Editing Moirai (section)

==Mythical relationships==
[[File:William Blake 006.jpg|thumb|''[[The Night of Enitharmon's Joy]]'', showing [[Hekate]] and the Moirai, by [[William Blake]], 1795 ([[Tate Gallery]], London)]]

In the ''[[Theogony]]'', [[Hesiod]] describes the Moirai as daughters of the primeval goddess [[Nyx (mythology)|Nyx]] ("night"), and sisters of the [[Keres (mythology)|Keres]] ("the black fates"), [[Thanatos]] ("death"), and [[Nemesis (mythology)|Nemesis]] ("retribution").<ref name=Hesiod221/> Later in the poem, Hesiod instead calls them daughters of Zeus and the [[Titan (mythology)|Titan]]ess [[Themis]] ("the Institutor"),<ref name=Theogony901>''[[Theogony]]'' 901; ''The Theogony of Hesiod.'' Translated by Hugh Evelyn White (1914), 901–906 ([http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/theogony.htm online text]).</ref> who was the embodiment of divine order and law,<ref name=Finley78>M. I. Finley (1978) ''The world of Odysseus'' rev.ed. New York Viking Press p.78 Note.</ref><ref name=Jeffery42>In the ''[[Odyssey]]'', ''Themistes'': "dooms, things laid down originally by divine authority", the ''themistes'' of [[Zeus]]. Body: council of elders who stored in the collective memory. ''Thesmos'': unwritten law, based on precedent. Cf. L. H. Jeffery (1976). ''Archaic Greece. The City-States c. 700–500 BC.'' Ernest Benn Ltd., London & Tonbridge, p. 42. {{ISBN|0-510-03271-0}}.</ref> placing them as sisters of [[Eunomia (goddess)|Eunomia]] ("lawfulness, order"), Dike ("justice"), and Eirene ("peace").<ref name =Theogony901/>

In the cosmogony of [[Alcman]] (7th century BC), first came Thetis ("disposer, creation"), and then simultaneously [[Greek primordial deities|Poros]] ("path") and [[Greek primordial deities|Tekmor]] ("end post, ordinance").<ref>Τέκμωρ (Τekmor): fixed mark or boundary, end post, purpose ([https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dte%2Fkmar τέκμαρ]).</ref><ref>Old English: ''takn'' "sign, mark"; English: ''token'' "sign, omen". Compare Sanskrit, [[Laksmi]]. [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=token Entry "token"], in ''Online Etymology Dictionary''.</ref> Poros is related with the beginning of all things, and Tekmor is related with the end of all things.<ref>Alcman, frag. 5 (from Scholia), translated by Campbell, Greek Lyric, vol. 2; cf. [http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Ananke.html entry "Ananke"] in the ''Theoi Project''.</ref>

Later in the [[Orphic]] cosmogony, first came Thesis, whose ineffable nature is unexpressed. [[Ananke (mythology)|Ananke]] ("necessity") is the primeval goddess of inevitability who is entwined with the time-god [[Chronos]], at the very beginning of time. They represented the cosmic forces of Fate and Time, and they were called sometimes to control the fates of the gods. The three Moirai are daughters of Ananke.<ref>''Orphica. Theogonies'', frag. 54 (from Damascius). ''Greek hymns 3rd to 2nd centuries BC''; cf. [http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Ananke.html entry "Ananke"] in the ''Theoi Project''.</ref>