Astraea

In Greek literary tradition Astraea is presented as an immortal goddess who personifies justice and who lived among humans during the mythic Golden Age. As human morality declined through the successive Ages of Man she abandoned humanity and was taken into the sky as the constellation Virgo. Sources vary on her parentage and identity: some strands connect her etymologically and genealogically to Astraeus and Eos (linking her to stars and dawn), while other authors identify her with Dike (who in some accounts is daughter of Zeus and Themis); the tradition therefore preserves variant genealogies rather than a single fixed origin.

Astraea is classically portrayed as a virgin/maiden figure (the Maiden of the constellation Virgo) and is represented holding a pair of scales, the emblem of impartial justice. In ancient celestial imagery the star Spica is associated with the ear of corn she holds; beyond these emblematic items the surviving literary summaries emphasize her maidenly and starry character rather than detailed garments or corporeal description.

As a mythic personification Astraea functions as the embodiment of justice, modesty, and good faith. Literary sources depict her as a moral arbiter who presided over virtue among humans in the Golden Age and—according to some poets—watched human conduct and reported serious wrongdoing to the higher gods (e.g., Zeus). Her principal transformational action in the myths is withdrawal from the human world in response to moral decay and relocation to the celestial sphere as the constellation Virgo; later poets also use her as a symbolic herald whose prophesied return would signal restoration of a Golden Age.