Fate: You Can't Escape It

I’m getting the feeling that Fate was important to ancient cultures.

We talked about it in our Norse conclusion. We’ve talked about both the Norse and the Greek Fates - three women who personified and ruled over the concept of Fate.

There are references to Fate everywhere you look in Greek mythology. Many Greek heroes are exposed to the elements as children and left to die - but they inevitably survive and go on to fulfill their destiny.

Prophecies in the Greek myths cannot be circumvented - what is foretold must come to pass. There’s a Greek play called Oedipus the King, in which Oedipus receives a prophecy that he will kill his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus leaves his home to avoid this fate, not realizing that the people who raised him are not his birth parents - who he later unknowingly finds. His life unfolds just as the prophecy said it would, despite his efforts to stop it.

In my post about Zeus I talked a little bit about Danae. Her father, Acrisius, locks Danae up to prevent a prophecy that said her son would kill him. Despite all his precautions, Danae still gets impregnated by Zeus, and her son, Perseus, slays Acrisius.

These are only a few of the examples of Fate in the lives of mortals. However, just as in Norse mythology, Fate is not reserved for only humans. It also affects the gods.

Perhaps the most striking example of this can be found in the Iliad. The Greek pantheon favored heroes on both sides of the Trojan War, and occasionally intervened on their behalf. However, Homer also shows the gods watching a pivotal moment in the war - and doing nothing, despite their desire to act.

This moment is when Hector, champion of Troy, is abou to be slain by Achilles, hero of the Greeks. Zeus, knowing that Hector is fated to die, asks the gods to vote on whether or not they should save him - and is rebuked by Athena. The goddess of wisdom asks if Zeus is really considering saving a man whose Fate was decided long ago. She then says that Zeus could act if he really wants to, but that the other gods will not be a part of it.

Zeus immediately backpedals and says that he wasn’t actually thinking of defying fate...really!

I think what intrigues me the most about this is the fact that Athena stats that Zeus could act - implying that the gods can act against Fate. However, her refusal to be a part of it also seems to indicate that there would be consequences for challenging that which is meant to be.

All of these examples seem to show that the ancient Greeks believed in Fate, and that it played a major role in their lives. But what was that role? Was it a way of comforting them about their station in life? If one was a shepherd, that person was obviously fated to be a shepherd, so it was alright!

Or was it a control mechanism for the authorities? They were fated to rule, and you were fated to be a poor servant, and there was nothing you could do about it.

As with my post about the Norse view of Fate, I have no idea...but I would love to hear your thoughts! Please comment below or email me.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas! On Friday I’ll be doing a special post for the holidays. Then, next Monday I’ll be posting a short modern adaptation of the Iliad. That will let us start the New Year with a new mythology - Japanese!

Stay tuned, and I’ll see you guys next post!

The Moirai: Spinners of Fate

If you’ve watched Disney’s Hercules, you probably remember the scary old ladies with the scissors and the thread and the doom and the gloom...not that I’m creeped out by them or anything!

Those ladies are Disney’s interpretation of the Moirai.

The Greek word “moira” means portion, and “Moirai” means apportioner. It’s a word not often used in modern times, but it means one who divides or assigns. “Moirai” is also translated to mean Fate, for it is what the Moirai portion out for all living things.

The origins of the Moirai change depending on which myths one reads. Sometimes they are the daughters of Ananke, goddess of inevitability. (If you’ve seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ananke was personified as Anya, the vengeance demon that Xander dated.) More often, the parents of the Moirai are Zeus and Themis, a Titan who represented divine order and law. Either way, the Moirai are clearly the daughters of beings representing aspects of Fate.

There are three Moirai - Clotho, who spins the thread of life; Lachesis, who measures the thread; and Atropos, who cuts the thread. If you read my Norse post about the Norns, you’ll see that the Moirai are incredibly similar to them - which is fascinating, given how different ancient Norse and Greek cultures were from one another.

The most interesting thing about the Moirai - and their most striking similarity to the Norns - is who they spun their thread for. The answer is everyone. Even the Greek gods were subject to Fate, and were unable to act against it. This is particularly interesting when one considers that the Moirai are daughters of the gods, and thus came into existence after the gods did. Did Fate not exist before they were born? Were the gods not subject to its rule until the Moirai came into being?

We’ll talk a little more about the Moirai when I do my post about Fate and the role it plays in the Greek myths. For now, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them! I’m aware of two other mythologies that have three women representing Fate (Roman and Celtic), but I’d love to hear about it if you know of any others! Please post below or email me with comments or questions.

Stay tuned - next post I’ll be talking about Achilles, who is perhaps the best known “hero” of Greek mythology!

Fate: An Overarching Theme

Fate is an underlying theme throughout most of Norse mythology (yes, it is both overarching and underlying). Ragnarok is prophesized by Odin for ages before it happens. The Norns, whose name literally means “Fate”, spin the fate of the universe. Minor events in stories come to have huge consequences during Ragnarok.

There are two examples I can think of in modern pop culture that come close to how fate affected the Norse myths. The first is the book series The Dresden Files. Jim Butcher (the author) has done a masterful job of weaving plot threads together throughout the fifteen books currently in the series (there are another five planned.) A minor character in one book might become a huge villain six books later; a one-liner dropped early on in the series might foreshadow highly important events later in the series. This is what the Norse did when they wove their mythology; every little detail counts.

The second modern example is a season of a TV show. Take the second season of Arrow. A character shows up in the first couple of episodes, but seems unimportant. A minor bad guy who isn’t totally evil appears a couple of times. The main character gets a new love interest. Then, suddenly, the last episode comes upon you and BAM! you find out it’s all connected. The minor character tries to blow up the city, the somewhat villainous guy teams up with the heroes to stop her, the love interest turns out to have been working with the Big Bad all along...you needed all of the episodes before the finale to introduce the players, but it is only after the finale that you can look back and see how everything led up to the final event.

The same is true of Norse mythology. Many of the earlier myths set the stage for Ragnarok. We’ve talked in pervious posts about Hel and her banishment to Niflheim. This banishment made her queen of the dead - and during Ragnarok, she led an army of these dead against the gods. Without her banishment she would have had no army to give to Loki.

The story of the imprisonment of Hel’s brother, Fenrir, is another example. The gods tricked Fenrir by telling him he was so strong he could break any chains they put on him. Fenrir agreed to test this claim, provided that one of the gods, Tyr, put his hand in Fenrir’s mouth as collateral. If you read the post about Loki, you’ll remember that Fenrir is a giant wolf. Tyr bravely agreed, and the gods chained Fenrir with a magical set of links. When the wolf could not break free he bit off Tyr’s hand as revenge. During Ragnarok, Tyr is killed by Garm because he was weakened by the loss of his hand.

One last example is the death of the god Frey. Early on in the myths of Asgard, Frey traded his sword to be able to marry the woman he loved. With his sword he would have been able to defeat Surt, the fire giant, during Ragnarok - but without it he was crushed in battle, and Asgard fell.

All of these events led to the Doom of the gods, and all of these events were fated to happen. This shows that even the gods, infinitely more powerful than humans, are still subject to fate. Despite his foresight, Odin could do nothing to stop the events of Ragnarok. Despite all of his knowledge, he died as he had always known he would.

What, then, was the point of his foresight? If fate could not be changed, why warn others about Ragnarok? I don’t know, but it’s interesting to ponder. Was Odin’s knowledge of Ragnarok a tool used by Norse storytellers, designed to foreshadow coming events in a tale and keep their audience hooked? Or was it a cautionary tale to mankind? After all, if even the gods cannot fight fate, why should mankind bother to try?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so please comment below or email me. For now I’m done with Norse mythology - next post I’ll start looking at the Greek myths. I’ll see you guys then!

The Norns: Spinners of Time

The Norns are some of the more interesting characters in Norse mythology, and their home is as fascinating as they are. I’ve talked before about Yggdrasil and the nine realms that lie within its boughs - but trees have more than just branches. They also have roots. Yggdrasil is said to have three roots, with one well to water it at each root. One well is kept by a wise being named Mimir that I’ll talk about when we discuss Odin. The second well lies in the Kingdom of Hel, and a dragon named Nithog constantly chews at the root by the well. Nithog frequently exchanges insults with an eagle that sits in the top branches of Yggdrasil, both of whom use a squirrel as their messenger.

The third well of Yggdrasil is called Urdarbrunn, and it is tended by the Norns. The waters of this well are sacred, used to preserve and protect the Tree from harm.

Now that you know about their home, lets talk about the Norns. Their name means “Fate”, and they are highly similar to characters from Greek, Roman, and Celtic mythology. While these characters are often represented by a Maiden, Mother, and Crone, the Norns are three sisters.

The oldest sister is named Urd, which means “that which has been”. Verdandi, the middle sister, means “that which is”, and Skuld, the youngest, means “that which will be”. Together they represent the Past, Present, and Future. Often said to be giants, some tales claim that time did not exist before the Norns began their task - spinning.

If you’re picturing the creepy ladies with the thread and scissors from Disney’s Hercules, you’re on the right track. Like the Greek Morai, which means “Fates”, the Norns spin a thread for the life of every living being. Sometimes they are depicted as weaving the threads of life, but more often they are simply spinners.

What makes the Norns so fascinating compared to their counterparts from other mythologies is whose thread they spin. Every living creature has a thread, including men, giants...and the gods. The gods are thus not immune to death, and will ultimately perish along with man.

Technically speaking, that makes the Norns more powerful than the gods. They are the ones who will ultimately cut the thread of a god’s life and end it. They are the ones who handle both time and fate, and thus hold the destiny of the universe in their hands.

Little bit creepy, right? Aren’t you glad the Norns are impartial and not prone to holding grudges? Otherwise, *snip snip* and you’re dead!

That’s all I’ve got about the Norns for now. We’ll talk a little bit more about them when I talk about the role of fate in Norse mythology, but in my next post I want to discuss Odin. About time, right? It’s not like he’s an important character or anything!

Anyhoo, feel free to post below or email me with questions or comments. If you want to know about the Allfather, stay tuned for next time!