Moirai
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai often known in English as the Fateswere the personifications of destiny. In certain accounts, they were considered as three sisters: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, though their number and names varied over time according to the author. Their Roman equivalent is the Parcae.
The role of the Moirai was to ensure that every being, mortal and divine, lived out their destiny as it was assigned to them by the laws of the universe. For mortals, this destiny spanned their entire lives and was represented as a thread spun from a spindle. Generally, they were considered to be above even the gods in their role as enforcers of fate, although in some representations, Zeus, the chief of the gods, is able to command them.
The concept of a universal principle of natural order and balance has been compared to similar concepts in other cultures such as the Vedic Ṛta, the Avestan Asha, and the Egyptian Maat.
Etymology
The word Moirai, also spelled Moirae or Mœræ, comes from, which means "lots, destinies, apportioners". It also means a portion or lot of the whole. It is related to meros, "part, lot" and moros, "fate, doom". The possible derived Latin meritum, "reward", English merit, maybe coming from the Proto-Indo-European language root *mer, "to allot, assign".In addition, Moira may mean
- portion or share in the distribution of booty,
- portion in life, lot, destiny,,
- death,
- portion of the distributed land.
- mete and right.
Cross-cultural parallels
European goddesses
The three Moirai are known in English as the Fates. This derives from Roman mythology, in which they are the Parcae or Fata, plural of, meaning prophetic declaration, oracle, or destiny; euphemistically, the "sparing ones". There are other equivalents that descend from the Proto-Indo-European culture.In Norse mythology the Norns are a trio of female beings who rule the destiny of gods and men, twining the thread of life. They set up the laws and decided on the lives of the children of men.
Their names were Urðr, related with Old English wyrd, modern weird, Verðandi, and Skuld, and it has often been concluded that they ruled over the past, present and future respectively, based on the sequence and partly the etymology of the names, of which the first two are derived from the past and present stems of the verb verða, "to be", respectively, and the name of the third one means "debt" or "guilt", originally "that which must happen". In younger legendary sagas, the Norns appear to have been synonymous with witches, and they arrive at the birth of the hero to shape his destiny.
Many other cultures included trios of goddesses associated with fate or destiny. The Celtic Matres and Matrones, female deities almost always depicted in groups of three, have been proposed as connected to the Norns.
In Lithuanian and other Baltic mythologies, the goddess Laima is the personification of destiny, and her most important duty was to prophesy how the life of a newborn will take place. With her sisters Kārta and Dēkla, she is part of a trinity of fate deities similar to the Moirai. In Hurran mythology the three goddesses of fate, the Hutena, were believed to dispense good and evil, life and death to humans.
Later European culture
In Dante's Divine Comedy, the Fates are mentioned in both Inferno and Purgatorio by their Greek names, and their traditional role in measuring out and determining the length of human life is assumed by the narrator.File:Macbeth and Banquo encountering the witches - Holinshed Chronicles.gif|alt=Two men on horseback meet three women. All are in Elizabethan dress.|thumb|Macbeth and Banquo meeting the three weird sisters in a woodcut from Holinshed's Chronicles.
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the Weird Sisters are prophetesses who are deeply rooted in both the real and supernatural worlds. Their creation was influenced by British folklore, witchcraft, and the legends of the Norns and the Moirai. Hecate, the chthonic Greek goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and three-way crossroads, appears as the master of the Three Witches. In ancient Greek religion, Hecate as goddess of childbirth is identified with Artemis, who was the leader of the nymphs.
Outside Europe
The notion of a universal principle of natural order has been compared to similar ideas in other cultures, such as aša in Avestan religion, Rta in Vedic religion, and Maat in ancient Egyptian religion.In the Avestan religion and Zoroastrianism, aša, is commonly summarized in accord with its contextual implications of "truth", "righteousness", "order". Aša and its Vedic equivalent, Rta, are both derived from a PIE root meaning "properly joined, right, true". The word is the proper name of the divinity Asha, the personification of "Truth" and "Righteousness". Aša corresponds to an objective, material reality which embraces all of existence. This cosmic force is imbued also with morality, as verbal Truth, and Righteousness, action conforming with the moral order.
In the literature of the Mandaeans, an angelic being has the responsibility of weighing the souls of the deceased to determine their worthiness, using a set of scales.
In the Vedic religion, Rta is an ontological principle of natural order which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe. The term is now interpreted abstractly as "cosmic order", or simply as "truth", although it was never abstract at the time.
It seems that this idea originally arose in the Indo-Aryan period, from a consideration of the qualities of nature which either remain constant or which occur on a regular basis.
The individuals fulfill their true natures when they follow the path set for them by the ordinances of Rta, acting according to the Dharma, which is related to social and moral spheres. The god of the waters Varuna was probably originally conceived as the personalized aspect of the otherwise impersonal Ṛta. The gods are never portrayed as having command over Ṛta, but instead they remain subject to it like all created beings.
In Egyptian religion, maat was the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice. The word is the proper name of the divinity Maat, who was the goddess of harmony, justice, and truth represented as a young woman.
It was considered that she set the order of the universe from chaos at the moment of creation. Maat was the norm and basic values that formed the backdrop for the application of justice that had to be carried out in the spirit of truth and fairness.
In Egyptian mythology, Maat dealt with the weighing of souls that took place in the underworld. Her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully. In the famous scene of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Anubis, using a scale, weighs the sins of a man's heart against the feather of truth, which represents maat. If man's heart weighs down, then he is devoured by a monster.
The three Moirai
When they were three, the Moirai were:- Clotho spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle. Her Roman equivalent was Nona, who was originally a goddess called upon in the ninth month of pregnancy.
- Lachesis measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod. Her Roman equivalent was Decima.
- Atropos.
Origins
The figure who came to be known as Atropos had her origins in the pre-Greek Mycenaean religion as a daemon or spirit called Aisa. Much of the Mycenaean religion survived into classical Greece, but it is not known to what extent classical religious belief is Mycenaean, nor how much is a product of the Greek Dark Ages or later. Moses I. Finley detected only few authentic Mycenaean beliefs in the 8th-century Homeric world. One such belief was the attribution of unexpected events to spirits or daemons, who appeared in special occurrences. Martin P. Nilsson associated these daemons to a hypothetical Pre-Greek religion.Another important Mycenaean philosophy stressed the subjugation of all events or actions to destiny and the acceptance of the inevitability of the natural order of things; today this is known as fatalism.
The concept of moira referred to one's fair allotment or portion, originally one's portion of loot from battle, which was distributed according to strict traditions. The idea eventually began to be applied to one's fair allotment in life. Obtaining more than one's fair portion of loot, or of life in general was possible, but would result in severe consequences because this was considered a violation in the natural order of things. For example, in a passage in the Iliad, Apollo tries three times to stop Patroclus from sacking Troy, warning him that it would be "over his portion".
In particular, the most important parts of the natural order were birth and death. Eventually, the concept of one's destined portion in life began to be personified as a spirit or daemon, referred to as Aisa or Moira, who would determine the appropriate time for one's death at the moment of their birth. In this sense, Moira is a power that governs even the gods.
In another passage of the Iliad, Zeus knows that his cherished son Sarpedon will be killed by Patroclus, but Zeus cannot prevent his fate. In a later scene known as the kerostasia, Zeus appears as the arbiter of destiny, using a pair of scales to weigh Hector's destiny and determining that he is fated to die.
The elevation of Moira to a goddess who determines the course of events appears in the newer parts of the epos. In the Odyssey, she is accompanied by the "Spinners", the personifications of Fate, who do not yet have separate names.
In his writing, the poet Hesiod introduces a moral purpose to the Moirai which is absent in the Homeric poems. In his conception, the Moirai punish not only men but also gods for their sins.