Dike & Asteroid 99 Dike - York Crown Court, York, UK
N 53° 57.311 W 001° 04.763
30U E 626023 N 5980243
Dike, pronounced 'deekay', represents justice and is sometimes referred to as 'Lady Justice'. This statue of Dike is located on top of the Crown Court in York. There is an asteroid named '99 Dike'.
Waymark Code: WMK0PC
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/26/2014
Views: 2
There are various depictions of Dike and this one shows her in robes with the scales of justice hanging from her left hand and a spear in her right hand. Unlike some depictions, she does not have a blindfold. The statue, carved from stone, is about twice life-size.
Wikipedia tells us about Dike:
In ancient Greek culture, Dike ("justice") was the spirit of moral order and fair judgement based on immemorial custom, in the sense of socially enforced norms and conventional rules. According to Hesiod, she was fathered by Zeus upon his second consort, Themis.
She ruled over human justice, while her mother Themis ruled over divine justice. Her opposite was adikia ("injustice").
The later art of rhetoric treated the personification of abstract concepts as an artistic device, which devolved into the allegorizing that Late Antiquity bequeathed to patristic literature. In a further euhemerist interpretation, Dike was born a mortal and Zeus placed her on Earth to keep mankind just. He quickly learned this was impossible and placed her next to him on Mount Olympus.
Lady Justice is most often depicted with a set of scales typically suspended from her right hand, upon which she measures the strengths of a case's support and opposition. She is also often seen carrying a double-edged sword in her left hand, symbolizing the power of Reason and Justice, which may be wielded either for or against any party.
Wikipedia tells us:
99 Dike is a quite large and dark main-belt asteroid. Dike was discovered by Alphonse Borrelly on May 28, 1868. It was his first asteroid discovery. It is named after Dike, the Greek goddess of moral justice.
Based upon a light curve that was generated from photometric observations of this asteroid at Pulkovo Observatory, it has a rotation period of 18.127 ± 0.002 hours and varies in brightness by 0.22 ± 0.02 in magnitude.