World Wide Words: Rhadamanthine

RHADAMANTHINE

Rigorously just and severe.

We are taught less about the classics than we once were, so the name of Rhadamanthus (sometimes spelt Rhadamanthys) probably rings few bells. In Greek mythology, he was the son of Zeus and Europa, brother to King Minos of Crete and (in some versions of the tale), Prince Sarpedon of Lycia. In life he was renowned for his wisdom and justice. When he died, according to Plato, he went to Elysium, where the most favoured mortals were chosen by the gods to stay eternally, and there became ruler and judge. Together with Minos and Aeacus, he decided the fate of everyone who was brought before him — whether to live forever in Elysium, or be banished to the underworld — and in judging was able to detect all the sins of one’s life, no matter how well hidden. So Rhadamanthus became a byword for justice in its most severe and rigorous form. Here’s an example of its use, from The Egoist by George Meredith: “As to the sentence he pronounces, I am unable to speak, but his forehead is Rhadamanthine condemnation”.