page_title: Moirai
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Moirai / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: Rundscheibe "Die drei Parzen", von Hans Vischer d. J. (?), Nürnberg um 1530 Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Inv. Nr. AE 470
context_page_description: In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Moirai, often known in English as the Fates, were the incarnations of destiny; their Roman equivalent was the Parcae, and there are other equivalents in cultures that descend from the Proto-Indo-European culture. Their number became fixed at three: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.
  They controlled the mother thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. They were independent, at the helm of necessity, directed fate, and watched that the fate assigned to every being by eternal laws might take its course without obstruction. Both gods and men had to submit to them, although Zeus's relationship with them is a matter of debate: some sources say he can command them, while others suggest he was also bound to the Moirai's dictates.
  In the Homeric poems Moira or Aisa are related to the limit and end of life, and Zeus appears as the guider of destiny. In the Theogony of Hesiod, the three Moirai are personified, daughters of Nyx and are acting over the gods. Later they are daughters of Zeus and Themis, who was the embodiment of divine order and law. In Plato's Republic the Three Fates are daughters of Ananke.
context_section_description: The ancient Greek word moira (μοῖρα) means a portion or lot of the whole, and is related to meros, "part, lot" and moros, "fate, doom", Latin meritum, "reward", English merit, derived from the PIE root *(s)mer, "to allot, assign".
  Moira may mean portion or share in the distribution of booty (ίση μοῖρα, ísē moîra, "equal booty"), portion in life, lot, destiny, (μοῖραv ἔθηκαν ἀθάνατοι, moîran éthēken athánatoi, "the immortals fixed the destiny"), death (μοῖρα θανάτοιο, moîra thanátoio, "destiny of death"), portion of the distributed land. The word is also used for something which is meet and right (κατὰ μοῖραν, kata moîran, "according to fate, in order, rightly").
  It seems that originally the word moira did not indicate destiny but included ascertainment or proof, a non-abstract certainty. The word daemon, which was an agent related to unexpected events, came to be similar to the word moira.  This agent or cause against human control might be also called tyche (chance, fate): "You mistress moira, and tyche, and my daemon."
  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 specified boundaries, respecting the ones of his neighbour. If someone broke his boundaries, thus getting more than his ordained part, then he would be punished by law. By extension, moira was one's portion or part in destiny which consisted of good and bad moments as was predetermined by the Moirai (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 the Muslim traditions, seems to have a similar etymology and function: Arabic qismat "lot" qasama, "to divide, allot"  developed to mean Fate or destiny. As a loanword, qesmat 'fate' appears in Persian, whence in Urdu language, and eventually in English Kismet.
caption: The Three Fates, tondo by Hans Vischer, c. 1530 (Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin)
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