Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Eunomia.
The gallery
Squat Lekythos Depicting Eutychia, Eunomia and Paidia
Makaria Painter, c. 420 BC
An Attic red-figure squat lekythos of the late fifth century BC, painted with three personifications identified by name: Eutychia (Good Luck), Eunomia (Good Order), and Paidia (Play). At the centre Eunomia walks solemnly to the right in a girded peplos, diadem, and decorated hair-band, holding a necklace between her outstretched hands. The Athenian vase-painters of the circle around the Meidias Painter favoured such serene, richly adorned maidens to embody the well-ordered civic ideal of eunomia. It is held in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
Mosaic of the Three Horae (Dike, Eunomia and Eirene), House of Theseus
Unknown Roman mosaicist, 3rd–4th century AD
A floor mosaic from the West Wing of the House of Theseus at Nea Paphos, Cyprus, showing the three Horae as Hesiod named them: Dike (Justice), Eunomia (Good Order), and Eirene (Peace), the daughters of Zeus and Themis who keep the seasons and watch over the just city. Here Eunomia appears as one of a serene trio of robed maidens, the personification of lawful civic order set beside her sisters of justice and peace. The mosaic is preserved in situ at the Paphos Archaeological Park.
Squat Lekythos: Aphrodite and Eros with Female Allegories (incl. Eunomia)
Manner of the Meidias Painter, c. 410–400 BC
An Attic red-figure squat lekythos in the manner of the Meidias Painter, showing Aphrodite enthroned in a garden with Eros and a company of named female personifications: Peitho, Eudaimonia, Paidia, Eunomia, and Kleopatra. Each figure is labelled by an inscription, with Eunomia (Good Order) standing among the spring-bright attendants of the love goddess as the gentle ideal of a well-governed community. The vase exemplifies the late-fifth-century Athenian taste for crowding mythic scenes with abstract civic and erotic virtues personified as elegant women.