DÉFINIR LES LIMITES : COLLECTIVITÉS DIVINES AU SERVICE DE LA JUSTICE DANS LE MONDE GREC

This paper examines three cases study of divine collectivities, which fall within the sphere of the order and the administration of justice. These are the Themides, the Nemeseis and the Praxidikai, all normative powers, which set limits to the actions of mortals. They represent a kind of justice aimed at ensuring the proper functioning of relationships between mortals and immortals and at maintaining the balance and the social cohesion among the human beings. These theonyms occur in the Greek religion both in singular and in plural. As observed by N. Loraux, like many other divine collectivities which are transposition of abstract notions, they are represented and named in a feminine form. The sources related to these three groups concerns as many regional micro-contexts (Argolis, Smyrnai and Boeotia), whose exploration, following the paths of Pausanias, may offer some clues to understand the different strategies connected to such a “pluralization” of the divine, and to reassess the gender issue in the perception of these specific categories of divine powers.