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In Norns ). 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 himself may be subject to their power, as the Pythian priestess at Delphi once admitted. The Greek word moira () literally means a part or portion, and by extension one's portion in life or destiny.

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 — "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 (, Greek — "alotter" or drawer of lots) measured the thread of life with her rod. Her Roman equivalent was ''Decima'' (the 'Tenth').

  • Atropos (, Greek — "inexorable" or "inevitable", 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').


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 Titan ess Themis or of primordial beings like Nyx , Chaos or Ananke .

tapestry, standing over the fallen body of Chastity.]]

In earlier times, the Moirae 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) or, earlier in the same book (line 49), of several Moerae. In the '' Odyssey '' (vii.197) there is 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).

The Moirae existed on the deepest 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) .

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.

The Moirae can be compared with the three spinners of Destiny in northern Europe, the Norns or the Baltic goddess Laima and her two sisters, also Spinning Goddesses .

The three witches encountered by Macbeth on the heath, or even Granny Weatherwax from Terry Pratchett 's '' Discworld '' are loosely based on the Moirae.


SEE ALSO

  • Graeae , three old sisters in Greek mythology



FOOTNOTES

  • cf. H.J. Rose, ''Handbook of Greek Mythology'', p.24



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