DIKAYOSINE is ‘justice’. The term comes from <Dike> or <Dice>, the goddess of justice and the spirit of moral order. In particular the Ancient Greek word <dikayosine> expresses the sense of ‘righteousness‘. It is one of the four cardinal virtues according to our philosophy. The other three are courage (<andreia>), temperance (<sophrosyne>), and wisdom (<phronesis>).

Rectitude and straightforwardness were merits highly appreciated in the <polis> (city). In fact, trusting someone in a relevant position was one of the basic elements to build and reinforce the community. From our standpoint, behaving in a just and impartial way is also the proof of an hard work on oneself. For it is rare to have certain qualities from birth. Then the only way to perfect oneself is a long training. Self-discipline is inevitable to keep under control all wrong human temptations. For instance, we have the tendency to favor friends instead of unknown people. All of us are prone to take revenge on offenders at the very first occasion. It is common to take personal advantage of powerful and influential roles. And so on. <Dikayosine> is ‘justice’ but the path is long and the effort is tiresome to try and get close to righteousness.

In Ancient Greece <Dike> was the impersonification of fair judgement deriving from timeless customs, in the sense of socially widespread norms and conventional rules. According to Hesiod‘s Theogony her father is Zeus and the mother is Themis. Also her mother is a personifications of justice. In several depictions <Dike> is a young, slender woman carrying a physical balance scale and wearing a laurel wreath. She is represented in the constellation Libra whose name is the Latin name of her symbol (Scales).