Godess of Justice - Stockton, CA
Posted by: 
ucdvicky
N 37° 57.211 W 121° 17.308
10S E 650368 N 4202039
Statue outside of the San Joaquin County Courthouse in Stockton, CA.
Waymark Code: WM3P9K
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 04/28/2008
Views: 70
From Wikipedia: "Lady Justice (Iustitia, the Roman Goddess of Justice and sometimes, simply "Justice") is an allegorical personification of the moral force that underlies the legal system. Since the Renaissance, Justitia has frequently been depicted as a bare-breasted woman carrying a sword and scales, and sometimes wearing a blindfold. Her modern iconography, which frequently adorns courthouses and courtrooms, conflates the attributes of several goddesses who embodied Right Rule for Greeks and Romans, blending Roman blindfolded Fortuna with Hellenistic Greek Tyche.
Justitia's attributes parallel those of the Hellenic deity Themis, the embodiment of divine order, law and custom, in her aspect as the personification of the divine rightness of law. However, the mythological connection is not a direct one. Themis' daughter Dike was imagined carrying scales: "If some god had been holding level the balance of Dike" is an image in a surviving fragment of Bacchylides's poetry.
Justitia is most often depicted with a set of weighing scales typically suspended from her left 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 right hand, symbolizing the power of Reason and Justice, which may be wielded either for or against any party.
As stated above, Lady Justice is often depicted wearing a blindfold. This is done in order to indicate that justice is (or should be) meted out objectively, without fear or favor, regardless of the identity, power, or weakness: blind justice & blind equality. However Justitia has only been represented as "blind" since about the end of the fifteenth century, when a blindfold began being placed on the goddess' eye. The earliest Roman coins depicted Justitia with the sword on one hand and the scale on the other, but with her eyes uncovered."
Time Period: Modern
Approximate Date of Epic Period: Derived from Roman/Greek mythology
Epic Type: Historical
Exhibit Type: Figure, Statue, 3D Art
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