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Author
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Comment
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Yellow
McMaggie
Registered User
(9/23/02 5:24:20 am)
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The Three Fates
Hi,
This question has more to do with Greek mythology, but as the fates are a slightly (common) motif in fairy tales, it might work to ask here.
I am looking into the Three Fates, who spin out man's destiny.
Clothos- who spins out the threads of life
Lachesis- who draws out each thread as a part of one's destiny
Atropos- who cuts each thread to signify death
I'm looking for information as to how the fates were depicted in Early Greek matriarchal mythology. (dating to roughly 3500 years ago) I am just wondering if anyone knows if they are portrayed differently in the ancient goddess religion/mythology before they were taken over by the predominantly God-mythology that we refer to today as Greek mythology.
I've consulted my "Lost Goddesses of Early Greece" but I found nothing there.
An off-the-topic example of what I am looking for: Pandora in goddess mythology = bringer of gifts, but in the mythology of the gods, she is the bringer of all things bad.
Cheers,
Katie
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Jess
Unregistered User
(9/23/02 10:31:05 am)
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Earliest reference
The earliest reference I have to the Fates is Hesiod (8th century B.C.), which I am afraid falls into the Greek mythology you have looked at already. Query: could you go to an annotated version and see if there is an earlier reference there?
Jess
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Jess
Unregistered User
(9/23/02 10:59:07 am)
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Clthonian?
A quick scan of websites re: Theogony by Hesiod indicated that the source of the Fates stories may have been Minoa or Crete. The Fates are said to have had different mothers even within Hesiod (Themis and Nyx). Perhaps this will help.
Jess
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Rebecca
Unregistered User
(9/23/02 11:53:17 am)
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The Fates
In Robert Graves's collection of Greek Myths he claims that the Fates are the Triple-Moon goddess. The word 'Moera' apparently can mean 'a phase,' which could of course connect to the phases of the moon and the maiden/mother/crone trinity. I guess according to some sources Zeus declared himself as ruler over the Fates, that it was he who would decide who was to die, etc., but then others say that he is subject to their powers as much as anyone else. And as Jess wrote, there is some confusion involving the Fates' parentage: that they were either the daughters of Zeus and Themis, or else Nyx (Night) before even Zeus was born, which may reflect the progression into a more patriarchal religion: from the goddesses being all-powerful, to Zeus directing their powers.
Graves also discusses them a bit in The White Goddess and there's some interesting information on them in Barbara Walker's Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.
Hope this helps a bit.
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Helen
Registered User
(9/23/02 5:34:55 pm)
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Hmmm...
Well, according to the _Dictionary of Ancient Deities_ (Turner & Coulter, Oxford University Press, 2000), in the entry under Moirai, crossreferenced with Moerae, Moira, Moirae, Fates, and Parcae, "In an ancient Babylonian legend the Moira were seven goddesses of fate." (327) However, when one looks under "Fates," 9177) one is told that they are first identified in the _Theogony_. There, they are specified to have aided the gods in their war against the giants, killing Agrius and Thoas with clubs of bronze - a more active sort of Fate than the typical image of peaceful weaving. Worth tracking down the Babylonian myth to see how they were seen in between the two versions, perhaps ...
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Yellow
McMaggie
Registered User
(9/23/02 11:53:59 pm)
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Moirai
Thanks everyone for your help. You've helped me immensly.
Cheers,
Katie
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