In Greek mythology, Dysnomia (Ancient Greek: Δυσνομία) is the personification of lawlessness and bad government. According to Hesiod's Theogony she is one of the children of Eris (Strife), born without a father, and like her siblings she is little more than an abstraction whose identity is exhausted by the meaning of her name. She is closely paired with Ate (Ruin), and the Athenian statesman Solon set her in pointed opposition to Eunomia, the personification of good order.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Dysnomia (deity)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Dysnomia is named by Hesiod in the Theogony among the offspring of Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, who is herself a daughter of Nyx (Night). In this account Eris bears her children alone, with no father named.
Her siblings, the other children of Eris, include Ponos (Toil), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Limos (Famine), the Algea (Pains), the Hysminai (Combats), the Machai (Battles), the Phonoi (Murders), the Androktasiai (Manslaughters), the Neikea (Quarrels), the Pseudea (Lies), the Logoi (Tales), the Amphilogiai (Disputes), Ate (Ruin), and Horkos (Oath). She is most closely associated with Ate, of whom Hesiod says the two are "much like one another."
II.Character and mythology
As a personified abstraction Dysnomia embodies the breakdown of law and orderly government, one of the harmful conditions that strife brings into human society. Hesiod places her in the catalogue of Eris's brood at Theogony line 226, and she has virtually no narrative or attributes beyond the sense of her name.
The Athenian lawgiver Solon developed her as the political counterpart of Eunomia, declaring that lawlessness brings a city countless ills while good order reveals all that is orderly and fitting. Solon attributed the troubles of Athens—greed, injustice, the enslavement of citizens, and civil strife—to the influence of Dysnomia, making her a moral emblem of misgovernment.
III.Legacy
Dysnomia is not recorded as the object of any individual cult or distinct worship, remaining an allegorical figure of the poetic and political tradition rather than of religious practice.
Her name was revived in modern astronomy: in 2005 the moon discovered orbiting the dwarf planet Eris was named Dysnomia, echoing the ancient pairing of Lawlessness with Strife.