Themis is one of the Titans, the ancient Greek gods who preceded the Olympians. She has the ability to see both the past and the future, and her prophetic gifts grant her wisdom and perspective coveted by both gods and mortals. In this kylix painting, King Aegeus, father of the hero Theseus, consults Themis on the question of the royal family's infertility. The Titaness stares intently into a flat bowl, called a phiale, while the king waits anxiously for his answer.
According to legend, Themis established the oracle at Mount Parnassus (Delphi), and was its mistress until Apollo defeated the serpent Python and claimed the site as his own abode. In this painting Themis is shown (somewhat anachronistically) in the attitude of a Delphic priestess, balanced on the oracular tripod and holding Apollo's laurel branch.
In addition to being a goddess of prophecy, Themis is also the personification of divine justice. She is often depicted with scales and sword, making her the ancestress of both the ubiquitous courthouse statue and the Tarot trump called Justice. Her name has been translated as "law," but Moses Finley points out that themis has no exact analogue in English: "A gift of the gods and a mark of civilized existence, sometimes it means right custom, proper procedure, social order, and sometimes merely the will of the gods (as revealed by an omen, for example) with little of the idea of right." Clear-headed and ruthlessly impartial, Themis teaches acceptance of things as they are or will be, rather than how the seer might wish them to be.
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