Nemesis

**Nemesis** (Greek: Νέμεσις) is the Greek goddess of balance, retribution, and vengeance. Her Roman counterpart is also called **Nemesis** for revenge is universal, though she may also be considered **Invidia**.

## History

### Early life

Nemesis was born from the protogenoi Nyx (Night) through parthenogenesis, or with her husband Erebus.

### Story of Echo and Narcissus

Seeing the handsome hunter Narcissus treat his admirers with contempt, Nemesis lured him to a pool where he saw and fell in love with his own reflection, eventually withering away and dying from being unable to look away from his own beauty.

## Appearance

Nemesis has short, curly black hair and golden eyes. She currently wears a red jacket, black jeans and boots, carries a whip and owns a motorcycle.

Nemesis will appear as someone the viewer wants to take revenge on. This means that she will always look different to different people. For example, when she met Leo, he thought she looked like Aunt Rosa. Even if the observer sees this person, Nemesis herself doesn't seem to know who she is perceived as.

## Personality

Overall, Nemesis appears to be both fair and intense. She enjoys tearing down the proud and powerful, making sure no man has too much good in his life to prevent hubris.

Nemesis is seen as a cold, cruel goddess whose ruthlessness isn't exempt from even her own children, as shown when she took her son's eye as part of their deal. However, she does have a strong sense of honor, as shown when she swore to her son that he would gain recognition from their deal.

While arguing with her mother Nyx, Nemesis states that her role is about balance, not just revenge and she refuses to help Nyx with her vengeance upon Nico di Angelo, Will Solace and Bob as she sees it as unjust and is infuriated by her unfair treatment of Nico. Instead, Nemesis helps Nico and his friends against her mother, stating that she's not one to be ordered around and that she only helps those who need her help, inspiring her siblings to rebel as well. Nemesis then uses her powers to grant the group as much luck as she can to help them escape, but warns that luck won't be on their side if they ever return to Tartarus which the demigods have no interest in doing anyways.

## Abilities

As her powers were able to affect the gods, it can be stated that Nemesis is considerably more powerful than her status as a non- Olympian, such as Eris, Thanatos, and Hypnos.

* **Tychokinesis**: As the goddess of balance, retribution and vengeance, Nemesis has absolute and divine authority over luck. She will provide bad luck to anyone with too much good luck and good luck to anyone with too much bad luck. She is able to provide Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Bob the Titan and Small Bob with all of the good luck that she could to aid in their escape from Tartarus.
	+ **Destiny Deals**: Nemesis can change someone's destiny as long as she receives adequate payment in return. In exchange of his eye, she made her son Ethan change the war by reviving Kronos and making the demigods recognized as she promised.
	+ **Curses**:  Nemesis can create horrible curses as punishments. She punished Narcissus in only loving himself.
* **Umbrakinesis**:  As one of Nyx's children, Nemesis can control and manipulate shadows. She displayed this ability by making the area around herself darker.
	+ **Shadow Travel**: Nemesis is capable of traveling through the shadows, apparently even into and out of Tartarus.

## Attributes

* A scale, the wheel of fortune, the rudder, balance and cubrit, the whip or sword.

## Relationship

Nemesis never claimed Ethan as her son due to her lack of cabin, so Ethan end up getting stuck in the Hermes' Cabin, similar to what happened with many other demigods at Camp Half-Blood. One day, Nemesis met her son and promised that he would one day balance the world's power, in exchange for his left eye. Her son agreed, so she took his left eye and he wore an eye patch over it.

## Etymology

Her name's origins, "nemêsis" and "nemô", mean "dispenser of dues." The word "Nemesis" is now often used as a term to describe one's worst enemy, normally someone or something that is the exact opposite of oneself but is also somehow similar.

## Trivia

* In *The Last Olympian*, Nemesis's symbol is a set of scales, as seen on Ethan's burial shroud. In *The Mark of Athena*, Leo says a broken wheel is also her symbol, as it is in her cabin at Camp Half-Blood.
	+ Ethan's burial shroud had scales under crossed swords when Nemesis is mainly pictured with a whip in one hand and scales in the other, possibly because crossed swords is a symbol of being killed in action.
* A festival named after her called Nemeseia was held at Athens in Ancient Greece. It involved torch races.
* A statue of Nemesis or Themis is sometimes seen in courts of law to represent the balance of justice.
* The woman depicted on the New York state flag, holding the scales and sword, is believed to be based on Nemesis, Themis or Dike (the goddess of Moral Justice).
* On Rick Riordan's website, Nemesis is said to be sisters with the Roman form of Tyche, Fortuna. Whether this is true only for the series or if Riordan made a mistake is unknown.
* In Ancient Greek imagery, Nemesis is depicted as being winged, although she is yet to appear in such a form in the series.
* According to mythology, Zeus once fell madly in love with Nemesis, but she avoided his advances by turning into a goose.
	+ Other legends tell that as a result of her union with Zeus assuming the form of a swan while Nemesis was in the guise of a goose, she laid an egg from which Helen of Troy hatched.
* Her Roman name, Invidia, is Latin for Envy, one of the seven deadly sins.
* Her Egyptian equivalent is Ma'at.
* Her Norse equivalent is either Vidar or Forseti.