Abstract
Whether as precepts regulating community life or as oracular proclamations, themists remain confined to archaic poetry. However, the semantic field of themis remains activable when prose emerges, and epigraphic ritual norms, among others, sometimes resort to it to signify what " is not religiously permitted "(οὐ θέμις) in a cultic context. Two terms would gradually emerge to designate what poetry called themistes and dikai : these are thesmoi and nomoi, between " laws instituted " and " customs, laws ". The first occurrences of these words in poetic texts are analyzed, right up to Solon's choice (and probably Dracon's before him) to write thesmoi to ensureeunomia for the Athenians.
