The goddess of innocence and purity.  After leaving earth, she was placed among the stars, where she became the constellation Virgo - the Virgin.  Themis (Justice) was the mother of Astræa.  She is represented as holding aloft a pair of scales, in which she weighs the claims of opposing parties.
<dd>It was a favourite idea of the old poets that these goddesses would one day return, and bring back the Golden Age.  Even in a Christian hymn, the "Messiah" of Pope, this idea occurs:
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	"All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail,
	Returning Justice lift aloft her scale,
	Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
	And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend."
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See, also, Milton's "Hyn on the Nativity," stanzas xiv. and xv.