Justice -- UK Supreme Court Building, Parliament Square, Westminster, UK
N 51° 30.027 W 000° 07.680
30U E 699332 N 5709390
The Roman and Greek goddess of Justice, at the UK Supreme Court building (Old Middlesex Guildhall) in Parliament Square
Waymark Code: WMT5QG
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/30/2016
Views: 3
The figure of Justice stands at the rear of the old Middlesex Guildhall, renovated for the UK Supreme Court in 2007.
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"Iustitia, Justitia or Lady Justice (Latin: Iustitia, the Roman goddess of Justice, who is equivalent to the Greek goddess Themis) is an allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems. Her attributes are a blindfold, a balance and a sword. She often appears as a pair with Prudentia, who holds a mirror and a snake.
The personification of justice balancing the scales dates back to the Goddess Maat, and later Isis, of ancient Egypt. The Hellenic deities Themis and Dike were later goddesses of justice. Themis was the embodiment of divine order, law, and custom, in her aspect as the personification of the divine rightness of law. However, a more direct connection is to Themis' daughter Dike, who was portrayed carrying scales.
"If some god had been holding level the balance of goddess which is Dike" is a surviving fragment of Bacchylides' poetry. Ancient Rome adopted the image of a female goddess of justice, which it called Iustitia. Since Roman times, Iustitia has frequently been depicted carrying scales and a sword, and wearing a blindfold. Her modern iconography frequently adorns courthouses and courtrooms, and conflates the attributes of several goddesses who embodied Right Rule for Greeks and Romans, blending Roman blindfolded Fortuna] (fate) with Hellenistic Greek Tych (luck), and sword-carrying Nemesis (retribution)."
Lady Justice is most often depicted with a set of scales typically suspended from her left hand, upon which she measures the strengths of a case's support and opposition.[citation needed] She is also often seen carrying a double-edged sword in her right hand, symbolizing the power of Reason and Justice, which may be wielded either for or against any party."