In Greek mythology, Moros, also spelled Morus (Ancient Greek: Μόρος means 'doom, fate, death'[1]), is the personified daemon and god 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. His Roman equivalent was Fatum.
Moros embodies the inevitable destiny that leads every living being to its end. He represents not simply "death," but the necessity of dying, the impossibility of escaping one's fate, the invisible line that guides all existence to its conclusion.
His only parent is Nyx, who conceived him without a male deity. He works closely to his sisters, the Moirae, also called the "Fates".
Family[]
Moros is generally considered the son of Nyx, the primordial goddess of the Night, whom she alone birthed without a father, according to Hesiod's Theogony.[2] However, other traditions, notably Roman, attribute Erebus (Darkness) to him as his father.[3] He is thus the brother of many allegorical deities such as Thanatos (Peaceful Death), Hypnos (Sleep), Eris (Discord), and the Keres (the spirits of violent death).
Regardless of the presence or absence of Moros' father, this would make him the brother of the Moirai, or the Fates. Among his other siblings are Thanatos and the Keres, death spirits who represented the physical aspects of death—Keres being the bringers of violent death and terminal sickness, while Thanatos represents a more peaceful passing.
Mythology[]
In Prometheus Bound, the titular Titan suggests that he gave humanity the spirit Elpis, 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 the realm of Death, does not set his victim free,"[5] further supporting his image as representative of the inevitability of death and suffering.
Aeschylus' account[]
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 word moros is not personified here but the passage provides a clear picture of the concept.
Christianity[]
Along with Thanatos, he is associated as the rider of the pale horse in the Apocalypse.[7][8]
References[]
- ↑ μόρος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hesiod, Theogony 211
- ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae Preface; Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3.17
- ↑ Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, line 244
- ↑ Aeschylus, Suppliant Women, line 407
- ↑ Perrin, Bernadotte (1959–67). Plutarch's Lives. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
- ↑ "Apocalypse of John", The King James Bible, retrieved 2023-11-05
- ↑ Rev 6:8