In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, Astræa or Astrea ' onMouseout='HidePop("29972")' href="/topics/English_language">English translation

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

: "star-maiden") was a daughter of Zeus

Zeus

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

 and Themis

Themis

Themis is an ancient Greek Titaness. She is described as "of good counsel", and is the embodiment of divine order, law, and custom. Themis means "divine law" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the verb τίθημι, títhēmi, "to put"...

 or of Eos

Eos

In Greek mythology, Eos is the Titan goddess of the dawn, who rose from her home at the edge of Oceanus, the ocean that surrounds the world, to herald her brother Helios, the Sun.- Greek literature :...

 and Astraeus

Astraeus

In Greek mythology, Astraeus or Astraeos was an astrological deity and the Titan-god of the dusk. In Hesiod's Theogony and in the Bibliotheca, Astraeus is a second-generation Titan, descended from Crius and Eurybia. However, Hyginus wrote that he was descended directly from Tartarus and Gaia, and...

. She and her mother were both personifications of justice, though Astræa was also associated with innocence and purity. She is always associated with the Greek Goddess of justice, Dike

Dike (mythology)

In ancient Greek culture, Dikē was the spirit of moral order and fair judgement based on immemorial custom, in the sense of socially enforced norms and conventional rules. According to Hesiod In ancient Greek culture, Dikē (Greek: Δίκη, English translation: "justice") was the spirit of moral...

, who used to live on Earth but left, sickened by human greed.

Astræa, the celestial virgin, was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the sagacious Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

  (the third age, after the Utopian Golden Age

Golden Age

The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...

 and defective Silver Age

Silver age

A silver age is a name often given to a particular period within a history, typically as a lesser and later successor to a golden age, the metal silver generally being valuable, but less so than gold.-Greek myth:...

) in the old Greek religion's five deteriorating Ages of Man

Ages of Man

The Ages of Man are the stages of human existence on the Earth according to Greek mythology. Two classical authors in particular offer accounts of the successive ages of mankind, which tend to progress from an original, long-gone age in which humans enjoyed a nearly divine existence to the current...

. According to Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

, Astraea abandoned the earth at the end of the Iron Age. Fleeing from the new wickedness of humanity, she ascended to heaven to become the constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 Virgo

Virgo (constellation)

Virgo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for virgin, and its symbol is . Lying between Leo to the west and Libra to the east, it is the second largest constellation in the sky...

; the scales of justice she carried became the nearby constellation Libra

Libra (constellation)

Libra is a constellation of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for weighing scales, and its symbol is . It is fairly faint, with no first magnitude stars, and lies between Virgo to the west and Scorpius to the east.-Notable features:]...

, reflected in her symbolic association with Justitia in Latin culture. In the Tarot

Tarot

The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...

, the 8th card, Justice, with a figure of Justitia, can thus be considered related to the figure of Astræa on historical iconographic grounds.

According to legend, Astræa will one day come back to Earth, bringing with her the return of the utopian Golden Age of which she was the ambassador.

In culture and literature

Astræa's hoped-for return was referred to in a phrase from Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

's Eclogue IV: "Iam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia Regna" (The Virgin and the Days of Old return).

During the European Renaissance, Astræa became associated with the general spirit of renewal of culture occurring at that time, particularly in England, where she became poetically identified in literature with the figure of Queen Elizabeth I as the virgin Queen reigning over a new Golden Age. In Spain she was often identified with the rule of Philip IV

Philip IV

Philip IV may refer to:* Philip IV of Spain * Philip IV of France * Philip IV of Macedon * Philip IV of Burgundy * Philip IV of Aragon...

. The French Author Honore D'Urfe

Honoré d'Urfé

Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de Valromey, comte de Châteauneuf was a French novelist and miscellaneous writer.- Life :...

 wrote a very popular serial novel called L'Astree (Astrea), the first and second parts being published in 1607 and 1610 and each installment very much anticipated by the aritocratic public at the time. Rousseau in his Confessions

Confessions

Confessions may refer to:*The plural of confession* Confessions , a series of books composed by St. Augustine of Hippo circa AD 397* Confessions , an autobiography by Jean-Jacques Rousseau...

 p.160 Penguin Classic notes it as one of the novels read with his father and says it "was the one that recurred most frequently to my mind". A spectacle play by the Count of Villamediana and thirteen dramas by Calderon de la Barca introduce a character named Astræa to the foreground of political and astrological concerns. In Russia, Astræa was identified first with Elizabeth, then with Catherine the Great.

In the manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

/anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 series Sora no Otoshimono

Sora no Otoshimono

, also known as Heaven's Lost Property, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Suu Minazuki. The plot revolves around Tomoki Sakurai, a highly perverted young man struggling to live a peaceful life...

, Astraea is the name of an angeloid.

Astræa's departure from the earth at the end of Saturn's reign was memorialized by Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

 in the Metamorphoses, 1.149–50. The English epic poet Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

 further embellished this myth at the opening of Book V of The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English...

(1596), where he claims that Astræa left behind 'her groome | An yron man', called Talus. Shakespeare refers to Astræa in Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, and possibly George Peele, believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy, and is often seen as his attempt to emulate the violent and bloody revenge plays of his contemporaries, which were...

, and also in Henry VI, part 1

Henry VI, part 1

Henry VI, Part 1 or The First Part of Henry the Sixt is a history play by William Shakespeare, and possibly Thomas Nashe, believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England...

. In his most famous play, La vida es sueño

La vida es sueño

Life is a Dream is a Spanish language play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. First published in 1635 , it is a philosophical allegory regarding the human situation and the mystery of life. Focusing on Segismundo, Prince of Poland, the central argument is the conflict between free will and fate...

, Calderon de la Barca has a character named Rosaura (an anagram for "dawns") take on the name of Astræa at Court. This may be a laudatory political allusion to the dawn of a new Golden Age under Philip IV/Segismundo.

"Astræa" is also the title of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...

.

Astraea is also referenced in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...

, in Book IV between lines 990 and 1000. When Satan is discovered in the Garden of Eden and brought before the Angel Gabriel, the two are on the verge of war.

[God (The Eternal)] Hung forth in Heav'n his golden Scales, yet seen

Betwixt ASTREA and the SCORPION signe,

Wherein all things created first he weighd,

The pendulous round Earth with ballanc't Aire

In counterpoise, now ponders all events,

Battels and Realms

In Book 2 of Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book there is the following reference:

There’s an end to all hope of justice more. Astræa’s gone indeed, let hope go too! Who is it dares impugn the natural law? Deny God’s word "the faithless wife shall die?"

The heavy metal band The Sword

The Sword

The Sword is an American heavy metal band that formed in Austin, Texas, in 2003. Since its inception the band has comprised vocalist and guitarist John D. Cronise, guitarist Kyle Shutt and bassist Bryan Richie, and currently includes touring drummer Jimmy Vela following Trivett Wingo's departure in...

 has also released a song called "Astraea's Dream" in their 2010 album Warp Riders

Warp Riders

Warp Riders is the third studio album by American heavy metal band The Sword, released on August 24, 2010. Recorded between February and April 2010 at Wire Recording in Austin, Texas, the album was produced by Matt Bayles, marking the first time the band had hired an external producer...

.

In the Japanese anime series Mobile Suit Gundam 00

Mobile Suit Gundam 00

is an anime TV series, the eleventh incarnation of Sunrise's long-running Gundam franchise consisting of two seasons. It is directed by Seiji Mizushima and written by Yōsuke Kuroda, and features character designs by Yun Kōga. The twenty-five episode season was officially announced by Sunrise...

one of the Gundam

Gundam

The is a metaseries of anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots called "Mobile Suits" ; usually the protagonist's MS will carry the name Gundam....

 mobile suits is called Astraea. Astraea is operated by Celestial Being, a paramilitary organisation that fights for peace and a "justice" of sorts. Another anime series, Strawberry Panic

Strawberry Panic!

is a series of Japanese fictional illustrated short stories written by Sakurako Kimino, which focus on a group of teenage girls attending three affiliated all-girl schools on Astraea Hill. A common theme throughout the stories is the intimate lesbian relationships between the characters...

, takes place atop "Astraea Hill", which may be a representational title for purity due to the religious undertones found in the anime.

Astraea is mentioned as a cursed Demon Soul in the 2009 video game Demon's Souls

Demon's Souls

is an action role-playing game video game developed primarily by From Software exclusively for the PlayStation 3. It was released in Japan on February 5, 2009 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment...

. She is the final boss of stage 5-3, protected by Garl Vinland. She has been cursed, in her purity, of discovering that God never existed, despite her devotion. She is lamented for being the purest of all souls, and yet at the same time, the most corrupt.

"Astraea Invade" is also the name of the musical project of Michael Narcomey, a full-blooded Native American Catholic of Oklahoma, US. The name is a direct reference to this goddess who is considered a sort of patron saint for the musical entity.

In Square Enix's shooter, Einhӓnder, the Astraea Mk. I is a fighter with two configurable slots for gunpods, although the craft's default machine guns become unusable once both slots are filled.