Alejandro
Active Member
Wasn't it the Fates who told Chronus that he would have a sun that would dethrone him just as he did his father...? Or was it Rhea...it was Gaia who helped Rhea hide Zeus until he wsa old enough to overthrow his father?
Rhea did not necessarily know that Zeus would grow up to overthrow Kronos, the occurrence of which event was actually a curse which Kronos' own father Ouranos had placed upon him while he was drifting away from the Earth [Gaia] dying. The birth of the three Erinnyes [Furies] was a partial fulfillment of this curse. The blood of Ouranos, which Kronos had spilled, fell onto the Earth and impregnated it. Among other entities, the Erinnyes thus emerged from Gaia's womb, personifying the memory of Ouranos' blood, Kronos' very crime against his own father. This is supposed to explain why the Erinnyes were particularly vengeful towards children who committed crimes against their parents, especially parricide. Ouranos' curse on Kronos was the first ever that a parent had uttered against his own child, and the Erinnyes naturally supported Kronos’ son Zeus against the Titan leader in the war that followed. The three Erinnyes were also agents of the three Moirai [Fates], the latter of whom assigned to the former their proper functions.some accounts say it's Gaia, not so sure though
According to the playwright Aiskhylos, Apollon [Apollo] once managed to get the Moirai drunk (exactly how Apollon performed such a tricky feat, Aiskhylos does not say) and thus broker a deal for his friend King Admetos of Pherai in which, on the day that he was [pre]destined to die, if his wife or either of his parents agreed to take his place, his life would be spared. This is the back-story of the episode in which Herakles ends up in a tussle with old Thanatos (Death himself) and wrests Admetos' faithful wife Alkestis from Death's grasp, since she had agreed to die in the place of Admetos, both of whose parents had refused to do so.You'd think there's be a story somewhere of a god that tried to go against fate and what happened. Does anyone know of one? Or of a human who tried to go against fate
In an earlier episode of Herakles' life, the story of his birth, as it happens, the Moirai feature in an even more involved capacity. On the night in which Herakles was conceived, Zeus made a deal with Hera that the first descendant of Perseus to be born exactly nine months from then would grow up to become ruler of all Argolis, the domain of his ancestor Perseus. Zeus had his unborn son Herakles in mind for this, but Hera had other plans. Two months later, Eurystheus, a cousin of Herakles’ mother Alkmene, was conceived. And seven months after that, when Herakles’ birth was due, Hera induced her daughter the birth-goddess Eileithyia to accelerate the birth of Eurystheus and delay that of Herakles.
According to Antoninus Liberalis’ Metamorphoses, Eileithyia was working in cahoots with her half-sisters the Moirai in this endeavour, which they were doing as a favour to Hera. (Did they somehow come to owe her one?) One of Alkmene’s midwives was a slave named Galanthis, or Galinthias, with whom Alkmene had been friends from the time that they were both kids. During Alkmene’s protracted labour, Galanthis wandered out of Alkmene’s birth chamber to ponder upon it and somehow saw the four goddesses seated at the entrance cross-legged with their arms and fingers crossed. Realising that this was the cause of her mistress’s distress, Galanthis went back into the chamber and then shortly after burst out again exclaiming congratulations that Alkmene had safely delivered her offspring. Confused about this, the goddesses got up to investigate, thus abandoning their magic poses and allowing Alkmene’s twin sons to be born. The elder one was Herakles, son of Zeus, and the younger Iphikles, son of Alkmene’s husband Amphitryon. Being born a few nights too late, Herakles did not inherit Perseus’ domain but was passed over by his kinsman Eurystheus, who grew up to become his bitterest enemy. As for Galanthis, for her trick upon the goddesses, Eileithyia and the Moirai transformed her into a polecat or weasel (which is what her name means in Greek), thus dooming her to a joyless life in obscure holes and corners. But Hekate took pity on her and made her her attendant. When he had grown up Herakles erected an image of her by his house and offered her sacrifices. After Herakles’ death, when the Thebans worshipped him, it was customary at his festival first to offer sacrifices to Galanthis. For the goddesses' part in this caper, so Pausanias reports, the Thebans assigned Eileithyia and the Moirai the designation Pharmakides, "Sorceresses" or "Witches." (That should be interestingly ironic since Galanthis' patroness Hekate was actually the chief divinity presiding over witches and witchcraft.)