‘She is Called by a Double Name’. Eponymy and Heteronymy between Nemesis and Adrasteia

Abstract

Starting from a passage by Ammianus Marcellinus (XIV 11,25), which reveals an overlapping between Adrasteia and Nemesis, the contribution aims at examining the reasons that led the two goddess to be indicated one as the heteronym of the other. Taking into considerations the sources from fifth-century up to paremiography and lexicography of the imperial age, a path is reconstructed that shows the many accidents and the variables to which the naming of the divine may be submitted, in the Greek world.