer of the communal affairs of humans, particularly assemblies. Her ability to foresee the future enabled her to become one of the oracles at Delphi, which in turn led to her establishment as the goddess of divine justice.
Classical representations of Themis did not show her blindfolded for she had the gift of prophecy nor was she holding a sword as she represented common consent and not coercion. 2
Dike is the daughter of Themis and Zeus and is known as the Greek goddess of justice. She carried a sword without a scale of justice and presided over the apportionment of things among mortals, the protection of individuals and the keeping of social and political order.
In Roman history, Lady Justice is Justitia, goddess of justice and is the personification of the moral force that underlies the justice system. Since the Renaissance, she has frequently been portrayed as a bare-breasted woman evenly balancing both scales, a sword and, at times, wearing a blindfold. She was sometimes portrayed holding the fasces (a bundle of rods around an ax symbolizing judicial authority) in one hand and a flame in the other (symbolizing truth). Justitia’s modern iconography conflates the attributes of the goddesses Themis, Dike and the blindfolded Tyche (Roman goddess Fortuna).
Lady Justice is often depicted wearing a blindfold as a symbol that justice should be meted out objectively, without fear or favor, regardless of the identity, power, or preference. Since blindfolds are naturally tailored for the blind, some assume Lady Justice herself is such, thus the phrase, "Justice is blind".
She is also frequently depicted with a set of weighing scales typically suspended from her left hand, upon which she measures the merits of a case. She has been seen carrying a double-edged sword in her right hand as a symbol of the power of Reason, but oftentimes believed to represent retribution and the punitive power of the law.
At any rate, Lady Justice is no mere statue in a courtroom, print on a manuscript nor a focal point for an emblem. She represents the fair and equal administration of the law, without corruption, avarice, prejudice, or favor.
In truth, such a lady should never ever be taken lightly.
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1 "Legal Symbols of the Anglo-American Legal Tradition," 11 The Guide to American Law: Everyone's Legal Encyclopedia, Appendix D, 685, 687 (1985).
2 Cathleen Burnett, "Justice: Myth and Symbol," 11 Legal Studies Forum 79, 80 (1987).
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