Pax

Revision as of 10:08, 28 August 2009

Pax is the Roman goddess of peace.

"His second wife was radiant Themis; she bore the Seasons, Lawfulness and Justice and blooming Peace, who watch over the works of mortal men..." - Hesiod, Theogony, 901-3

Open of yourselves, you doors, for mighty Ploutos (Wealth) will enter in, and with Ploutos comes jolly Euphrosyne (Mirth) and gentle Eirene (Peace). " - Homer's Epigrams XV

"And with a heart unsullied labours for Eirene, the city's friend." - Pindar, Odes Olympian 4

"How far peace outweighs war in benefits to man; Eirene (Peace), the chief friend and cherisher of the Mousai (Muses); Eirene (Peace), the enemy of revenge, lover of families and children, patroness of wealth. Yet these blessings we viciously neglect, embrace wars; man with man, city with city fights, the strong enslaves the weak." - Euripides, Suppliant Women 484

"The Horai, as they are called, to each of them, according as her name indicates, was given [assigned by Zeus and Hera] the ordering and adornment of life, so as to serve to the greatest advantage of mankind; for there is nothing which is better to build a life of felicity than obedience to law (Eunomia) and justice (Dike) and peace (Eirene)." - Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.72.5

On the Campus Martius (Field of Mars, the god of war), she had a minor sanctuary called the Ara Pacis, dedicated to her on January 30, 9 B.C. Her temple was on the Forum Pacis (Templum Placis) built on the site of a meat market by Vespasian, which was dedicated in A.D. 75. She was depicted in art with olive branches, a cornucopia and a sceptre. Pax became celebrated (in both senses of the word) as Pax Romana and Pax Augusta from the 2nd century B.C.

In Greek mythology, she was Eirene or Irene ("peace"), daughter of Zeus and Themis, one of the first generation of Horae. The Horae (the Hours, or Seasons) were Pax and her sisters Lawfulness, Wisdom and Order (Eunomia) and Justice (Justitia/Dike). are sometimes considered to be the three aspects of Themis. As goddesses of the seasons, they brought order to nature. Eirene was the personification of peace and wealth and was depicted in art as a beautiful young woman carrying a cornucopia, sceptre and a torch or rhyton.