Ancient Symbols and The Modern Legal System

Masonic symbology has come down to us from the cuneiform scripts of the Ancient Sumerians, circa 3000 B.C.. as well as the ancient Mesopotamians and Persians.

The icon of the female carrying the sword and scales is a universally recognized symbol of justice. But how many people aware that these are derived from pagan Greek and Roman concepts. Courthouses throughout America honor the Goddess of Justice with magnificent statues.


Justitia, a Roman goddess of justice symbolizes the fair and equal administration of the law, without corruption, avarice, prejudice, or favor; goddess of divine justice. Sculptors often portray her as evenly balancing both scales and a sword and wearing a blindfold (but often times without one). She sometimes holds the fasces (a bundle of rods around an ax) symbolizing judicial authority in one hand, and a flame in the other hand, symbolizing truth. The Fasces is also where the term Fascism is derived.


The ancient Greeks referred to her as Themis, a Greek mythological goddess originally the organizer of the “communal affairs of humans, particularly assemblies.” One of the Titans, pre-Hellenic nature deities born to Uranus and Ge, she remained and advised Zeus after his purge of the old pantheon. A daughter of Themis and Zeus, Dike, known as a goddess of justice but not divine justice, presided over the apportionment of things among mortals, the protection of individuals and the keeping of social and political order. She carried a sword without a scale of justice. At times Dike is said to be the same (or is she confused with?) Astraea. Astraea is also said to be a daughter of Themis and Zeus and is known as a goddess of justice. Also known as daughter of Eos and Astraeus 1, her head was crowned with ears of grain and for its measure carried a balance or scale. Astraea was the last of the immortals to leave earth after the Golden Age. She has also been called a goddess of purity and innocence. She became the constellation Virgo. Dike left earth when the Race of Bronze was born. Her ability to foresee the future enabled her to become one of the oracles at Delphi, which in turn led to her establishment as the goddess of divine justice. Classical representations of Themis did not show her blindfolded (because of her talent for prophecy, she had no need of a blindfold) nor did she hold a sword (because she represented common consent, not coercion).


click on to go deeper ...

The ancient Egyptians also had a goddess of Justice referred to as Ma’at, the daughter of the sun god Rat and often depicted as carrying a sword with an ostrich feather in her hair (but no scales) to symbolize truth and justice. The term magistrate derived from Ma’at because she assisted Osiris in the judgment of the dead by weighing their hearts.

Representations of the Lady of Justice in the Western tradition occur in many places and at many times. She sometimes wears a blindfold, more so in Europe, but more often she appears without one. She usually carries a sword and scales. Almost always draped in flowing robes, mature but not old, no longer commonly known as Themis, she symbolizes the fair and equal administration of the law, without corruption, avarice, prejudice, or favor.



Judges in courts of law are renowned throughout the world for banging their hammers on the table to call for “order” during court proceedings. The official website of the “Supreme Council, 33 Degree, Scottish Rite of Freemasonry”, reminds us that the famous hammer and block of Judge’s regalia are symbolic. Their page about Masonic symbols explains that: “…the gavel is an interesting symbol itself. It came from Masonry.”

Gavel is an instrument which was made use of by operative Masons to break off the corners of rough stones, the better to fit them for the builder’s use.And as such, a gavel represents a stone-working mallet or maul.

But shortly thereafter we learn that a gavel symbolizes higher purposes.We use the gavel for a more noble and glorious purpose to divest from our minds, hearts, and conscience of all vice, trappings, and superfluities of life, thereby fitting us as living stones, for that spiritual building – that house not made with hands – eternal in the heavens.

In other words, the gavel is used to chip away at those things that plague and infest our minds, to divest ourselves of whatever we feel are shameful or reprehensible. It hews away at the imperfections of the rough ashlar in us to form the perfect ashlar that we strive to become.
The scale assures fairness in all actions. In the marketplace, a businessman gives fair value and a true accounting. But resting by her side is Justice’s sword. Injustice should meet swift and sure punishment.

The modern symbol known as the “scales of justice” have a solid basis in Greek mythology. The goddess Themis was a titan and consultant for the great god Zeus. Early depictions of Themis show her blindfolded, carrying a set of scales. Therefore, Themis provides a link between the scales of justice and the interpretation of divine justice by the early Greeks.

The British Museum offers a stunning interpretation of a papyrus linked to the Egyptian Book of the Dead. In the ancient text, the deceased were judged by placing their hearts onto a scale, a ritual called the negative confession. This Ma’at scale, as it was called, is perhaps the earliest reference to the scales of justice.