Moirae

The Moirae, Moerae or Moirai (in Greek – the "apportioners", often called The Fates), in Greek mythology, were the white-robed incarnations of destiny (Roman equivalent: Parcae, euphemistically the "sparing ones", or Fata; also equivalent to the Germanic Norns). Their number became fixed at three.

The Greek word moira literally means a part or portion of the whole, and by extension one's portion in life or destiny, which consisted of bad and good moments distributed by the Fates, who predestinated the events. They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal from birth to death, and it was impossible for anyone to act over his destiny (υπέρ μοίραν).

In the Homeric poems Moira or Aisa (Fate) was probably originally a daemon, the personification of a power acting in parallel with the gods. Later in the Theogony of Hesiod the Moirae represent a power acting over the gods. . In Greek mythology they are daughters of Zeus and Themis, who was the embodiment of divine order, social order and law, Later in Orphic cosmogony they are daughters of the primeval goddess Ananke (necessity).

In earliest Greek philosophy, Anaximander conveys this mythical idea to the balancing of opposite powers as central to reality. The goddess Dike (justice,divine retribution), keeps the order and sets a limit to any actions. In antiquity this conception complied to the Greek desire to discern an order in the univese, to which even the gods have to conform. The ancient Greek writers called this power Moira (Fate), Ananke (necessity), or combined both in a scheme.

Etymology
The Ancient Greek word moira (μοίρα) meant a portion or lot of the whole, related to meros, "part,lot" and moros, "fate, doom", Latin meritum, "desert,reward", English merit, derived from the PIE root  *(s)mer, "to allot,assign". It was used for the portion of the distributed land,  division of people, distribution of booty, and for one's portion in life, lot, destiny. In Homer moira is the power of Fate or death, but it also means that which is meet and right. (Ilias 16.387: "according to fate": in order, rightly ) Moirae means shares or alloted portions. The word daemon, who was the personification of a certain power came to be similar with the word moira-destiny.

The word nomos (law) may have meant originally a portion or lot, as in the verb nemein (to distribute), and thus "natural lot" came to mean "natural law". The word dike (justice) conveyed the notion that someone should stay within his own boundaries respecting the ones of his neighbour. If someone broke his boundaries (sphere) thus getting more than his ordained part (moira), then he would be punished. By extension moira was one's portion or part in destiny which consisted of good and bad moments as it was predetermined by the Moirae (Fates) and it was impossible for anyone to get more than his ordained part. In modern Greek the word came to mean "destiny" (μοίρα or ειμαρμένη).

Kismet, the predetermined course of events in Muslim religion seems to have a similar etymology and function. It means Fate or destiny in the Indo-Aryan Urdu language.In Persian qesmat, in Arabic qisma, "lot", derived from qasama, "to divide, allot".

Zeus and the Moirae
In the Homeric poems Moira, who is almost always one, is acting indepedently from the gods, and represents the law of nature (order), which ordains that every human being must die. Only Zeus, the chief sky-deity of the Myceneans is close to Moira, and in a passage he is the personification of this abstract power. Using a balance Zeus weighs Hectors "lot of death" (Ker) against the one of Achilleus. Hector's lot weighs down, and he dies according to Fate. Zeus appears as the guider of destiny, who gives everyone the right portion.

In a Mycenean vase, Zeus holds a balance in front of two warriors, indicating that he is measuring their destiny before the battle. The belief (fatalism) was that if they die in battle, they must die, and this was rightly oferred ( according to fate).

In Theogony the Moirae are daughters of the primeval goddess ,Nyx ("Night"),, and they represent a power acting over the gods. In another passage probably from a different period, they are daughters of Zeus who gives them the greatest honour, and Themis, who was the embodiment of divine order, social order and law.

Even the gods feared the Moirae or Fate, which according to Herodotus a god couldn't escape. The Pythian priestess at Delphi once admitted, that Zeus was also subject to their power, though no classic writing clarifies as to what exact extent the lives of immortals were affected by the whims of the Fates. It is to be expected that the relationship of Zeus and the Moirae was not immutable over the centuries.In either case in antiquity we can see a feeling towards a notion of an order to which even the gods have to conform, and which removes any imputation of irresponsibility or personal whim in the governance of the universe. Simonides names this power Ananke (necessity) (the mother of the Moirae in Orphic cosmogony) and says that even the gods don't fight against it. Aeschylus combines Fate and necessity in a scheme, and claims that even Zeus cannot alter which is ordained.

A supposed epithet Zeus Moiragetes, meaning "Zeus Leader of the Moirae" was inferred by Pausanias from an inscription he saw in the 2nd century AD at Olympia: "As you go to the starting-point for the chariot-race there is 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 is not destined for them." At the Temple of Zeus at Megara, Pausanias inferred from the relief sculptures he saw "Above the head of Zeus are the Horai and Moirae, and all may see that he is the only god obeyed by Moira." 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

When they were three, the three Moirae were:
 * Clotho (, 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  – "allotter" or drawer of lots) measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod. Her Roman equivalent was Decima (the 'Tenth').
 * Atropos (, Greek  – "inexorable" or "inevitable", literally "unturning", sometimes called Aisa) was the cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner of each person's death; and when their time was come, she cut their life-thread with "her abhorred shears". 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, as in the story of Meleager and the firebrand taken from the hearth and preserved by his mother to extend his life Bruce Karl Braswell from readings in the lexicon of Hesychius, associates the appearance of the Moirae at the family hearth on the seventh day with the ancient Greek custom of waiting seven days after birth to decide whether to accept the infant into the Gens and to give it a name, cemented with a ritual at the hearth. At Sparta the temple to the Moirae stood near the communal hearth of the polis, as Pausanias observed.

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 (xxiv.209) speaks generally of the Moera, who spins the thread of life for men at their birth; she is Moera Krataia "powerful Moira" (xvi.334) or there are several Moerae (xxiv.49). 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).

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&mdash; paired with either Ananke ("Necessity") or, as Hesiod had it in one passage, Themis ("Fundament") or Nyx ("Night"). 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 of a paternity 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 always inspired fear rather than matrimony: "this sinister connotation we inherit from the spinning goddess," write Ruck and Staples (Ruck and Staples 1994:). See weaving (mythology).

Despite their forbidding reputation, Moirae could be placated 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.

While the Moirae were feared even by the formidable Olympians, including Zeus, they could still be defeated in battle as proven in the Gigantomachy where the Giants fought against the combined forces of the Gods, the Moirae and Heracles. Though the Moirae did kill the Giants Agrios and Thoon with their bronze clubs, a prophecy detailed a victory for the Giants should Heracles not fight alongside the Olympians.

The Moirae in literature
The Moirae are fictionalized characters in Piers Anthony's With a Tangled Skein.