ABSTRACT
A goddess, the daughter of Nyx (Night). She came to personify the power of retribution for evil deeds, and was also thought of as the punisher of heartless lovers. When Zeus fell in love with Nemesis and pursued her, she sought to escape by assuming the forms of a variety of animals and even fish. Finally she became a goose and he a swan, whereupon, according to one story, he made love to her, and she laid the egg which became Helen. In one version of Nemesis’ tale, Aphrodite caused her downfall by assuming the form of an eagle and pretending to pursue the Zeus-swan; the latter took refuge in Nemesis’ lap and, when she fell asleep, had intercourse with her so that she laid the egg. There was a tradition that the constellations of the Swan and the Eagle were formed to commemorate this exploit of Zeus. Whatever the manner of her impregnation, Nemesis’ egg was taken by a shepherd who found it (or by Hermes) to Leda, wife of Tyndareos, who reared Helen when she was hatched. (It was also said, however, that Leda, not Nemesis, had laid the egg.)
Also called Pyrrhus. Son of Achilles by Deidamia. When Thetis, seeking to conceal her son from notice so that he might not have to fight at Troy, entrusted him to Lycomedes, king of Scyros, the young Achilles, who was dressed in girl’s clothes and kept in the women’s quarters, made the king’s daughter Deidamia pregnant. The child subsequently born to her was called Pyrrhus (‘red-haired’), either because he had red hair or because the disguised Achilles had been known at Lycomedes’ court as Pyrrha. Deidamia brought the boy up until he reached adult years. Achilles now being dead, the Greek leaders before Troy discovered from the captured prophet Helenus that the city could fall only if certain conditions were fulfilled; and these necessitated the presence in the army of both Pyrrhus and Philoctetes. Odysseus and Phoenix went to fetch Pyrrhus from Scyros, Phoenix giving him the name Neoptolemus (‘young warrior’) because of his youth. Odysseus presented him with the armour of Achilles which, in spite of the objections of Aias the son of Telamon, he had been awarded as a prize.
