Nemesis

The goddess of divine retribution — the indignation that falls on mortals who grow too fortunate or too proud, restoring the balance the gods demand. Hesiod makes her a daughter of Night, 'a woe to mortal men' (Hes. *Theog.* 223–224). Her chief sanctuary was at Rhamnous in Attica, where Pausanias saw the great statue carved (it was said) from a block of Parian marble the over-confident Persians had brought to make a victory-trophy. There Pausanias also reports the local tale that Nemesis, not Leda, was the true mother of Helen — Leda being only her nurse and Zeus the father (Paus. 1.33.7). Apollodorus tells the fuller version: fleeing Zeus's pursuit Nemesis changed her shape, and from their union came an egg that a herdsman found and gave to Leda, from which Helen was born (Apollod. *Bibl.* 3.10.7).