Kakia

This article is about the Greek goddess. Kakia is also an extinct dialect of the !Xóõ language.

Hercules (center), being tempted by Kakia (left); Jan van den Hoecke, c. 1640

Kakia (Ancient Greek: Κακίαν), the Greek goddess of vice and moral badness (presumably, sin or crime), was depicted as a vain, plump and heavily made-up woman dressed in revealing clothes. She tries to tempt many people to become evil, but her most famous temptation was that of Heracles, the greatest and most famous of the divine heroes in Greek mythology.

"You shall have the fruits of others' toil, and refrain from nothing that can bring you gain. For to my companions I give authority to pluck advantage where they will."
Now when Heracles heard this, he asked, "Lady, pray what is your name?"
"My friends call me Happiness," she said, "but among those that hate me I am nicknamed Kakia."

—Excerpt from Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.1.21 telling of her competition with Arete to sway Heracles to her side (evil).