Everything about The Moirae totally explained
The
Moirae or
Moerae (in
Greek Μοῖραι – the "
apportioners", often called the
The Fates), in
Greek mythology, were the white-robed personifications of
destiny (
Roman equivalent:
Parcae, euphemistically the "sparing ones", or
Fata; also equivalent to the
Germanic Norns). The Greek word
moira (μοῖρα) literally means a part or portion, and by extension one's portion in life or destiny. They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal and immortal from birth to death (and
beyond). Even the gods feared the Moirae.
Zeus also was subject to their power, as the Pythian priestess at
Delphi once admitted. A supposed epithet
Zeus Moiragetes, meaning "Zeus Leader of the Morae" was inferred by
Pausanias from an inscription he saw in the second century CE at
Olympia: "As you go to the starting-point for the chariot-race there's an altar with an inscription
to the Bringer of Fate. This is plainly a surname of Zeus, who knows the affairs of men, all that the Fates give them, and all that isn't destined for them." Zeus doesn't appear to have been mentioned, and Pausanias' inferred assertion is unsupported in
cult practice, though he noted a sanctuary of the Moirae there at Olympia (v.15.4), and also at
Corinth (ii.4.7) and
Sparta (iii.11.8), and adjoining the sanctuary of
Themis outside a city gate of
Thebes
H. J. Rose writes that
Nyx ("Night") was also the mother of the Moirae as she was of the
Erinyes, in the
Orphic tradition.
The three Moirae were:
- Clotho (pronounced in English, Greek Κλωθώ – "spinner") spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle. Her Roman equivalent was Nona, (the 'Ninth'), who was originally a goddess called upon in the ninth month of pregnancy.
- Lachesis (/ˈlækəsɪs/, Greek Λάχεσις [ˈlɑkʰesis] – "allotter" or drawer of lots) measured the thread of life with her rod. Her Roman equivalent was Decima (the 'Tenth').
- Atropos (/ˈætrəpɒs/, Greek Ἄτροπος [ˈɑtropos] – "inexorable" or "inevitable", literally "unturning", sometimes called Aisa) was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner of a person's death. When she cut the thread with "her abhorrèd shears", someone on Earth died. Her Roman equivalent was Morta ('Death').
Mythology
The Moirae were supposed to appear three nights after a child's birth to determine the course of its life. The Greeks variously claimed that they were the daughters of
Zeus and the
Titaness
Themis (the "Institutor") or of primordial beings like
Nyx, the Night,
Chaos or
Ananke, Necessity.
In earlier times they were represented as only a few – perhaps only one – individual goddess.
Homer's
Iliad speaks generally of the Moera, who spins the thread of life for men at their birth (xxiv.209),
Moera Krataia "strong Moira" (xvi.334) or of several Moerae (xxiv.49). In the
Odyssey (vii.197) there's a reference to the Klôthes, or Spinners. At Delphi, only the Fates of Birth and Death were revered. In Athens,
Aphrodite, who had an earlier, pre-Olympic existence, was called
Aphrodite Urania the 'eldest of the Fates' according to
Pausanias (x.24.4).
A bilingual
Eteocretan text has the Greek translation Ομοσαι δαπερ Ενορκίοισι (Omosai d-haper Enorkioisi, "But may he swear [these] very things to the Oath-Keepers"). In
Eteocretan this is rendered —
S|TUPRMĒRIĒIA, in which
MĒRIĒIA may refer to the divinities the Hellenes knew as the Moirae.
Versions of the Moirae also existed on the deepest
European
mythological level. It is difficult to separate them from the other Indo-European
spinning fate goddesses known as the
Norns in
Norse mythology and the Baltic goddess
Laima and her two sisters. Some Greek mythographers went so far as to claim that the Moirae were the daughters of
Zeus— paired with either
Ananke or, as
Hesiod had it in one passage,
Themis or
Nyx. Whether or not providing a father even for the Moirae was a symptom of how far Greek mythographers were willing to go, in order to modify the old myths to suit the
patrilineal Olympic order, the claim was certainly not acceptable to
Aeschylus,
Herodotus, or
Plato.
The Moirae were usually described as cold, remorseless and unfeeling, and depicted as old crones or hags. The independent
spinster has inspired fear rather than matrimony. "This sinister connotation we inherit from the spinning goddess," write Ruck and Staples. See
weaving (mythology). Some mythologies depict them instead as the traditional
maiden, mother, and crone.
Despite their forbidding reputation, Moirae could be worshipped as goddesses. Brides in
Athens offered them locks of hair and women swore by them. They may have originated as birth-goddesses and only later acquired their reputation as the agents of destiny.
They likewise have forbidding appearances (beards), and appear to determine the fates of all individuals.
Compare the
Graeae, another set of three old sisters in Greek mythology.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Moirae'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://moirae.totallyexplained.com">Moirae Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
