Moros
InGreek mythology,Moros/ˈmɔːrɒs/orMorus/ˈmɔːrəs/(Ancient Greek:Μόρος means 'doom, fate'[1]) is the personified spirit of impending doom,[2]who drives mortals to their deadly fate. It was also said that Moros gave people the ability to foresee their death. HisRomanequivalent wasFatum.
Family
[edit]Moros is the offspring ofNyx,theprimordial goddessof the night. It is suggested by Roman authors that Moros was sired byErebus,primordial god of darkness.[3]However, inHesiod's Theogonyit is suggested that Nyxbore him by herself,along with several of her other children.
Regardless of the presence or absence of Moros' father, this would make him the brother of theMoirai,or the Fates. Among his other siblings areThanatosand theKeres,death spirits who represented the physical aspects of death—Keres being the bringers of violent death andterminal sickness,while Thanatos represents a more peaceful passing.
Mythology
[edit]InPrometheus Bound,the titularTitansuggests that he gave humanity the spiritElpis,the personification of hope, in order to help them ignore the inevitability of Moros.[4]He is also referred to as "the all-destroying god, who, even in therealm of Death,does not set his victim free, "[5]further supporting his image as representative of the inevitability of death and suffering.
Aeschylus' account
[edit]Aeschylus, Fragment 199 (from Plutarch, Life and Poety of Homer 157) (trans. Weir Smyth):
"A man dies not for the many wounds that pierce his breast, unless it be that life's end keep pace with death, nor by sitting on his hearth at home doth he the more escape his appointed doom (peprômenon moros). "[6]
The wordmorosis not personified here but the passage provides a clear picture of the concept.
Christianity
[edit]Along withThanatos,he is associated as therider of the pale horsein theApocalypse.[7][8]
Notes
[edit]- ^μόρος.Liddell, Henry George;Scott, Robert;A Greek–English Lexiconat thePerseus Project.
- ^Hesiod,Theogony211
- ^Hyginus,FabulaePreface; Cicero,De Natura Deorum3.17
- ^"Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, line 244".perseus.tufts.edu.Retrieved2024-06-18.
- ^"Aeschylus, Suppliant Women, line 407".perseus.tufts.edu.Retrieved2024-06-18.
- ^Perrin, Bernadotte (1959–67).Plutarch's Lives.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
- ^"Apocalypse of John",The King James Bible,retrieved2023-11-05
- ^Rev 6:8
References
[edit]- Gaius Julius Hyginus,Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginustranslated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Hesiod,TheogonyfromThe Homeric Hymns and Homericawith an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.Greek text available from the same website.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,Nature of the Gods from the Treatises of M.T. Cicerotranslated by Charles Duke Yonge (1812-1891), Bohn edition of 1878.Online version at the Topos Text Project.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero,De Natura Deorum.O. Plasberg. Leipzig. Teubner. 1917.Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.