(11. 5.613, 20.5.) Homer thus, when he personifies Fate, conceives her as
spinning, an act by which also II. 20.127, 24.209.) If in
The Homeric Moira is not, as some have thought, an inflexible fate, to which the gods
themselves must bow; but, on the contrary, Zeus, as the father of gods and men, weighs out
their fate to them ( 16.434, 441,
443); nay, as Fate does not abruptly interfere in human affairs, but avails herself of
intermediate causes, and determines the lot of mortals not absolutely, but only conditionally,
even man himself, in his freedom, is allowed to exercise a certain influence upon her. (
Hesiod (De Aat. Deor. 3.17), of Cronos and
Night (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 406), of Ge and Oceanus (Athenag. 15; Lycoph. 144),
or lastly of Ananke or Necessity. (Plat. De Re Publ. p. 617d.)
It cannot be surprising to find that the character and nature of the Moirae were conceived
differently at different times and by different authors. Sometimes they appear as divinities
of fate in the strict sense of the term, and sometimes only as allegorical divinities of the
duration of human life. In the former character they are independent, at the helm of
necessity, direct fate, and watch that the fate assigned to every being by eternal laws may
take its course without obstruction (Aeschyl. Prom. 511, 515); and Zeus,
as well as the other gods and men, must submit to them. (Institute. 1.11, 13; Stob. Eclog. i. pp.
152, 170.) They assign to the Erinnyes, who inflict the punishment for evil deeds, their
proper functions; and with them they direct fate according to the laws of necessity, whence
they are sometimes called the sisters of the Erinnyes. (Aeschyl. Eum.
335, 962, Prom. 516, 696, 895; Tzetz. ad Lyc. 406.)
Later poets also conceive the Moirae in the same character. (Met. 15.781;
Horat. Carm. Saec. 25, &c.) These grave and mighty goddesses were
represented by the earliest artists with staffs or sceptres, the symbol of dominion; and Plato
(De Re Pub. p. 617) even mentions their crowns. (Mus.
Pio-Clem. tom. vi. tab. B.)
The Moirae, as the divinities of the duration of human life, which is determined by the two
points of birth and of death, are conceived either as goddesses of birth or as goddesses of
death, and hence their number was two, as at Delphi. (de Tranq. An. 15, de Ei ap.
Delph. 2.) From this circumstance we may perhaps infer that originally the Greeks
conceived of only one Moira, and that subsequently a consideration of her nature and
attributes led to the belief in two, and ultimately in three Moirae; though a distribution of
the functions among the three was not strictly observed, for in Ovid, for example (ad Liv. 239), and Tibullus (1.8. 1.), all three are described as spinning,
although this should be the function of Clotho alone, who is, in fact, often mentioned alone
as the representative of all. (Pind. 01. 1.40; Ov. ad
Liv. 164, Fast. 6.757, Ex Pont. 4.15. 36.) As
goddesses of birth, who spill the thread of beginning life, and even prophesy the fate of the
newly born, they are mentioned along with Eileithyia, who is called their companion and
Sympos. p. 206d.; Nem. 7.1; Iphig. Taur. 207.) In a similar capacity they are also joined with
Prometheus, the former, or creator of the human race in general. (Hygin. Poet.
Astr. 2.15.) The symbol with which they, or rather Clotho alone, are represented to
indicate this function, is a spindle, and the idea implied in it was carried out so far, that
sometimes we read of their breaking or cutting off the thread when life is to end. (de Re Publ. p. 616.) Being
goddesses of fate, they must necessarily know the future, which at times they reveal, and thus
become prophetic divinities. (Trist. 5.3. 25; Scut. Herc. 258) and the infernal Erinnyes, with whom they are even
confounded, and in the neighbourhood of Sicyon the annual sacrifices offered to them were the
same as those offered to the Erinnyes. (ad Aesch. Agam. 70; Aelian, Hymn. 428;
They had sanctuaries in many parts of Greece, such as Corinth (ad Lyc. 584) ; but in works of art they are
represented as grave maidens, with different attributes, viz., Clotho with a spindle or a roll
(the book of fate); Lachesis pointing with a staff to the horoscope on the globe ; and Atropos
with a pair of scales, or a sun-dial, or a cutting instrument. It is worthy of remark that the
Muse Urania was sometimes represented with the same attributes as Lachesis, and that Aphrodite
Urania at Athens, according to an inscription on a Hermes-pillar, was called the oldest of the
Moirae. (Zeitschrift für alt. Kunst, p. 197, &c.; Blüner, Ueber
die Idee des Schicksals, p. 115, &c.; flirt. Mytholog. Bilderh.
p. 200.)
Moira also occurs as the proper name of a daughter of Cinyras, who is more commonly called
Smyrna. (Schol. ad Theocrit. 1.109.)