Parcae
In Roman mythology, the Parcae (in the singular: Parca) were the personifications of destiny, often called The Fates in English. Their Greek equivalent were the Moirai. They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal and immortal from birth to death. Even the gods feared the Parcae. Jupiter also was subject to their power.
The names of the three Parcae were:
- Nona (Greek equivalent Clotho), who spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle;[citation needed]
- Decima (Greek Lachesis), who measured the thread of life with her rod;
- Morta (Greek Atropos), who cut the thread of life and chose the manner of a person's death.[1][2][3]
The earliest extant document of these deities are three small stelae (cippi) found near the location of ancient Lavinium shortly after the end of World War II.[4] They bear the inscription:
Neuna fata, Neuna dono, Parca Maurtia dono
The names of two of the three Roman Parcae are recorded (Neuna = Nona, Maurtia = Morta) and connected to the concept of fata.[5]
Nona was supposed to determine the lifespan of man as the dies lustricus, that is, the day on which the name of the child was chosen, which occurred on the ninth day from birth for a male and the eighth for a female.[6][7]
The recurrence of the nundinae was also considered a dies festus and as such nefas by some Roman scholars as Julius Caesar and Cornelius Labeo, because on it the flaminica dialis offered the sacrifice of a goat to Jupiter in the Regia.[8]
One of the sources for the Parcae is Metamorphoses by Ovid, II 654, V 532, VIII 452, XV 781.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ L. L. Tels de Jong Sur quelques divinites romaines de la naissance et de la prophetie 1959, pp. 70–77; 83–85.
- ^ P. Ramat "Morta" in Archivio glottologico italiano 40, 1960, pp. 61–67.
- ^ J. H. Waszinsk Gnomon 34, 1962, p. 445.
- ^ G. Dumezil La religion romaine archaique Paris, 1974, part 4, chapt.
- ^ L. L. Tels De Jong Sur quelques divinites romaines de la naissance et de la prophetie 1959 pp. 67–130.
- ^ Eadem, ibidem[clarification needed]
- ^ S. Breemer and J. H. Waszinsk Mnemosyne 3 Ser. 13, 1947, pp. 254–270: on personal destiny as linked to the collation of the dies lustricus.
- ^ Macr. Sat. I 16, 30.
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