Indignation

There is an – at first sight peculiar – ‘sentiment’ that marks the Odyssey from the start, and that culminates, in fact, at its ending with regard to the suitors of Penelope, who receive intense νέμϵσις (nemesis) from members of Odysseus’ family and the community. Yet the suitors did not mend their ways (Od. 2.135–7; 22.39–40). We are accustomed to perceive nemesis as a personification, an abstraction of ‘vengeance’, a ‘just retribution’, or even a ‘divine jealousy’ (the latter is most pronounced in its later Latin form, which would eventually have Nemesis closely associated with the emperor). However, nemesis is not met in this form in Homer. It is, thus, worth examining the word nemesis and its occurrences in Homer, and more so in order to elucidate its relation to nemein.

Nemesis, derived from nemein, is widely accepted as constituted according to verbal formations similar, for instance, to λάχϵσις (lachesis; of λαχϵΐν, lachein), and σχέσις (schesis; of σχϵΐν, schein). Furthermore, nemesis morphologically conforms to other words ending in -ις, which designate ‘sentiments’ or ‘attitudes’ (for example, hubris, eris, charis, metis, themis). Émile Benveniste, like Emmanuel Laroche, derives nemesis from the root *nem-. Benveniste ([1948/1975] 1993) locates its meaning in terms of a ‘proclamation’, or ‘presumption’, of a ‘fair distribution’ that is commonly determined through the expression νέμϵσίς ϵστί (nemesis esti) and its negation: ού νέμϵσίς έστι (ou nemesis esti). These indicate circumstances (and consequences) where such a ‘distribution’ is performed or not (arguably pointing to a ‘sacrificial’ milieu).

Moreover, Laroche derives nemesis from the ancient *νϵμϵτις (*nemetis) and notes that, in Homer, nemesis is generally an ‘action attributed to someone, imputation’.