The later art of rhetoric treated the personification of abstract concepts as an artistic device, which devolved into the allegorizing that Late Antiquity bequeathed to patristic literature.

According to Aratus's account of the constellation's origin, Dike lived upon Earth during the Golden and Silver ages, when there were no wars or diseases, men raised fine crops and did not yet know how to sail.

[11] After getting caught in a storm, having their boat ran aground, and narrowly escaped death making it to shore,[12] they discovered they had landed on Malta and were cared for by the local populace.

[13] While helping to fuel the fire, Paul was bitten by snake, and the locals concluded, "No doubt this man is a murderer!

[14][15] Ben Witherington III writes of this incident, Pliny the Elder indicates it was a common belief, even among the educated, that all snakes were poisonous and that they were often agents of divine vengeance.

Perhaps the Maltans were familiar with some of the stories we now find in the Greek Anthology, for example, about a shipwrecked sailor who escapes storm at sea only to be bitten by a viper and die.

[16]It was common belief of the time that the sea was a place where the gods could exact vengeance, and the snakebite was likely perceived as Dike pursuing Paul after surviving the shipwreck.